README.md has incorrect information for Windows runners as of June 13th 2026.

[MarkCallow]

Description

The link from README.md for windows-2025 shows that it includes Visual Studio 2025. However all my Windows CI builds are failing because they are being redirected to windows-2025-2026. According to the message the builds are receiving, that redirection is not supposed to start happening until June 15th.

How do I select a Windows 2025 runner with Visual Studio 2022? I do not have time at present to test my project with VS2026.

Platforms affected

• Azure DevOps
• GitHub Actions - Standard Runners
• GitHub Actions - Larger Runners

Runner images affected

• Ubuntu 22.04
• Ubuntu 22.04 Arm64
• Ubuntu 24.04
• Ubuntu 24.04 Arm64
• Ubuntu 26.04
• Ubuntu 26.04 Arm64
• Ubuntu Slim
• macOS 14
• macOS 14 Arm64
• macOS 15
• macOS 15 Arm64
• macOS 26
• macOS 26 Arm64
• Windows Server 2022
• Windows Server 2025
• Windows Server 2025 with Visual Studio 2026
• Windows Desktop 11
• Windows Desktop 11 with Visual Studio 2026

Image version and build link

20260608.135.2

but it is the early redirection and lack of information in README.md that is the problem.

Is it regression?

Yes. It's your redirection and lack of information about the alternative that is the regression

Expected behavior

I expected the runner to have the software shown by the link from the README.md. README.md.

I would also expect it to warn about the upcoming redirection and tell you the runner name to continue using Windows 2025 and Visual Studio 2022.

Actual behavior

No mention of the redirection or the new name for the older runner.

Repro steps

Repro.

1. Run a job that uses VS 2022 on windows-2025 runner.
2. Observe the failure because VS 2022 is not found.
3. Observe NOTICE: windows-2025 requests are being redirected to windows-2025-vs2026 by June 15, 2026
4. Double check README.md
5. Observe that it says nothing about redirection and the the link for included software for windows-2025 still lists VS 2022.

[MarkCallow]

I am talking about the README.md from runner-images.

[MarkCallow]

The problem with it is ?

What I wrote in the bug description. It does not say that the named links (aliases) are being updated to point at newer runners and the names link to software lists of the older runners.

This README.md should be updated when the update sequence starts with a notice that it is in progress and links to the newer runner software lists.

Also notices like "NOTICE: windows-2025 requests are being redirected to windows-2025-vs2026 by June 15, 2026" whether as a notice to a build or on a runner we page, should give the start date as well as the end date given that it takes several days.

[pierreluc16]

Repro steps

5. Observe that it says nothing about redirection and the the link for included software for windows-2025 still lists VS 2022.

Azure DevOps still depend of https://github.com/actions/runner-images/blob/main/images/windows/Windows2025-Readme.md who is on Visual Studio 2022