Visual Studio 2012 introduced several platform-wide enhancements available in the ISO:

Projects and key IDE components load asynchronously, allowing you to start coding before the entire solution is fully loaded.

Tools for creating Layer Diagrams, UML diagrams (Class, Sequence, Use Case), and Architecture Explorer to visualize complex codebases.

A redesigned, cleaner interface with reduced clutter and "all-caps" menus (later made optional).