User accounts and updates

Note

This article applies to Visual Studio 2015. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here

Warning

Visual Studio 2015 cannot access resources that are configured for conditional access policies such as multi-factor authentication (MFA). To work with those resources, upgrade to Visual Studio 2019 version 16.6 or later and follow the How to use Visual Studio with accounts that require multi-factor authentication guidance.

Visual Studio itself is a connected environment. By signing-in you enable access to all the services associated with your user account as well as all the accounts that are linked to that account. Your account settings roam with you wherever you use Visual Studio. You can configure permissions levels on a specific Visual Studio instance for individual users. Also, Visual Studio informs you when any component of your installation, such as an SDK, had an update available.

In this section

Title Description
Signing in to Visual Studio Describes how and why to sign in to Visual Studio.
Work with multiple user accounts Describes how to associate multiple Microsoft accounts and/or work or school accounts to enable access to resources and services from all your accounts.
Synchronized Settings Describes how settings roam.
How to Unlock Visual Studio Describes how to unlock Visual Studio in various scenarios.
Notifications Describes how Visual Studio notifies you when components such as SDKs, or Visual Studio itself, have an update available.

See also