Microsoft will release Visual Studio 2015 and .NET 4.6 on July 20; Team Foundation Server 2015 coming later

Microsoft today announced the final releases of Visual Studio 2015, Team Foundation Server 2015, and .NET 4.6 will be available for download on July 20. The goal with this release is to open Visual Studio to developers targeting new platforms, including cross-platform mobile development (Android, iOS, and Windows) and game development targeting Unity, Unreal, Cocos, and so on.

In November, Microsoft released Visual Studio 2015 Preview and .NET 2015 Preview, among other previews of updated developer tools, at its Connect() developer event in New York City. Over the past six months, the previews have received regular updates and improvements, leading up to their final launch.

To celebrate, Microsoft is holding a Visual Studio 2015 Final Release Event (no registration required) on July 20 at 8:30 a.m. PDT (11:30 a.m. EDT). The company will outline the new features and technologies coming in the release, offer interactive Q&A sessions with the engineering team, and dive into technical details via over 60 on-demand video sessions.

In typical developer event fashion, the Visual Studio team will build an end-to-end solution for an open-source project using the newest tools and technologies. During the live coding session, developers will have the opportunity to ask questions as the project is built.

Visual Studio 2015 adds new tools for Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) development, including a Visual Diagnostics tool, a Timeline tool, and a redesigned Blend designer experience. Team Foundation Server is getting Git Pull Requests plus improvements to work planning, test case management, and release management.

Update on July 7: Today Brian Harry, product unit manager for Team Foundation Server at Microsoft, announced the release of Team Foundation Server Release Candidate 2 (download here) in a blog post. Team Foundation Server 2015 would actually ship as RTM, or release to manufacturing, “as soon as we are ready” after, and not on, July 20, Harry wrote. The team has been fixing many bugs, he wrote. “In the end, getting quality right is more important than hitting any date,” Harry wrote. Visual Studio 2015 and .NET 4.6 will still come out on July 20, he wrote.

Update on August 6: Today Harry announced the availability of the final, RTM version of Team Foundation Server 2015. The Kanban board feature in the software now lets users filter, add and edit boards, and reorder items. And team projects can now be renamed. Pricing details for the software are here.

As part of .NET 2015, Microsoft is delivering .NET 4.6, the next version of the desktop .NET framework. Included are key improvements to the WPF platform, such as support for transparent windows and multi-image cursor files.

This is a huge release, and one that is naturally timed to arrive right before Windows 10’s debut on July 29. It is Microsoft’s first major step wooing developers over to its tools and platforms.

Jordan Novet contributed to this story.