doc: support toolchain Visual Studio 2022 & 2026 + Windows 10 & 11 SDK

[MikeMcC399]

Refs: #61449

Situation

The Supported toolchains section of the BUILDING.md document specifies:

Operating System	Compiler Versions
Windows	Visual Studio >= 2022 with the Windows 10 SDK on a 64-bit host

1. The use of only a lower bound for the version of Visual Studio conflicts with the structure of the Windows vcbuild.bat. Each version of Visual Studio needs to be explicitly supported by the script, which currently includes the ability to work with Visual Studio 2022 and 2026 only. According to Visual Studio Product Lifecycle and Servicing it can be expected that Microsoft will release Visual Studio 2027 in November 2026 (See also https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/releases/2026/release-rhythm#annual-releases). The script will not automatically support this version and the statement of compatibility with "Visual Studio >= 2022" will become incorrect.
2. As described in the Windows > Option 1: Manual install section of the BUILDING.md document, the "Desktop development with C++" workload is required. In the older Visual Studio 2019, this installed the Windows 10 SDK. The Visual Studio 2022 & 2026 releases however install the Windows 11 SDK, not the Windows 10 SDK by default, although Visual Studio 2022 does allow optionally installing the (out-of-support) Windows 10 SDK.

Change

Update the Supported toolchains section of the BUILDING.md document to:

Operating System	Compiler Versions
Windows	Visual Studio 2022 or 2026 with the Windows 10 or 11 SDK on a 64-bit host

This restricts the Visual Studio versions to the working ones, and adds Windows 11 SDK (which is the one currently supported by Microsoft) to the supported toolchain.

Backporting

• This PR can be backported to v25.x with no restrictions

• Backporting to v24.x requires the landing of PR [v24.x backport] build: add support for Visual Studio 2026 #61840 for consistency between documentation and capabilities, although backporting without the other PR won't make the documentation any more inaccurate than it currently is

• Do not backport to v22.x or v20.x since they are not compatible with Visual Studio 2026 (see [v20.x] doc: supported toolchain with Visual Studio 2019 & 2022 only #61450 & [v22.x] doc: supported toolchain with Visual Studio 2022 only #61451 instead)

[nodejs-github-bot]

Review requested:

• @nodejs/build
• @nodejs/tsc

[MikeMcC399]

For the Windows SDK:

Note that the Windows 10 SDK (10.0.19041.0) is out of support since 2025-10-14.

• Visual Studio 2022 (17.14.27) shows Windows 10 SDK as out of support.
• Visual Studio 2026 (18.3.1) no longer offers Windows 10 SDK for installation.

The Windows 11 SDK "can target Windows 11, version 25H2, in addition to previous Windows releases."

Windows 10 SDK should be removed from the Node.js supported toolchain in a separate semver-major PR. (Deadline 2026-03-22 for 26.x)

[nodejs-github-bot]

Commit Queue failed

- Loading data for nodejs/node/pull/61864
✔  Done loading data for nodejs/node/pull/61864
----------------------------------- PR info ------------------------------------
Title      doc: support toolchain Visual Studio 2022 & 2026 + Windows 10 & 11 SDK (#61864)
   ⚠  Could not retrieve the email or name of the PR author's from user's GitHub profile!
Branch     MikeMcC399:windows-supported-toolchain -> nodejs:main
Labels     doc, windows, build, author ready
Commits    2
 - doc: support toolchain Visual Studio 2022 & 2026 + Windows 11 SDK
 - add back Windows 10 SDK
Committers 1
 - Mike McCready <66998419+MikeMcC399@users.noreply.github.com>
PR-URL: https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/61864
Refs: https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues/61449
Reviewed-By: Colin Ihrig <cjihrig@gmail.com>
Reviewed-By: Luigi Pinca <luigipinca@gmail.com>
Reviewed-By: Stefan Stojanovic <stefan.stojanovic@janeasystems.com>
Reviewed-By: Chengzhong Wu <legendecas@gmail.com>
------------------------------ Generated metadata ------------------------------
PR-URL: https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/61864
Refs: https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues/61449
Reviewed-By: Colin Ihrig <cjihrig@gmail.com>
Reviewed-By: Luigi Pinca <luigipinca@gmail.com>
Reviewed-By: Stefan Stojanovic <stefan.stojanovic@janeasystems.com>
Reviewed-By: Chengzhong Wu <legendecas@gmail.com>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   ℹ  This PR was created on Tue, 17 Feb 2026 11:04:03 GMT
   ✔  Approvals: 4
   ✔  - Colin Ihrig (@cjihrig): https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/61864#pullrequestreview-3813779423
   ✔  - Luigi Pinca (@lpinca): https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/61864#pullrequestreview-3816073746
   ✔  - Stefan Stojanovic (@StefanStojanovic): https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/61864#pullrequestreview-3818866791
   ✔  - Chengzhong Wu (@legendecas) (TSC): https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/61864#pullrequestreview-3828037392
   ✔  Last GitHub CI successful
   ℹ  Green GitHub CI is sufficient
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   ✔  No git cherry-pick in progress
   ✔  No git am in progress
   ✔  No git rebase in progress
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- Bringing origin/main up to date...
From https://github.com/nodejs/node
 * branch                  main       -> FETCH_HEAD
   90c6dfbbce..ca92ea03da  main       -> origin/main
✔  origin/main is now up-to-date
main is out of sync with origin/main. Mismatched commits:
 - 70dff3d287 doc: clarify status of feature request issues
 - ca92ea03da doc: clarify status of feature request issues
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HEAD is now at ca92ea03da doc: clarify status of feature request issues
   ✔  Reset to origin/main
- Downloading patch for 61864
From https://github.com/nodejs/node
 * branch                  refs/pull/61864/merge -> FETCH_HEAD
✔  Fetched commits as c9acf345922b..30ff2f77f2af
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[main 8f39ead20d] doc: support toolchain Visual Studio 2022 & 2026 + Windows 11 SDK
 Author: Mike McCready <66998419+MikeMcC399@users.noreply.github.com>
 Date: Tue Feb 17 12:01:32 2026 +0100
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
[main 261005c197] add back Windows 10 SDK
 Author: Mike McCready <66998419+MikeMcC399@users.noreply.github.com>
 Date: Wed Feb 18 17:47:01 2026 +0100
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
   ✔  Patches applied
There are 2 commits in the PR. Attempting autorebase.
(node:804) [DEP0190] DeprecationWarning: Passing args to a child process with shell option true can lead to security vulnerabilities, as the arguments are not escaped, only concatenated.
(Use `node --trace-deprecation ...` to show where the warning was created)
Rebasing (2/4)
Executing: git node land --amend --yes
--------------------------------- New Message ----------------------------------
doc: support toolchain Visual Studio 2022 & 2026 + Windows 11 SDK
PR-URL: #61864

Refs: #61449

Reviewed-By: Colin Ihrig <cjihrig@gmail.com>

Reviewed-By: Luigi Pinca <luigipinca@gmail.com>

Reviewed-By: Stefan Stojanovic <stefan.stojanovic@janeasystems.com>

Reviewed-By: Chengzhong Wu <legendecas@gmail.com>
[detached HEAD 364d64d692] doc: support toolchain Visual Studio 2022 & 2026 + Windows 11 SDK

Author: Mike McCready <66998419+MikeMcC399@users.noreply.github.com>

Date: Tue Feb 17 12:01:32 2026 +0100

1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

Rebasing (3/4)

Rebasing (4/4)

Executing: git node land --amend --yes

--------------------------------- New Message ----------------------------------

add back Windows 10 SDK
PR-URL: #61864

Refs: #61449

Reviewed-By: Colin Ihrig <cjihrig@gmail.com>

Reviewed-By: Luigi Pinca <luigipinca@gmail.com>

Reviewed-By: Stefan Stojanovic <stefan.stojanovic@janeasystems.com>

Reviewed-By: Chengzhong Wu <legendecas@gmail.com>
[detached HEAD 47abe50ee1] add back Windows 10 SDK

Author: Mike McCready <66998419+MikeMcC399@users.noreply.github.com>

Date: Wed Feb 18 17:47:01 2026 +0100

1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

Successfully rebased and updated refs/heads/main.
ℹ  Add commit-queue-squash label to land the PR as one commit, or commit-queue-rebase to land as separate commits.

https://github.com/nodejs/node/actions/runs/22266776680

[MikeMcC399]

Needs commit-queue-squash Add this label to instruct the Commit Queue to squash all the PR commits into the first one.