.NETPro #16: Microsoft Agent Framework, AI Roadmap for VS, Why Startups Skip .NET, VS 2026 vs. 2008 Performance Tests, and More
🌏 Actionable .NET tips, latest updates, and community insights all in one place
Have you ever wondered why startups often shy away from using .NET and C# and whether that choice is rooted in logic or lingering misconceptions? In this issue, we explore the debate with insights from a leading .NET expert, uncovering how the evolving ecosystem, hiring trends, and AI-driven innovation are redefining .NET’s place in the startup world.
You’ll also find an expert walkthrough comparing Visual Studio 2026 with the classic 2008 edition in a fascinating performance test that delivers some surprising results. And that’s not all! This issue brings you fresh community updates, practical insights, and more expert perspectives you won’t want to miss.
Take a look at today’s top picks:
➡️ Check out the capabilities of Microsoft’s new Agent Framework
➡️ Discover how .NET Aspire 9.5 adds support for .NET 10 file-based apps
➡️ Prepare for .NET 10 GC: DATAS
➡️ Dive into the October AI roadmap for Visual Studio
➡️ Wondering if .NET is the right choice for startups today? Nick Chapsas explores the truth
➡️ Watch Ed Andersen test if Visual Studio 2026 outperforms the classic 2008 edition
➡️ Explore how Milan Jovanović connects .NET Aspire with AWS for seamless, cloud-agnostic messaging and observability
Keep reading, and when you’re done, drop us a note about what you enjoyed and how we can make the next edition more helpful.
Cheers!
Adrija Mitra
Editor-in-Chief
Missed our last two special issues?
Parts 1 and 2 of our ongoing special series, Partial Types and Members: Breaking Apart and Reassembling C# Classes with Mark J. Price, are live now!
Don’t worry if you missed them — we’ve got you covered! Check out [Part 1] and [Part 2].
📰 What’s Happening in .NET!
The latest .NET breakthroughs are here. Haven’t explored them yet? Dive in now!
➡️ Introducing Microsoft Agent Framework (Preview): Making AI Agents Simple for Every Developer: Microsoft is previewing a new Agent Framework, a unified .NET SDK and runtime that simplifies building, orchestrating, hosting, and observing AI agents. The framework merges capabilities from Semantic Kernel, AutoGen, and Microsoft.Extensions.AI to help developers move from prototype to production with less friction.
➡️ Preparing for the .NET 10 GC (DATAS): .NET 10 will enable the Dynamic Adaptation To Application Sizes (DATAS) feature by default, marking a major shift in how the .NET Garbage Collector manages memory. DATAS automatically adjusts heap sizes for bursty or small workloads, improving memory efficiency and performance in constrained environments.
➡️ Roadmap for AI in Visual Studio (October): Microsoft has revealed its October AI roadmap for Visual Studio, with plans to integrate remote AI agents like GitHub Copilot directly into the IDE, improve agent switching and tool calling, and expand model support and governance capabilities. These updates aim to make AI-driven coding more seamless and powerful.
➡️ Visual Studio September Update – profiler agent, app modernization, and more: Microsoft rolls out its September 2025 update for Visual Studio 2022, introducing a tightly integrated Profiler Agent that helps identify performance issues via Copilot and an App Modernization Agent that accelerates .NET upgrades and Azure migration. Explore the release notes here.
➡️ Microsoft .NET Aspire backs .NET 10 file-based apps: .NET Aspire 9.5 introduces preview support for file-based AppHosts, enabling developers to define entire distributed applications in a single apphost.cs file rather than a project file. This builds on the progress being delivered with .NET 10 that enables single-file applications.
🗣️ .NET Conference 2025
Here’s a look at what each day of .NET Conference 2025 has in store for you:
🗓️ November 11 | 8 AM – 5 PM PST
Kick off the conference with the big reveal: .NET 10! Join the .NET team as they showcase everything new and exciting in the latest release.
🗓️ November 12 | 9 AM – 5 PM PST
Day two takes you deeper into the world of .NET, Azure, and AI, exploring how these technologies come together to build smarter, faster, and more connected solutions.
🗓️ November 13 | 5 AM – 5 PM PST
Wrap up with the .NET community day, featuring inspiring talks and sessions from developers and experts around the globe.
⏱️ Time for Some Hands-On .NET
Don’t miss this edition’s spotlight tutorial!
In this guide, Joydip Kanjilal walks you through configuring the CORS middleware for minimal APIs in ASP.NET Core. You’ll learn what CORS is, why it matters, and how to enable it effectively using Visual Studio 2022 and .NET 9.
How does this guide help you?
The tutorial simplifies CORS configuration for developers working with minimal APIs. It explains how to manage cross-origin requests securely without controllers, helping you build safer, more flexible web applications that interact confidently with multiple client origins.
What do you need before diving in?
Visual Studio 2022 installed
.NET 9.0 SDK
Basic knowledge of ASP.NET Core and minimal APIs
Familiarity with HTTP and API security concepts
Knowing how to configure CORS is an essential step toward building production-ready APIs. As you continue developing with minimal APIs, this knowledge will help you maintain security while ensuring smooth communication across web applications.
Missed Parts 1 and 2 of our ongoing special series Partial Types and Members: Breaking Apart and Reassembling C# Classes with Mark J. Price?
Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! Check out [Part 1] and [Part 2].
🧑🏼💻 What .NET Experts Are Talking About
Inside the minds of .NET pros: Real-world experience, real insights!
➡️ .NET Aspire and AWS: From Zero to SNS + SQS in minutes: In this video, Milan Jovanović demonstrates how to connect .NET Aspire with AWS, proving it’s not limited to Azure. He walks through a real-world setup using Orders API, SNS, SQS, and an Orders Processor, provisioning AWS infrastructure with CDK and CloudFormation, and adding OpenTelemetry for full observability.
➡️ Why Startups Don’t Use .NET and C#: In this video, Nick Chapsas discusses whether .NET is a good choice for startups, small businesses, and solo developers. He explores common misconceptions, compares .NET with JavaScript, Python, and Java, shares insights from his own startup experience, and explains how AI integration is reshaping the .NET ecosystem.
➡️ They can’t ship Visual Studio 2026 like this...: Watch Ed Andersen compare Visual Studio 2026 to the classic Visual Studio 2008 in a hilarious and revealing performance test. From nostalgic setup screens to shocking speed results, see whether 17 years of Microsoft development made the IDE faster or surprisingly slower. A must-watch for every .NET developer and tech nostalgist.
➡️ Publishing NuGet packages from GitHub actions the easy way with Trusted Publishing: In his latest deep dive, Andrew Lock highlights how nuget.org’s new Trusted Publishing enables developers to publish NuGet packages from GitHub Actions without storing API keys, enhancing security, simplifying automation, and creating a smoother publishing workflow.
➡️ Dead-Letter Queues in .NET Explained with Amazon SQS: In this video, Milan Jovanović explains dead-letter queues and their importance, shows how to configure SQS with a DLQ to handle poison messages, demonstrates DLQ handling in .NET, and redrives failed messages back into the main queue. He concludes the session with best practices for monitoring and alerts.
➡️ sleep-pc: a .NET Native AOT tool to make Windows sleep after a timeout: In this post, Andrew Lock introduces a small .NET tool he built to put a Windows PC to sleep after a set timer. He explains the Win32 API used to trigger sleep mode and shows how he developed the proof of concept into a Native AOT-compiled .NET tool available on GitHub and NuGet.
Missed Parts 1 and 2 of our ongoing special series Partial Types and Members: Breaking Apart and Reassembling C# Classes with Mark J. Price?
Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! Check out [Part 1] and [Part 2].
And That’s a Wrap 🎬
Thanks for diving in. I hope this issue sparked an idea or two that could help fuel your next big project.
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Keep learning, keep building, and we’ll see you next time!