I decided to install Visual Studio 2026. This was a big deal for me because it’s not an exaggeration to say that I spend the majority of each working day using Visual Studio. I have been using the previous version, Visual Studio 2022, almost every day for about 4 years (if I can do the math there).

I was kind of dreading the installation. VS is arguably the most complicated desktop application ever produced by Microsoft. Let me cut to the chase and say that I didn’t run into any serious problems.

I Googled for “install Visual Studio 2026 Community Edition”. I was directed to visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/community/. There was not a single mention on the Web page that I was at VS 2026. Very poor Web design (along with a curious photo of a person who looks like she/he/it came out of an obscure Star Wars movie).

I clicked the Download button. Again, no mention of what I was downloading.

The downloaded file was “VisualStudioSetup.exe”. Again, why is the file not named “VisualStudio2026Setup.exe”?

Anyway, I installed VS 2026 Community Edition without too much trouble. The installation copied over four years worth of customizations I had made to VS 2022, with the one exception that it couldn’t deal with the Productivity Power Pack 2022 extension.

And then . . . I couldn’t figure out how to launch VS 2026. I clicked on the Start, typed “Visual Studio 2026” and got no results. Eventually I figured out the the VS 2026 team, in an inspired example of what-were-they-thinking, decided that VS 2026 is just “Visual Studio”. Seriously? Why not call Visual Studio 2026 “Visual Studio 2026”?

I created and ran an example of decision tree regression. I noticed the Project targeted the latest .NET 10.0 as expected. According to the MS marketing people, “Visual Studio now features a refreshed interface aligned with the Fluent UI design system. This update introduces a modern, cohesive aesthetic across the IDE, improving usability, accessibility, and visual clarity.”

OK, whatever. I thought the default theme looked washed out, so I set the Tools | Options | Environment | Visual Experience | Color Theme to “Cool Breeze”.

Anyway, overall I think the VS 2026 team did a good job — I had little difficulty getting VS 2026 up and running.

Left: The Visual Studio Community Edition web site. Right: Google Gemini AI-generated image of “a Star Wars alien typing on a laptop”. Apparently, the Microsoft inclusion cult is extending to alien races too.