actions
Add Windows 10/11 SDK for `windows-latest`
Tool name
Windows 10/11 SDK
Tool license
EULA
Add or update?
- [x] Add
- [ ] Update
Desired version
10.0.22621.0 and 10.0.19041.0
Approximate size
No response
Brief description of tool
As discussed in issue #13310, Windows SDK 10.0.26100.0 is not currently supported on windows-latest (windows-2025) and the lack of arm causes building arm on this runner to cause compilation errors because of fallback to Windows SDK 10.0.10240.0.
I hope to be able to install Windows 11 SDK (10.0.22621.0) or Windows 10 SDK (10.0.19041.0) or both for windows-latest (windows-2025) to fix this issue.
URL for tool's homepage
https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads/windows-sdk/
Provide a basic test case to validate the tool's functionality.
- ✔️ windows-2022 (Specified Windows SDK: 10.0.22621.0)
- ✔️ windows-2022 (Specified Windows SDK: 10.0.19041.0)
Platforms where you need the tool
- [ ] Azure DevOps
- [x] GitHub Actions
Runner images where you need the tool
- [ ] Ubuntu 22.04
- [ ] Ubuntu 24.04
- [ ] Ubuntu Slim
- [ ] macOS 13
- [ ] macOS 13 Arm64
- [ ] macOS 14
- [ ] macOS 14 Arm64
- [ ] macOS 15
- [ ] macOS 15 Arm64
- [ ] macOS 26 Arm64
- [ ] Windows Server 2019
- [ ] Windows Server 2022
- [x] Windows Server 2025
Can this tool be installed during the build?
Tool installation time in runtime
No response
Are you willing to submit a PR?
No response
Hello @tumatanquang,
We will review the available disk space on the image and carefully consider which SDK versions can be included.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention!
Hello @tumatanquang,
We will review the available disk space on the image and carefully consider which SDK versions can be included.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention!
That's good to hear. I don't know how much disk space is available now but on windows-2022 it installed 4 versions of Windows SDKs without any problem. Anyway, I hope it will be installed soon.
Based on the link above, SDK 26100 is the only one still supported by Microsoft.
The list of supported operating systems is for Windows SDK in general and not for version 26100. Looks like Microsoft forgot to add Windows Server 2025 there. Windows Server 2025 is build 26100 so it does not make sense to not be supported.
Regarding ARM 32-bit, it was deprecated by Microsoft in 2023 and removed from Windows 11 insider build 25905 which lead to Windows 11 24H2 which is build 26100. That is why SDK 26100 no longer supports ARM target.
Source 1: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/arm/arm32-to-arm64 Source 2: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/whats-new/deprecated-features Source 3: https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2023/07/12/announcing-windows-11-insider-preview-build-25905/
Anyway, it may not be a bad idea for GitHub to still install older SDKs for people who still need to target arm 32-bits.
@cjee21 As per Support Policy, since Windows SDKs are not listed in Installation strategy, so it will fall under policy:
Tools and versions will typically be removed 6 months after they are deprecated or have reached end-of-life.
Both of these versions were released to EOS somewhere between a few days and a month ago, so by policy they are still supported.
But as you say, for compatibility reasons, it is better to keep both of these Windows SDK versions, or at least version 22621.
Additional information:
Looks like for Visual Studio 2026, only 22621 and 26100 are available for install.
Latest build tools no longer support ARM.
So ARM 32-bit support is really on the way out.
Without the MSVC 2022 ARM build tools and older SDK installed, when a project with ARM target is opened in Visual Studio 2026, the following appears:
Project.vcxproj : warning : Platform 'ARM' referenced in the project file 'Project' cannot be found.
Additional information:
Looks like for Visual Studio 2026, only 22621 and 26100 are available for install.
The official documentation clearly lists: windows-latest (windows-2025) comes with Visual Studio Enterprise 2022 pre-installed.
I'm using Visual Studio Build Tools 2019, which still has both Windows 11 SDK (10.0.22621.0) and Windows 10 SDK (10.0.19041.0).
@Alexey-Ayupov I tried installing the Windows 11 SDK (10.0.22621.0) onto windows-latest (windows-2025) and compiling the library: v1.1.1.
Everything went perfectly fine, no errors occurred. So it's safe to install!