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Download .NET 10
Download Visual Studio 2026
TL;DR: Microsoft released .NET 10 (general availability at .NET Conf 2025). It’s an LTS release with three years of support, big runtime and JIT performance wins, new language features in C# 14 and F# 10, richer AI building blocks (Agent Framework, Microsoft.Extensions.AI, MCP), improved ASP.NET Core & Blazor ergonomics, and tooling support in Visual Studio 2026 and the C# Dev Kit. Download it, run the compatibility checklist, and plan upgrades for production apps to benefit from performance and security improvements.
Why it matters to you
Performance: JIT enhancements, better inlining and devirtualization, AVX10.2 and Arm64 SVE support, NativeAOT improvements, and runtime optimizations that reduce allocations and GC pauses. Expect measurable speed and memory improvements for many workloads.
LTS: Long Term Support release — stable baseline for production (three years of fixes/security updates). Plan upgrades for services that need extended support.
Languages: C# 14 and F# 10 add concise, high-value features (field-backed properties, extension properties, span conversions, ? .= null-conditional assignment in C#, plus F# refinements and parallel compilation preview). These improve expressiveness and perf patterns. (See “What’s new” for examples.)
AI-first platform: Microsoft Agent Framework, Microsoft.Extensions.AI, vector data support, and MCP tools make building agent-based and AI-powered apps in .NET much easier. Great if you’re building RAG, semantic search, or multi-agent workflows.
Web & Cloud: ASP.NET Core improvements (passkeys, OpenAPI 3.1 by default, memory pool eviction, WebAssembly preloading, improved validation & streaming) and EF Core 10 updates (vector search, JSON type mapping) enable modern API and AI scenarios.
.NET 10 features
Runtime & NativeAOT
Better JIT inlining, method devirtualization, hardware acceleration (AVX10.2 on Intel, Arm64 SVE), and NativeAOT reductions for smaller, faster binaries — useful for low-latency services and cloud functions.
C# 14 highlights
Field-backed properties (automatic backing field with custom getter/setter logic)
Extension properties and methods for types you don’t own
?.= operator (null-conditional assignment) and improved Span conversions
F# 10 highlights
Scoped warning suppression, ValueOption optional parameters (struct-backed options to avoid allocations), task concurrency helpers (and!), and compilation/IDE responsiveness improvements.
ASP.NET Core & Blazor
Passkey/WebAuthn support in Identity, improved Blazor circuit persistence and pause/resume, precompressed framework scripts, WebAssembly preloading, and streaming responses by default for HttpClient. These changes improve security, reliability, and load performance for web apps.
EF Core 10
Vector search (AI/semantic search), native JSON column use for SQL Server/Azure SQL, better complex type mapping, and execute-update improvements — useful for AI-enabled database scenarios and high-performance JSON handling.
Tooling & ecosystem
Visual Studio 2026 (and C# Dev Kit for VS Code) are updated with deep AI integrations (Profiler Copilot Agent, debugger/test agents, adaptive paste), Mermaid diagrams, and performance helpers. The dotnet SDK adds CLI enhancements, native tab completion, and better container image support. NuGet gets improved vulnerability auditing and Dependabot integration.
How to approach upgrading
Read the compatibility docs & breaking changes on the .NET 10 compatibility page. Test early.
Try RC / GA in a staging environment: run unit/integration tests, performance benchmarks, and smoke tests (pay attention to runtime behavior changes).
Use analyzers & Copilot for suggested fixes and refactors when adopting new language features.
Plan migration for libraries: check NuGet package compatibility and update dependencies; leverage dotnet package update --vulnerable for security fixes.
Benchmark before/after for key services to quantify performance wins (consider NativeAOT for small deployables).
Where to get it
.NET 10 is a major LTS milestone: performance wins, modern language increments, richer AI integration, and pragmatic platform improvements. Start by testing your critical services against the RC/GA, adopt language features gradually, and consider vector/AI support in EF Core if you’re building semantic search or RAG systems. We’ll be covering hands-on migration tips, feature deep dives, and sample upgrades — expect practical tutorials and benchmarks in follow-up posts.
Read more.