Following the release of GitHub Copilot into technical preview last year, we've been hard at work incorporating user feedback, growing the technical preview's user base, and extending its availability. We are adding Visual Studio 2022, the most requested IDE, today.

To begin:

Prior to installing the Visual Studio 2022 extension, you must first join the waitlist in order to have access to the GitHub Copilot technical preview. We are adding additional developers to the preview as we expand the service's capacity, even if spots are restricted.

Go to Extensions > Manage Extensions in Visual Studio 2022 and look for GitHub Copilot after receiving an email from GitHub validating your access.

Click "Download," then exit Visual Studio when prompted. The GitHub Copilot extension installation prompt will now appear. Click Modify to start the installation process.

After it has finished successfully, launch Visual Studio 2022 again. After that, a popup to authorize Visual Studio with GitHub Copilot service will appear.

This will open a window in your browser. To insert the permission code, press Ctrl-V. Next, select Continue, and finally click Authorize GitHub Copilot Plugin.

You can exit the web window and return to Visual Studio after you receive the notification confirming your connection. A prompt asking you to accept the telemetry conditions in order to access the GitHub Copilot technical preview should now appear. Press Yes to continue if you agree, and you should be up and running soon!

Making use of GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot will automatically propose code that it believes you might be interested in as you type. To accept, simply hit the tab key. If you choose to ignore, just keep typing, and GitHub Copilot will continue to recommend things depending on what it perceives you to be doing. If a recommendation is completely interfering with your work, you can terminate it by pressing Esc.

GitHub Copilot will always present its best choice, but you may use the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+Alt+] and Ctrl+Alt+[ to move between the options it has created.

By selecting the GitHub Copilot icon at the bottom of your editing window, you can change the settings for GitHub Copilot at any moment. This gives you control over whether the extension is enabled and gives you the option to enable or disable it for specific programming languages and solutions.