Microsoft announced the exciting new features and improvements that come with .NET 8 Preview 4. This release builds upon the previous Preview 3 release and showcases our commitment to delivering a range of features with monthly updates. For users of .NET 6 and 7, this release is particularly significant as we have focused on ensuring a smooth and straightforward upgrade path.

To get started, you can download .NET 8 Preview 4 for Linux, macOS, and Windows. The release includes various installers, binaries, container images, release notes, and information about known issues. If you encounter any problems or have feedback, you can also visit our GitHub issue tracker to report issues or find solutions.

As we look ahead, we are excited to announce Microsoft Build 2023. This event will feature numerous sessions hosted by the .NET team, including technical deep dives and Q&A sessions. We invite you to join us and engage with the team at Microsoft Build 2023.

In this Preview 4 release, we invite you to explore the new features and improvements in ASP.NET Core and EF Core. Stay updated with the latest developments by visiting "What's New in .NET 8," which will be continuously updated throughout the release cycle.

It's worth noting that .NET 8 has been tested with 17.7 Preview 1. If you wish to try .NET 8 with the Visual Studio family of products, we recommend using the preview channel builds. However, please be aware that Visual Studio for Mac support for .NET 8 is not yet available. If you prefer to stick with the stable channel, we encourage you to explore the latest features and improvements in the Visual Studio 17.6 release.

Now, let's dive into some of the exciting new features introduced in .NET 8:

1. MSBuild: Experience a modern terminal build output, enhancing your development workflow.
2. SDK: Enjoy simplified updates to the output path, making it easier to manage your project's build artifacts.
3. Template Engine: Benefit from a more secure experience when working with packages from NuGet.org.
4. NuGet: Verify signed packages on Linux, enhancing the integrity of your dependencies.
5. NuGet: Audit package dependencies for security vulnerabilities, ensuring the safety of your projects.
6. Enable security auditing to have greater control and visibility into security aspects.
7. Use "dotnet add package" to conveniently add packages to your projects.
8. Leverage "dotnet restore" to restore dependencies efficiently and reliably.
9. Set a security audit level to customize the security scanning of your projects.
10. Libraries: Enjoy improvements in UTF8 handling, enhancing string manipulation capabilities.
11. Introducing Time abstraction to simplify working with time-related operations.
12. Discover System.Runtime.Intrinsics.Vector512 and AVX-512 support, opening up new possibilities for performance optimization and lot more

These are just a few highlights among the many exciting features and improvements in .NET 8. For more details, please read the Microsoft official website.