Visual Studio 2026 Update Improves Pull Requests and Theme Customization

Visual Studio 2026 now lets developers review Git Pull Requests directly inside the IDE. The feature is available in Visual Studio 2026 version 18.7 and supports a more complete Git workflow without switching to a browser.

Developers can open Pull Requests from Visual Studio, review changed files, inspect commits, leave comments, reply to discussions, and approve changes. The IDE also shows review details such as status checks, conflicts, and required approvals.

Visual Studio 2026 improves Pull Request reviews

The new Pull Request review experience works with GitHub and Azure DevOps repositories. Developers can review code changes inside Visual Studio while keeping their current branch and local work untouched.

For deeper checks, users can still check out the Pull Request branch and use Visual Studio’s build, navigation, and debugging tools. This makes the feature useful for both quick reviews and more detailed code inspections.

Theme colors are now easier to customize

Microsoft also added new theme customization options in Visual Studio 2026 version 18.7. A new page is available under Tools > Options > Environment > Visual Experience > Theme colors.

Developers can customize accent colors, hover states, tab headers, window headers, and other UI elements using hex color codes. Changes made in the IDE apply immediately without restarting Visual Studio.

Custom themes are saved per theme

Visual Studio now saves custom color settings per theme instead of globally. This means users can have separate color settings for Dark, Light, and tinted themes.

Microsoft also added a per-color reset option, so developers can revert one color token without resetting the full theme.

Custom themes are stored as JSON files in the ColorThemes folder under the Visual Studio local app data directory. Because the files use JSON, developers can share themes with others or override existing themes.

Microsoft says this is a major improvement over the older system, where users often needed extensions to replace or heavily modify Visual Studio themes.

In other developer news, Visual Studio Code recently gained autonomous AI workflows, while Microsoft has reportedly restricted Claude Fable 5 use because of its data retention policy.