Today, we are announcing Visual Studio 2026 Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) 18.11 alongside Visual Studio 2026 18.12 on the Stable channel. LTSC 18.11 will receive two years of support, through November 14, 2028, rather than the one year of LTSC support we previously announced. If you are using Visual Studio 2022 for its LTSC benefits this is a great time to consider migrating to the new Visual Studio 2026 LTSC 18.11 to get the latest Visual Studio has to offer.
Visual Studio 2026 LTSC 18.11 is not a new product – it is a new support and servicing channel for Visual Studio 2026 so it includes the full feature set, capabilities, and fixes as Visual Studio 2026 18.0 through 18.10. If you have stayed on Visual Studio 2022 while waiting for a Visual Studio 2026 LTSC release with LTS toolsets, you should begin planning validation and deployment of LTSC 18.11.
We are not changing how the Stable channel works. Stable will continue receiving monthly feature and quality updates. If you are on Stable and want to keep receiving those updates, you do not need to change anything. LTSC is an option if your organization needs to stay on a fixed release.
Why are we making this change?
In November 2025, we announced a new release and support model with Visual Studio 2026, including one year on Stable followed by one year of LTSC support. Customers told us that one year of LTSC support did not leave enough time to validate and deploy a release. The longer support period gives those organizations more time to deploy and use LTSC 18.11.
An LTSC release with LTS toolsets
Visual Studio 2026 LTSC 18.11 will include Long-Term Support (LTS) toolsets for .NET and C++ development: .NET 10 LTS and MSVC 14.50 and 14.52. The MSVC and .NET toolsets in Visual Studio 2026 LTSC 18.11 will be supported per their respective support lifecycles, which are at least as long as the support lifecycle for Visual Studio 2026 LTSC 18.11.
Stable is for feature updates and servicing, we recommend this as the default
Stable remains the recommended channel if you want the latest Visual Studio features, including new GitHub Copilot capabilities. To remain supported on Stable, keep your installation current with its monthly updates. Stable is where most customers will be and we strongly recommend this channel so you can receive and take advantage of the latest features Visual Studio has to offer.
LTSC will get servicing only
LTSC 18.11 will receive security and other critical fixes, we do not plan to ship regular feature updates for LTSC like we will for the Stable cannel. If you choose LTSC to limit feature changes in your development environment, you still need to keep your installation current with LTSC servicing updates to remain supported.
Existing Visual Studio 2026 keys continue to work
Visual Studio 2026 LTSC 18.11 is not a new product, the product remains Visual Studio 2026. Today’s announcement is a new channel for the existing product. Therefore, existing Visual Studio 2026 product keys will continue to work on both Stable and LTSC 18.11 for Enterprise, Professional, and the Build Tools SKUs. You do not need a new key or another purchase of Visual Studio 2026 to use either channel.
Getting started
If your organization has stayed on Visual Studio 2022 while waiting for a Visual Studio 2026 LTSC release with LTS toolsets, you should begin planning validation and deployment of LTSC 18.11.
Before deployment, review Visual Studio Product Lifecycle and Servicing for support requirements and installation and deployment guidance. See the Visual Studio 2026 LTSC 18.11 release notes for release details.
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