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VS 2026 Update 6

general

Chuck Walbourn -

Visual Studio 2026 Update 6 is now available. This update includes several improvements and bug fixes for the Visual C++ compiler and tools known as the MSVC Build Tools 14.51 release including a matching STL release. For a summary of changes for 18.1 to 18.6, see the Visual C++ Team Blog.

VS 2026 18.6 includes a new version of the C/C++ Compiler (19.51.36243). The v145 Platform Toolset includes support for C++14, C++17, C++20, and C11/C17. A preview of C++23 support is available via /std:c++23preview. C++26 support for the Standard Library is also in progress in this release using /std::c++latest. See Microsoft Learn for more details on the C++ language and library conformance status. Note that C11/C17 support requires Windows SDK (20348) or later. For a step-by-step guide on upgrading projects, see this blog post.

18.x update C++ compiler
18.6.0 19.51.36243.0
18.6.1 19.51.36244.0
18.6.2 19.51.36246.0

C++23: For details on improved C++23 support, see this blog post. Some C++23 features are still to be implemented, and are planned for a future update.

CMake: VS 2026 Update 6 ships with CMake 4.2.3 which was added in Update 4.

Related: Visual Studio 2026