Microsoft reminds developers that Visual Studio 2015 is set for retirement
(2025/08/06)
- Reference: 1754482565
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/08/06/microsoft_reminds_developers_that_visual/
- Source link:
It isn't only Windows 10 due for the support axe on October 14. Other Microsoft products will soon be stashed in Redmond's cupboard of forgotten dreams, including the venerable Visual Studio 2015.
While Visual Studio Code, which tops the charts in the 2025 Stack Overflow developer IDE [1]survey , might garner all the attention, Visual Studio (29 percent of votes) is not far behind in usage; many developers have had a run-in with the bloated beast in their careers.
The number of tools in Visual Studio has exploded over the decades since its debut at the end of the last century.
[2]
However, its longevity means that plenty of older versions are still hanging around. Visual Studio 2015 is to be the [3]next in line for the end of security updates from Microsoft.
[4]
[5]
The suite of development tools was the last to support Windows 8, the last to support targeting Windows XP SP2, and the first to support Windows 10. It [6]arrived shortly before Windows 10 and featured prominently in the company's dreams for the Universal Windows Platform (UWP), which promised developers the possibility of the same Windows 10 app running on multiple device types.
Alas, [7]things did not quite pan out that way . Firing up Visual Studio 2015 today is a reminder of Microsoft's grand developer vision that fell apart after only a few years.
[8]
Alongside the end of support for all editions of Visual Studio 2015, support will also be ending for associated products, including Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2015 and the Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015.
There have been three updates since Visual Studio 2015 was released. Two of these, Visual Studio 2017 and 2019, are already in extended support. The latest version, Visual Studio 2022, will remain in mainstream support until January 21, 2027, with extended support going on until January 13, 2032.
[9]Windows 10 @ 10: How Microsoft led developers round in circles
[10]Microsoft promises to eventually make WinUI 'truly open source'
[11]Trae AI IDE quietly beams data to ByteDance, even with tracking turned off, report says
[12]Apple patched one first, but Microsoft's blasted five exploited flaws this Pa-Tu
Microsoft strongly recommends that users make the leap to Visual Studio 2022, "which brings the power of Copilot to your development workflow."
Right. We asked Copilot how to make a [13]LightSwitch application work in Visual Studio 2022, and it did the electronic equivalent of laughing in our faces. It's an extreme example (Visual Studio 2015 was the last version to support that particular Microsoft vision for line-of-business application development), but it serves to highlight the challenges developers might face when migrating from one version of Visual Studio to another as Microsoft moves on to the next Big Thing.
A careful look at Microsoft's guide on [14]migrating projects to Visual Studio 2022 would therefore be prudent for any developers still on Visual Studio 2015 and considering a move before October 14. ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/29/coders_are_using_ai_tools/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aJN8CFKwEP6FaQtMSQTkyQAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://devblogs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/visual-studio-2015-retirement-support-reminder-for-older-versions-of-visual-studio/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aJN8CFKwEP6FaQtMSQTkyQAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aJN8CFKwEP6FaQtMSQTkyQAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2015/06/29/visual_studio_2015_release_date/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/01/windows_10_dev_comment/
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aJN8CFKwEP6FaQtMSQTkyQAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/01/windows_10_dev_comment/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/05/microsoft_winui_open_source/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/28/bytedance_trae_telemetry/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/14/patch_tuesday_may/
[13] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/msdn-magazine/2011/august/visual-studio-lightswitch-build-business-applications-with-visual-studio-lightswitch
[14] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/releases/2022/port-migrate-and-upgrade-visual-studio-projects
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
While Visual Studio Code, which tops the charts in the 2025 Stack Overflow developer IDE [1]survey , might garner all the attention, Visual Studio (29 percent of votes) is not far behind in usage; many developers have had a run-in with the bloated beast in their careers.
The number of tools in Visual Studio has exploded over the decades since its debut at the end of the last century.
[2]
However, its longevity means that plenty of older versions are still hanging around. Visual Studio 2015 is to be the [3]next in line for the end of security updates from Microsoft.
[4]
[5]
The suite of development tools was the last to support Windows 8, the last to support targeting Windows XP SP2, and the first to support Windows 10. It [6]arrived shortly before Windows 10 and featured prominently in the company's dreams for the Universal Windows Platform (UWP), which promised developers the possibility of the same Windows 10 app running on multiple device types.
Alas, [7]things did not quite pan out that way . Firing up Visual Studio 2015 today is a reminder of Microsoft's grand developer vision that fell apart after only a few years.
[8]
Alongside the end of support for all editions of Visual Studio 2015, support will also be ending for associated products, including Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2015 and the Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015.
There have been three updates since Visual Studio 2015 was released. Two of these, Visual Studio 2017 and 2019, are already in extended support. The latest version, Visual Studio 2022, will remain in mainstream support until January 21, 2027, with extended support going on until January 13, 2032.
[9]Windows 10 @ 10: How Microsoft led developers round in circles
[10]Microsoft promises to eventually make WinUI 'truly open source'
[11]Trae AI IDE quietly beams data to ByteDance, even with tracking turned off, report says
[12]Apple patched one first, but Microsoft's blasted five exploited flaws this Pa-Tu
Microsoft strongly recommends that users make the leap to Visual Studio 2022, "which brings the power of Copilot to your development workflow."
Right. We asked Copilot how to make a [13]LightSwitch application work in Visual Studio 2022, and it did the electronic equivalent of laughing in our faces. It's an extreme example (Visual Studio 2015 was the last version to support that particular Microsoft vision for line-of-business application development), but it serves to highlight the challenges developers might face when migrating from one version of Visual Studio to another as Microsoft moves on to the next Big Thing.
A careful look at Microsoft's guide on [14]migrating projects to Visual Studio 2022 would therefore be prudent for any developers still on Visual Studio 2015 and considering a move before October 14. ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/29/coders_are_using_ai_tools/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aJN8CFKwEP6FaQtMSQTkyQAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://devblogs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/visual-studio-2015-retirement-support-reminder-for-older-versions-of-visual-studio/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aJN8CFKwEP6FaQtMSQTkyQAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aJN8CFKwEP6FaQtMSQTkyQAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2015/06/29/visual_studio_2015_release_date/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/01/windows_10_dev_comment/
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aJN8CFKwEP6FaQtMSQTkyQAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/01/windows_10_dev_comment/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/05/microsoft_winui_open_source/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/28/bytedance_trae_telemetry/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/14/patch_tuesday_may/
[13] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/msdn-magazine/2011/august/visual-studio-lightswitch-build-business-applications-with-visual-studio-lightswitch
[14] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/releases/2022/port-migrate-and-upgrade-visual-studio-projects
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Great. More stuff to rewrite
Andy Non
I'm glad to be retired and off that particular hamster wheel. I'd got lots of software out there when Microsoft kept moving the goalposts one way or another and leaving me lots of work to move existing, perfectly working, software to the new playing field.
Re: Great. More stuff to rewrite
Richard 12
Don't. You do not need to.
Keep the VM backed up and runnable for any minor tweaks to your actual code, but you'll find it's never necessary to update the legacy project.
The CRT redist is the only part that could have undiscovered vulnerabilities, and the VS2022 CRT is guaranteed backwards compatible to 2015 and 2017 applications - something that absolutely won't change, because it'd end Windows as a platform if they did.
Keep an eye on CVEs and suggest your users update their VS2015-2022 CRT if something pops up.
They probably will update it anyway because the vast majority of Windows software uses it.
Great. More stuff to rewrite
I still have a VS2015 installation in a VM to maintain some old, legacy projects.
Looks like I'll have to port all of that to VS2022. More busywork to satisfy Microsoft's deprecation drive.