With the Visual Studio 2012 Release Candidate, Microsoft is introducing more Web publishing features, for example, additional support for Entity Framework Code First Migrations. In addition to the updated user interface, which reintroduces some color in the icons and elsewhere in response to developer feedback on the beta the RC offers performance enhancements in areas such as typing, the toolbox and large C++ projects, according to Zander.

Zander provided an overview of what's new in the Visual Studio 2012 Release Candidate in his blog and offered a demonstration of some of those features in a Channel 9 Visual Studio Toolbox video, hosted by Robert Green.

With or without a streamlined setup, users of the Release Candidates should see improved installations, which are about 20 percent faster than the beta releases, according to Microsoft Corporate Vice President Jason Zander, who heads the Visual Studio team. In addition to a new name, and a new purple logo, Microsoft is reintroducing a customizable setup process that allows developers to bypass installation of select Visual Studio components. The Release Candidates of Visual Studio 11, now officially named Visual Studio 2012, are available to all developers (including MSDN subscribers). NET Framework 4.5 Release Candidates are now available for download for those with a 'Go Live' license. News Microsoft Releases Visual Studio 2012 RC for Download

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