Microsoft is reminding users of important upcoming dates in the support lifecycle for older versions of Visual Studio. Support for the widely used Visual Studio 2013 will end on April 9, 2024, meaning it will no longer receive security updates or fixes.
Developers still using older versions like Visual Studio 2013 and 2015 are encouraged to upgrade as those editions will also see reduced support over the next few years. According to Microsoft, Visual Studio 2015 moves to extended support only (security fixes only) on October 14, 2025, while Visual Studio 2017 reaches that stage on April 13, 2027.
Even Visual Studio 2019 will transition from mainstream to extended support on April 9, 2024. To remain supported, Microsoft emphasizes that users must be on the latest version 16.11 release of Visual Studio 2019. The preview channel of Visual Studio 2019 is also no longer receiving updates.
On April 9, 2024, support will end for all Visual Studio 2013 editions, associated products, runtimes, and components, and they will no longer receive security or any other updates. These include:
- Visual Studio 2013 Ultimate, Premium, Professional, Community, Express for Web, Express for Windows, Express for Windows Desktop, Team Explorer, and Test Professional editions.
- Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2013
- Visual Studio 2013 Shell (Integrated and Isolated).
- Visual Studio 2013 version of components including Deployment Agents, Agent IntelliTrace Collector, Microsoft Azure Tools, Multibyte MFC Library, Remote Tools, Release Management, SDK, SQL Server Data Tools, Team Explorer, and Web Tools Extensions.
Microsoft recommends all developers upgrade to the latest version, Visual Studio 2022. It provides a 64-bit architecture (first in the IDE), built-in Git version control, AI code completions with GitHub Copilot, and tools for .NET 8 and .NET MAUI app development.
Microsoft also said that Visual Studio 2022 offers different update channels to meet different needs - from getting early previews to using long-term maintenance releases.
You may find more details on Microsoft's official download page.
0 Comments - Add comment