GitHub for Beginners #7: How to Fix Merge Conflicts in Visual Studio 2026
Merge conflicts sound scary, but they're really just Git asking for help. In this video — part two of our collaboration series — we'll deliberately create a worst-case merge conflict scenario and then walk through exactly how to resolve it using Visual Studio 2026.
What you'll learn:
What causes merge conflicts (two people editing the same code)
What happens when you try to push and Git says "nope"
Understanding the "rejected - remote has changes" error
Visual Studio's merge conflict editor (the three-pane view)
Current (yours) vs. Incoming (theirs) vs. Result
How to manually resolve conflicts
The "Accept Merge" button — marking conflicts as resolved
Testing your code after resolving conflicts
Committing the merge resolution
Using Sync to push your resolved code
Verifying the merge on GitHub.com
Key insights:
Merge conflicts aren't errors — Git is asking you to make a decision
Conflicts happen when the same lines are changed in two places
Pull frequently to minimize conflicts before they happen
Communicate with your team about who's working on what
Keep changes small and focused — easier to merge
Always test after resolving conflicts
The merge itself becomes a commit in your history
What we'll do:
Start with code that's out of sync with GitHub (Pat's changes from Video 6)
Make local changes (refactoring + Copilot removing top-level statements)
Attempt to push — and get rejected
Pull the remote changes and trigger the conflict
Walk through Visual Studio's merge editor step by step
Resolve the conflict manually
Push the resolved code back to GitHub
Previous Video: Add a Collaborator & Your First Codespace
Next Video: How to Fix Merge Conflicts in VS Code
► Full Playlist: • GitHub for Beginners
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