Good news for developers growing tired of Copilot’s helpful suggestions. Microsoft has announced that it is now possible to make the programming assistant a little less irritating.
While code completions and suggestions are on by default, from the August 2025 update for Visual Studio 2022 (version 17.14.13), it is possible to dial back the helpfulness a little.
The changes, “based on your feedback,” are aimed at minimizing distractions for devs while they are coding. Annoyed by a barrage of suggestions with every keystroke? Developers can now have Microsoft’s assistant wait for a pause in typing before showing possible line completions. Want automatic completions gone unless you ask for them? While code completions are still the default, they can be switched off and triggered with a keypress instead.
It’s also now possible to hide next edit suggestions, with a click on a margin indicator required to show what Copilot has decided could be next. Code suggestions can also be partially accepted, meaning the code completions can be accepted line by line.
The move is a rare acknowledgement from Microsoft that maybe, just maybe, users don’t want AI rammed down their throats at every opportunity. While Copilot remains present in Visual Studio, developers now have more control over how it makes its presence felt.
The “valuable feedback” the Visual Studio team received does not appear to have permeated to the rest of Microsoft, where the urge to Copilot All The Things continues to drive the company. It is becoming increasingly difficult to navigate Microsoft’s product lineup without an artificial assistant offering helpful tips aimed at boosting productivity.
Developers, however, are being spared the worst of Microsoft’s excesses. Having suggested completions pop up, unbidden, at every keystroke can certainly become distracting. The editor should be a place of focus rather than a game of Whac-A-Mole, just with mouse clicks and suggestions rather than mallets and unfortunate mammals.
Microsoft said: “We understand how important it is to strike the right balance between helpful suggestions and maintaining control over your attention and workspace.”
It’s a shame, then, that it didn’t add the measures to quieten down the assistant when it first went in. Instead, it took “feedback” from developers to make the company realize that perhaps its assistant could occasionally be… a little too helpful. ®