Microsoft wants users of older versions of Visual Studio to know that several older versions of the code editor will reach end of support starting this Spring. These support lifecycle updates are a good opportunity for the software giant to push more developers to upgrade to Visual Studio 2022, which was released alongside .NET 6 back in November 2021.

“We want to keep you secure when using Visual Studio,” said Paul Chapman Principal Program Manager, Visual Studio Release Engineering. That’s why the company is now urging developers that are still using Visual Studio 2019 version 16.7 to upgrade to version 16.11 or Visual Studio 2022, as the version 16.7 of the IDE will reach end of support on April 12, 2022.

The Visual Studio 2019 Preview Channel will also no longer receive updates after April 2022. As a result, Microsoft now recommends these users to switch to the Visual Studio 2019 Release Channel or to Visual Studio 2022 Preview to stay secure and receive the latest feature updates.

The older Visual Studio 2017 will also reach end of mainstream support on April 12, 2022, though extended support will continue to provide security fixes until April 2027. “We recommend users move to the 15.9 supported baseline to remain under support,” explained Chapman.

Lastly, Microsoft will also be ending support for Visual Studio 2012 and its associated products on January 10, 2023. Again, users are already invited to prepare their migration to a newer version of the IDE. You can download Visual Studio 2022 from the Visual Studio website today, and the latest version of the code editor has three different channels matching the needs of early adopters and other developers.

Tagged with Visual Studio, Visual Studio 2022