This release contains the previously released .NET Core 2.1.2 Runtime and the following:

• ASP.NET Core 2.1.2
• .NET Core SDK 2.1.400 

New Features

Comes with Git v2.18.0.
Comes with Git Credential Manager v1.16.2.

Announcing TypeScript 2.9 

• We added support to change installation locations.
• You can Save All your pending changes before you start your update.
• The update dialog provides you even more details about your update during installation.
• C# 7.3 is included in Visual Studio version 15.7.
• We improved solution load time for C# and VB projects.
• We made numerous updates to F# and its tools, with a focus on performance.
• We reduced the time to enable IntelliSense for large .NET Core projects by 25%.
• We made Quick Info improvements and new .NET refactorings like convert for-to-foreach and make private fields readonly.
• We added the ability to publish ASP.NET Core applications to App Service Linux without containers.
• Live Unit Testing works with embedded pdbs and supports projects that use reference assemblies.
• The Test Explorer has more responsive icons during test runs.
• C++ developers can use CodeLens for unit testing.
• We added new rules enforcing items from the C++ Core Guidelines.
• Debugging large solutions with /Debug:fastlink PDBs is more robust.
• CMake integration supports CMake 3.11 and static analysis.
• Python projects support type hints in IntelliSense, and a Run MyPy command has been added to look for typing errors in your code.
• Conda environments are supported in Python projects.
• We added a next version of our Python debugger based on the popular open source pydevd debugger.
• TypeScript 2.8 is included in Visual Studio version 15.7.
• We improved Kestrel HTTPs support during debugging.
• We added support for JavaScript debugging with Microsoft Edge.
• The Debugger supports VSTS and GitHub Authentication for Source Link.
• IntelliTrace’s step-back debugging feature is supported for debugging .NET Core projects.
• We added IntelliTrace support for taking snapshots on exceptions.
• We removed the blocking modal dialog from branch checkouts in Git when a solution or project reload is not required.
• There is an option to choose between OpenSSL and SChannel in Git.
• You can create and associate Azure Key Vaults from within the Visual Studio IDE.
• Visual Studio Tools for Xamarin can automatically install missing Android API levels required by Xamarin.Android projects.
• The Xamarin.Forms XAML editor provides IntelliSense and quick fixes for conditional XAML.
• We added support for Azure, UWP, and additional project types in Visual Studio Build Tools.
• You can create build servers without installing all of Visual Studio.
• The Windows 10 April 2018 Update SDK - Build 17134 is the default required SDK for the Universal Windows Platform development workload.
• We added support for Visual State Management for all UWP apps and more.
• We enabled automatic updates for sideloaded APPX packages.
• You have new tools for migrating to NuGet PackageReference.
• We added support for NuGet package signatures.
• We added Service Fabric Tooling for the 6.2 Service Fabric release.
• We updated Entity Framework Tools to work with the EF 6.2 runtime and to improve reverse engineering of existing databases.

This is a "go live" release that can be used in production with the understanding that you will need to update to the final stable release once it is available.  

.NET Core 2.1-Preview2 comprises:

• .NET Core Runtime 2.1.0-preview2-26406-04
• .NET Core SDK 2.1.300-preview2-008530

New Features

Comes with Git v2.17.0.
Comes with OpenSSL v1.0.2o.
Comes with Git Credential Manager v1.15.2.
Comes with OpenSSH v7.7p1.
 

• We improved solution load performance by optimizing design time build.
• We've added installation progress details on Visual Studio Installer.
• You can pause your installation and resume at a later time.
• We streamlined the update process so the notification takes you directly to the Installer.
• Non-administrators can create a VS layout.
• We added a new shortcut for Edit.Duplicate in the keyboard mapping.
• We made significant improvements to the F# language and tools, particularly for .NET Core SDK projects.
• The C++ compiler optimizes your code to run faster through improved optimizations.
• C++ Mapfile generation overhead is reduced in full linking scenarios.
• Debug options are available for Embedded ARM GCC support.
• We added strong name signing on CoreCLR for the C# compiler.
• Visual Studio Tools for Xamarin has lots of new productivity updates for iOS and Android developers.
• Python no longer requires a completion DB, and Anaconda users have support for conda.
• The Performance Profiler's CPU Usage Tool can display logical call stacks for asynchronous code.
• The CPU Usage tool displays source line highlighting and async/await code with logical 'Call Stack Stitching'.
• The debugger supports thread names set via SetThreadDescription APIs in dump debugging.
• Snapshot Debugging can be started from the Debug Target dropdown for ASP.NET applications.
• We've launched the initial implementation of Navigate to decompiled sources for .NET code navigation.
• New enhancements for Configure Continuous Delivery include support for TFVC, Git authentication over SSH, and containerized projects.
• You can now click on the Continuous Delivery tile in Team Explorer to configure automated build and deployments for your application.
• Team Explorer supports Git tags and checking out pull request branches.
• Service Fabric Tooling for the 6.1 Service Fabric release is now available.
• The Windows 10 Insider Preview SDK can be installed as an optional component.
• File versions for a number of Visual Studio executables now reflect the minor release.
• Test Explorer has a hierarchy view and real time test discovery is now on by default.
• We have added support for testing Win10 IoT Core applications.
• Visual Studio Build Tools supports TypeScript and Node.js.
• ClickOnce Tools support signing application and deployment manifests with CNG certificate.
• You can access Azure resources such as Key Vault using your Visual Studio accounts. 

Team Explorer support for TLSv1.2

• We have updated the Git and the Git Credential Manager components that ship in Visual Studio.
• The optional Git for Windows component has also been updated.
• This update allows Git to connect to services that have deprecated support for TLSv1 and TLSv1.1 in favor of TLSv1.2.

Issues Fixed in this Release

These are the customer-reported issues addressed in this release:

• Projects targeting .NET Core 2.1 or newer are not supported by Visual Studio 2017 version 15.5.
• Fixed issue where installation of the SDK for .NET Core 2.1 or newer would cause the option to create ASP.NET Core 2.0 Web applications to disappear.