Resetting the experimental instance of Visual Studio has changed in 2026 (v18)

If you build extensions for Visual Studio, you'll know that sometimes (frequently?--depending on what you're doing) it's necessary to completely reset the experimental instance to get it back to a known/good state.

With previous versions, it was possible to start typing in the main Windows menu and it would find the command to do this for you.

This was possible because the menu included entries for just this command:

(Note that I have multiple entries because I have multiple long-term support versions installed for testing.)

However, VS2026 does not include these menu entries. (Who knows why they were removed...?)

Instead, you can (must) trigger the resetting of the experimental instance from within Visual Studio from within the Feature Search. Simply start typing the command in the search box, and it'll find it for you.

Note. I couldn't find another way to access this functionality in VS2026. If you know of one, please share it.

Is writing a test a good contribution to an open source project?

The cliché always used to be that "contributing to docs was a great way to get started in open source." Now I'm also starting to hear people suggest that writing a test can also be a good entry to a project.

But is this a good idea? I'm not sure...

Say you have a piece of code that isn't covered by any tests. It's fair to say this isn't an ideal situation to be in. All things being equal, having tests for this code would be a good (better) thing.

But not all code and not all tests are created equal.

Is adding a test for a piece of code that is never expected to change in the lifetime of the project valuable?

Is it valuable to write tests for code that is so clearly understandable that if anyone changed it, then lots of things would obviously be wrong, and a manual review of the code would easily spot the problem?

Is it valuable to add tests for only some scenarios or paths through a piece of code? Sometimes. Sometimes not.

Is adding tests that ensure all possible input can be handled by the code a good addition? Maybe, but if the project has been around a while, then all such inputs have likely been encountered already. If there were inputs that might cause a problem, they've most likely been encountered and dealt with.

You may be able to create a lot of tests very quickly. (Especially if using AI.)  But is it worth running them? If they don't run quickly, is it worth the delays and the money/energy it takes?

Coded tests must also be reviewed like any other code contribution, and reviewing PRs is a common bottleneck in many OS projects. 

I'm not against tests.

I think automated tests are great, and everyone should write more of them.

I just think that adding them after the fact is the wrong time to do it. It's harder to do it well, and they risk being low value.
Writing (or at least documenting) all the required tests before you start coding is the best time to write them.

Of course, if there's a project with documented manual test steps and you want to write code to automate them, then that sounds like a very valuable contribution. (Just as long as it doesn't require modifying the underlying code to make that possible.)

Or, if you want to help with the testing of a project, look at some open issues and start documenting how to test those features when they are implemented.

As with any open source project, the best kind of contributions are the ones the owners and maintainers are asking for, and if they're of any size, they never start with a PR but with a discussion or issue.

Miscellaneous AI-related questions

No answers. "Just", questions I'm aware of and considering:

• If working with AI means communicating with machines more like we do with other humans, how do we avoid things also going back the other way and treating people more like machines?
• Are "agents the future of [all] work"? And, if not all, how to identify the work that can change or be replaced?
• If "AI is only as good as your data", why isn't there as much effort being put into ensuring the quality and accuracy of the data as there is hype about AI?
• At what point does AI not need human oversight? All the education highlights human oversight, but the futurists don't include it...
• What is in the middle-ground between traditional GUIs and "just" a text box?
• As feedback is highlighted as being essential when developing tools with AI, is there a way for feedback from a tool to be passed back to those creating the underlying models?
• If there's a GUI for something, does it automatically need (and benefit?) from having an equivalent interface that's accessible via command line, API, and Agent/MCP?
• As speed/rate of change is a common complaint among all types of people and people doing disparate tasks, how do you factor this in when introducing AI-powered tools?
• If people are generally reluctant to read instructions, why will they happily read the text-based response from an AI tool telling them how to do something?
• Asking good questions is hard. How people ask questions of AI-powered tools greatly impacts the quality of results. In training people to use AI, are they also being taught to ask good questions?

Windows Apps London (formerly Windows Phone User Group) - it was good while it lasted

TLDR: User groups were great. I miss organising and going to them. Maybe I should revisit my plans about this...

I've organized over 100 user group events / meetups. I've also attended and spoken at many others.

The one I had the most to do with was the Windows Phone User Group, which later evolved/became Windows Apps London.

I "ran" this for as long as it existed. It all seems a very long time ago, but as I finish shutting up the virtual shop on the group (Stop paying for things--like domains--that I really don't need and no one looks at) I wanted to take a moment to reflect.

Here are a few of many pieces of similar feedback.

“Great to hear dev thoughts & experiences & see some interesting apps demo’ed”

“Met lots of cool people, and was well worth the trip.”

“Great bunch of people. Lots of enthusiasm and the usual witty banter”

“Meeting was great – fantastic bunch of WP7 developers, designers and officianados!”

“I really enjoyed everyone’s demos; even the games, which is not my domain, provided some interesting info about phone dev.”

“Thanks very much for putting on the event. I found it really useful as well as wonderfully motivating.”

“A great opportunity to meet and socialise with other developers.”

“We had a great time, really informative stuff, we learnt several things both from the talks and from general networking that we’re going to apply to our current and forthcoming projects.”

“Really appreciate the effort put into the event, great to meet everyone”

“It was great being able to network with intellectual individuals”

“It was really awesome. I now have the knowledge to create a better app.”

“It was very informative and enjoyable”

“Fantastic group. Always learn new things and pick up information”

“I like the format where someone knowledgeable us something we didn’t know already”

“One of the most interesting meetings I’ve been to”

“Wealth of knowledge to gain, recommended this to all developers”

“Good format, very useful.”

“Great event! Enjoyed the learning and the interaction with the other participants.”

“Thoroughly enjoyed the evening. Learnt a lot and looking forward to the next one.”

“Lots of fun, excellent talk and great people”

“I think this is a great event necessary for the platform. The atmosphere was good and enabling for sharing ideas.”

“Entertaining and inspiring talk”

“Really enjoyed the format! Great to hear everyone’s thoughts.”

“My mind is pretty blown away right now, very interesting evening with so much to takeaway and think about”

“Probably one of the best groups. Each meeting is useful for learning new things and getting a different point of view”

“Would love to see some more of these events”

“Fantastic presentation. Really helpful to pick up new tips.”

“Interesting conversation was flowing freely around the table. A really good night.”

“Great food, company, conversation and laughs!”

I couldn't let all the history of something that was a big part of my life for a very long time go away completely, so I've created an archive of the website at https://mrlacey.github.io/winappsldn/
Not that I really expect this to be of much interest or use to anyone any more, but it felt too important (to me) to let it go away completely.

Why developers should be excited about implementing migrations

I often hear that developers aren't keen on doing work to upgrade the frameworks/platforms/tools that they use (or the software they're building is using). It's not writing code, and so it's not considered "real development" work.

I think that doing the work to support upgrades or migrations is one of the most important and valuable things a developer can do:

• It's often a simple way to fix potential security vulnerabilities.
• It normally brings performance improvements.
• Updates bring new capabilities and options for things to add to the software.
• Keeping up with the latest versions makes future updates/migrations easier.
• It can help you learn and get hands-on experience with the latest technologies.
• It can allow you to see a large part of or various/obscure parts of the code base, helping you to learn more about the code you're working on.
• It can make it easier for other developers in the team.

So, a high-impact task that helps you learn while supporting the team by doing things they don't want to do? Sounds like a great thing to prioritise if you get the chance.