Click that Visual Studio Notification Flag

Visual Studio wants to keep you informed of important information, such as available Visual Studio updates, license expirations, or alerts. These notifications are now available directly from within Visual Studio. Just click on the flag icon in the Visual Studio 2013 title bar.

Prior versions of Visual Studio provided the notifications in a pop-up balloon that appeared in your Windows task bar. In Visual Studio 2012, the pop-up balloon appears and disappears so quickly, it's easy to miss. And it isn't obvious how to display it again.

In Visual Studio 2013, this process was improved by moving the notification into the Visual Studio title bar. That way you can review the notifications at any time. Hover over the icon for a quick overview of the notifications. Then you can click on the notification icon to display the notification window.

The notification window contains messages and alerts. Many notifications provide a link to an action. Hovering over the link will give you the notification details. Then you can click the link to perform the action. After you've viewed a notification, it's no longer considered new.

Deborah Kurata is cofounder of InStep Technologies Inc. and has more than 15 years experience in architecting, designing and developing successful applications. The author of several books, Kurata speaks at conferences such as Visual Studio Live!, DevDays and TechEd and has been recognized with the Microsoft MVP award.

Posted by Deborah Kurata on 04/16/2015