Microsoft announced that it will retire its Visual Studio 2013 IDE in April. The company is urging Visual Studio 2013 users to upgrade to Visual Studio 2022.
In a blog post on January 2, 2024, Microsoft said that extended support for Visual Studio 2013 will end on April 9. After that date, Visual Studio 2013 editions, associated products, and components will no longer receive security fixes (or any other updates). Mainstream support for Visual Studio 2013 ended April 2019. With extended support, Microsoft only provides fixes for security issues.
Microsoft also announced that Visual Studio 2019 will transition from mainstream to extended support on April 9. The company reiterated a few other key support dates:
- Visual Studio 2015 remains in extended support through October 14, 2025.
- Visual Studio 2017 is in extended support until April 13, 2027.
- Visual Studio 2019 Preview Channel no longer receives updates. Microsoft recommends that users migrate to either Visual Studio 2019 Release Channel (version 16.11) or Visual Studio 2022 Preview to stay secure and receive feature updates.
Microsoft referred to Visual Studio 2022 as its “most productive IDE ever” and recommends it for all customers. There are three channels for Visual Studio 2022: Preview, which previews new features for early feedback; Current, which provides new features when they’re ready for widespread use; and Long-Term Servicing, which gives development teams control over their adoption of new feature releases.