'Huge architectural change' to JetBrains ReSharper cuts Visual Studio freezes
(2025/09/03)
- Reference: 1756895937
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/09/03/jetbrains_resharper_update/
- Source link:
JetBrains has updated ReSharper, its .NET plugin for Visual Studio, with an out-of-process design that achieves a 61 percent reduction in UI freezes, the company [1]claims . However, the new mode has reduced functionality.
ReSharper is a productivity tool for navigating and refactoring .NET code. It is the most popular extension in the Visual Studio Marketplace, with more than 2.8 million installs.
While the functionality of the tool is well-liked, the most common complaint is performance. "Tried many times over the years – just too slow," [2]said one developer earlier this year. The problem is not just that ReSharper is slow, but its negative impact on Visual Studio itself. "It's sad to see what is such a promising add-in cause Visual Studio to become unusable," [3]said another dev back in 2022.
[4]
The change to out of process is intended to improve matters. The feature has landed in ReSharper 2025.2, currently in preview. Previous versions share the Visual Studio UI process, causing freezes when analysis took too long. JetBrains tested this by opening the open source [5]Orchard Core content management system in Visual Studio. With ReSharper running out of process, frozen UI (defined as a freeze of longer than 100 ms) fell from 26 to 10.1 seconds. Orchard Core comprises 223 projects so it is a large body of code. UI freezes are annoying for the developer since no typing or clicking is possible and there may be a warning that "ReSharper is slowing down your computer."
[6]
[7]
ReSharper users with smaller projects should also benefit. Starting up Visual Studio with out-of-process mode turned on reduces frozen UI from about 18 seconds to 10 seconds.
Performance improvements in the latest ReSharper, now in preview
The downside of the out-of-process mode, which is off by default, is that some features do not work, including debugger integrations, AI features, diagramming tools, dynamic program analysis, and integration with other JetBrains tools including dotMemory, dotTrace, and dotCover. The company stated that work is underway to add these features to the out-of-process mode.
[8]Laravel inventor tells devs to quit writing 'cathedrals of complexity'
[9]Google and Zed push protocol to pry AI agents out of VS Code's clutches
[10]Bun JS toolkit adds MySQL driver, secrets API, YAML, and more
[11]Google kneecaps indie Android devs, forces them to register
Developers may need to be patient. Work on taking ReSharper out of process began [12]over six years ago , back when Visual Studio itself ran as a 32-bit process. A year later, the work was [13]described as a "massively complex job." A downside of the project is that ReSharper must work in both modes, complicating code that needs to behave differently in each case.
Although feature parity with ReSharper in-process may be some way off, there will be plenty of developers happy to trade loss of functionality for a more usable coding environment. "The experience is now much better with OOP enabled!" [14]reported a user of the release candidate.
That said, the surge in AI coding products makes ReSharper less necessary for some, though since 2023 it has been integrated with JetBrains AI Assistant. Performance aside, there is also a problem with having multiple coding tools enabled. It was bad enough when ReSharper competed with Microsoft's built-in IntelliSense to present developers with code completions; adding GitHub Copilot or other AI tools into the mix can make the editor so busy that it is hard to focus on the code.
[15]
Historically, the core strength of ReSharper has been its refactoring features, arguably needed more than ever given the tendency of AI coding to increase near-duplicate code and generate poor code structure – a problem [16]identified by GitClear research. It would therefore be a shame if this is lost in the move towards AI assistance.
Much of the ReSharper code is also reused in Rider, the cross-platform JetBrains IDE for C#, which is important for Mac users following Microsoft's abandonment of Visual Studio for Mac. ®
Get our [17]Tech Resources
[1] https://blog.jetbrains.com/dotnet/2025/08/28/resharper-s-new-out-of-process-engine-cuts-ui-freezes-in-visual-studio-by-80/
[2] https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=JetBrains.ReSharper&ssr=false#review-details
[3] https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/RSRP-480863/ReSharper-Out-of-Process#focus=Comments-27-6048192.0-0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aLhmFiJGWw6Y8Cnqz51FnwAAAQQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://github.com/OrchardCMS/OrchardCore
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aLhmFiJGWw6Y8Cnqz51FnwAAAQQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aLhmFiJGWw6Y8Cnqz51FnwAAAQQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/01/laravel_inventor_clever_devs/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/28/google_zed_acp/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/27/bun_js_toolkit_adds_mysql/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/26/android_developer_verification_sideloading/
[12] https://blog.jetbrains.com/dotnet/2019/07/11/where-we-are-with-out-of-process-resharper/
[13] https://blog.jetbrains.com/dotnet/2020/02/24/update-running-resharper-process/
[14] https://blog.jetbrains.com/dotnet/2025/08/28/resharper-s-new-out-of-process-engine-cuts-ui-freezes-in-visual-studio-by-80/#remark42__comment-ff9005e3-5fc4-49ca-b9be-e5f9ffb14545
[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aLhmFiJGWw6Y8Cnqz51FnwAAAQQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[16] https://devclass.com/2025/02/20/ai-is-eroding-code-quality-states-new-in-depth-report/
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
ReSharper is a productivity tool for navigating and refactoring .NET code. It is the most popular extension in the Visual Studio Marketplace, with more than 2.8 million installs.
While the functionality of the tool is well-liked, the most common complaint is performance. "Tried many times over the years – just too slow," [2]said one developer earlier this year. The problem is not just that ReSharper is slow, but its negative impact on Visual Studio itself. "It's sad to see what is such a promising add-in cause Visual Studio to become unusable," [3]said another dev back in 2022.
[4]
The change to out of process is intended to improve matters. The feature has landed in ReSharper 2025.2, currently in preview. Previous versions share the Visual Studio UI process, causing freezes when analysis took too long. JetBrains tested this by opening the open source [5]Orchard Core content management system in Visual Studio. With ReSharper running out of process, frozen UI (defined as a freeze of longer than 100 ms) fell from 26 to 10.1 seconds. Orchard Core comprises 223 projects so it is a large body of code. UI freezes are annoying for the developer since no typing or clicking is possible and there may be a warning that "ReSharper is slowing down your computer."
[6]
[7]
ReSharper users with smaller projects should also benefit. Starting up Visual Studio with out-of-process mode turned on reduces frozen UI from about 18 seconds to 10 seconds.
Performance improvements in the latest ReSharper, now in preview
The downside of the out-of-process mode, which is off by default, is that some features do not work, including debugger integrations, AI features, diagramming tools, dynamic program analysis, and integration with other JetBrains tools including dotMemory, dotTrace, and dotCover. The company stated that work is underway to add these features to the out-of-process mode.
[8]Laravel inventor tells devs to quit writing 'cathedrals of complexity'
[9]Google and Zed push protocol to pry AI agents out of VS Code's clutches
[10]Bun JS toolkit adds MySQL driver, secrets API, YAML, and more
[11]Google kneecaps indie Android devs, forces them to register
Developers may need to be patient. Work on taking ReSharper out of process began [12]over six years ago , back when Visual Studio itself ran as a 32-bit process. A year later, the work was [13]described as a "massively complex job." A downside of the project is that ReSharper must work in both modes, complicating code that needs to behave differently in each case.
Although feature parity with ReSharper in-process may be some way off, there will be plenty of developers happy to trade loss of functionality for a more usable coding environment. "The experience is now much better with OOP enabled!" [14]reported a user of the release candidate.
That said, the surge in AI coding products makes ReSharper less necessary for some, though since 2023 it has been integrated with JetBrains AI Assistant. Performance aside, there is also a problem with having multiple coding tools enabled. It was bad enough when ReSharper competed with Microsoft's built-in IntelliSense to present developers with code completions; adding GitHub Copilot or other AI tools into the mix can make the editor so busy that it is hard to focus on the code.
[15]
Historically, the core strength of ReSharper has been its refactoring features, arguably needed more than ever given the tendency of AI coding to increase near-duplicate code and generate poor code structure – a problem [16]identified by GitClear research. It would therefore be a shame if this is lost in the move towards AI assistance.
Much of the ReSharper code is also reused in Rider, the cross-platform JetBrains IDE for C#, which is important for Mac users following Microsoft's abandonment of Visual Studio for Mac. ®
Get our [17]Tech Resources
[1] https://blog.jetbrains.com/dotnet/2025/08/28/resharper-s-new-out-of-process-engine-cuts-ui-freezes-in-visual-studio-by-80/
[2] https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=JetBrains.ReSharper&ssr=false#review-details
[3] https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/RSRP-480863/ReSharper-Out-of-Process#focus=Comments-27-6048192.0-0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aLhmFiJGWw6Y8Cnqz51FnwAAAQQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://github.com/OrchardCMS/OrchardCore
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aLhmFiJGWw6Y8Cnqz51FnwAAAQQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aLhmFiJGWw6Y8Cnqz51FnwAAAQQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/01/laravel_inventor_clever_devs/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/28/google_zed_acp/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/27/bun_js_toolkit_adds_mysql/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/26/android_developer_verification_sideloading/
[12] https://blog.jetbrains.com/dotnet/2019/07/11/where-we-are-with-out-of-process-resharper/
[13] https://blog.jetbrains.com/dotnet/2020/02/24/update-running-resharper-process/
[14] https://blog.jetbrains.com/dotnet/2025/08/28/resharper-s-new-out-of-process-engine-cuts-ui-freezes-in-visual-studio-by-80/#remark42__comment-ff9005e3-5fc4-49ca-b9be-e5f9ffb14545
[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aLhmFiJGWw6Y8Cnqz51FnwAAAQQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[16] https://devclass.com/2025/02/20/ai-is-eroding-code-quality-states-new-in-depth-report/
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Please explain !!!??? [Quality is an addon it would appear ... not available yet !!!]
Anonymous Coward
"... achieves a 61 percent reduction in UI freezes"
Aren't UI freezes in any quantity greater than 0 a hindrance to doing your job as a dev ???
A bit like 'it only crashes once in a while' being not very useful for the users of a accounting software suite.
P.S.
My Ford Cortina is wonderful it only stalls 3 or 4 times a week and the oil leaks are almost gone !!!
:)
Rider is better pretty much all round.
Smart developers will have abandoned Visual Studio years ago. Even without Resharper running, it's a dog.
Rider is so much better in ever respect.