Visual Studio 2026 dropped support for Windows 7/8 and Server 2008/2012

[zufuliu]

See https://github.com/microsoft/STL/issues/4858, some TODOs:

• [x] Check whether v141_xp toolchain is still supported, it's used to build Win32 builds for XP and Server 2003. see issue #974.
• [ ] Check whether x64 and AVX2 binary still works on Windows 7, if not working then change x64 build to use a legacy toolchain, and change AVX2 build to require Windows 8 and Server 2012.

[zufuliu]

Quote from https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/releases/2026/release-notes#c

Toolset Windows support

The Microsoft C++ toolset now requires Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 as the minimum supported operating systems.

The Microsoft C++ toolset has updated its minimum supported operating systems. Starting with this release, the toolset no longer supports targeting:

• Windows 7 / Windows Server 2008 R2
• Windows 8 / Windows Server 2012
• Windows 8.1 / Windows Server 2012 R2

To build applications with the latest C++ tools, your target platform must be Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 (or later).

This change enables improved performance, security, and alignment with the latest Windows platform capabilities.