[Windows] `windows-latest` and `windows-2025` image-label will use Windows Server 2025 with Visual Studio 2026 image in June 2026

[v-AndriiKhyliuk]

Breaking changes

Windows Server 2025 with Visual Studio 2026 image is ready to be the default version for the Windows-latest label in GitHub Actions

The "windows-latest" and “windows-2025” labels in GitHub Actions will be migrated to use Visual Studio 2026 by default. Customers needing Visual Studio 2022 must migrate to the windows-2022 image.

Target date

This change will be rolled out over a week beginning June 8, 2026 and will complete by June 15, 2026.

The motivation for the changes

GitHub Actions and Azure DevOps have supported Windows Server 2025 with Visual Studio 2026 image and starting from 2026-05-07, Windows Server 2025 with Visual Studio 2026 image is generally available for all customers.
We have monitored customer feedback to improve the Windows Server 2025 with Visual Studio 2026 image stability and now we are ready to set it as the latest.

Possible impact

Some users have already seen this transition happen in their workflows.
These users will continue to see the new Image in their workflows, no further changes will occur to their Image.

During this period your workflows will gradually switch over to the new image with Visual Studio 2026 as the default.
If you want to do advance testing prior to the migration, you can follow the instructions below.

Software difference between Windows Server 2025 and Windows Server 2025 with VS 2026

Tool name	Windows Server 2025	Windows Server 2025 with VS 2026	Notes
Visual Studio	Visual Studio 2022 (version 17.14.*)	Visual Studio 2026 (version 18.5*)	Updated to the recent version
Visual Studio components	*	Removed Component.Dotfuscator Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Azure.ServiceFabric.Tools Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.TestTools.CodedUITest Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.TestTools.WebLoadTest Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Tools.ARM Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Modules.x86.x64 Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Runtimes.ARM.Spectre Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.MFC.ARM Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.MFC.ARM.Spectre Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.ATL.ARM Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.ATL.ARM.Spectre Microsoft.VisualStudio.ComponentGroup.Azure.CloudServices Microsoft.VisualStudio.ComponentGroup.Azure.ResourceManager.Tools Added Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.14.44.17.14.x86.x64	Unavalable in VS 2026. MSVC v143 is added for compatibility
CMake	3.31.6	latest available (4.3.2)	Adds Visual Studio 18 2026 generator
Android Command Line Tools	16.0	19.0	cmdline tools version isntalled by VS2026 was bumped

Platforms affected

• Azure DevOps
• GitHub Actions

Runner images affected

• Ubuntu 22.04
• Ubuntu 24.04
• Ubuntu Slim
• macOS 14
• macOS 14 Arm64
• macOS 15
• macOS 15 Arm64
• macOS 26
• macOS 26 Arm64
• Windows Server 2022
• Windows Server 2025
• Windows Server 2025 with Visual Studio 2026

Mitigation ways

To test this image prior to migration, you can use the windows-2025-vs2026 image label in your YAML to select this image.jobs:

  jobName:
    runs-on: windows-2025-vs2026

To continue using Visual studio 2022, you can use the Windows-2022 Image.jobs:

  jobName:
    runs-on: windows-2022

Please report any problems with the new image to this repository.

[VaKo234]

ReadMe (5).md

[MikeMcC399]

@v-AndriiKhyliuk

The runtime message gives a different date:

NOTICE: windows-2025 requests are being redirected to windows-2025-vs2026 by May 12, 2026

This is different from the date currently written in this issue:

This change will be rolled out over a week beginning June 8, 2026 and will complete by June 15, 2026.

[firewave]

There is various discrepancies in the documentation/communication here:

• windows-2025 suddenly started apparently serving windows-2025-vs2026 several ago days without any indication/announcement. The runner note is quite vague and open to interpretation (is that that date it will happen or when it is completed?). I am also used for runner notes to be heads-up and footnotes (not getting into their obfuscated visibility here). I assumed this might have been a brown-out but that doesn't seem to be the case.
• as mentioned above the dates between the blog and the notice do not align.
• https://github.com/actions/runner-images/blob/main/images/windows/Windows2025-Readme.md does not mention any of these transitions at all and still treats windows-2025-vs2026 as a separate runner
• this ticket also only mentions windows-latest in the title but the actual description also includes windows-2025. That is misleading.
• all previous announcements indicated that windows-2025-vs2026 is a separate runner. There is no mention in https://github.com/actions/runner-images/blob/main/images/windows/Windows2025-VS2026-Readme.md that it will replace windows-2025. Will this go away after June 15?

Having a announcements in blog posts, announcements in readmes, announcements in tickets, runner notices, and possibly more - that just screams to be streamlined.

[cjee21]

There is various discrepancies in the documentation/communication

Yes like I previously mentioned at #13638 (comment).

[Frulfump]

The "windows-latest" and “windows-2025” labels in GitHub Actions will be migrated to use Visual Studio 2026 by default. Customers needing Visual Studio 2022 must migrate to the windows-2022 image.

But also

Platforms affected

Azure DevOps
GitHub Actions

Which is it, please be clearer when communicating