Visual Studio 2026, New .NET Support Policy & .NET 10 RC 1!
Today, I happily share exciting news with you --- 3 massive milestones for .NET developers.
New .NET Support Policy for Standard Term Support Releases (STS)
This week, Microsoft announced that the support length for .NET Standard Term Support (STS) releases, such as .NET 9, will be extended from 18 months to 24 months.
.NET 9 support now lasts until November 10, 2026.
This change will allow developers on .NET 9 to update to .NET 10 (LTS) this November, or wait for .NET 11 (the next STS release) in November 2026.
This change mainly eliminated the fact that, for example, .NET 8 had a longer support term than .NET 9, which is counterintuitive. They will now have the same end-of-support date.
I like this change a lot. It makes it simpler, and hopefully, enterprises will allow more developers to use the latest STS version and stop constraining their developer divisions only to use LTS versions.
Learn more about it in their official announcement.
.NET 10 Release Candidate 1
Nothing is more exciting than the days before a new major .NET release. And November is coming fast. A few days ago, Microsoft released the Release Candidate 1.
At this stage of the release cycle, we won’t get many new features in this release before November. Much of what is coming is already known to the public and has been talked about in various places.
In other words, we’re on the final straight before the finish.
There were a few new features in RC1 that weren’t part of the last preview version, especially in ASP.NET Core & Blazor and .NET MAUI. Learn more about it in their official Release Candidate 1 announcement.
Don’t worry, I will cover most of the important new .NET 10 features on my socials and record videos about them for my YouTube channel.
Make sure you’re subscribed so you don’t miss those overview videos, which are usually very popular when they come out!
Visual Studio 2026 Insiders
If the first two topics haven’t caught your attention (I doubt you’d be reading this newsletter in that case), this topic definitely will.
After almost 4 years, a new major release for Visual Studio is on the horizon!
I’m not sure they will release it with .NET 10 at the beginning of November. However, we can already install and use it today.
Make sure to open your Visual Studio Installer and check its “Available” tab for the Visual Studio 2026 Insiders version.
Learn more about it in the official Visual Studio 2026 Insiders announcement.
I haven’t had much time to explore the new features, but the user interface looks different, and the startup of my existing projects and solutions is way quicker.
Exciting times ahead!
PREMIUM CONTENT
