Update build runners to Windows Server 2025 with Visual Studio 2026

[jozefizso]

To use the special runner with Visual Studio 2026, use:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: windows-2025-vs2026

Windows Server 2025 with Visual Studio 2026 image now available for GitHub-hosted runners

A new Windows runner image with Visual Studio 2026 is now available in public preview. This dedicated image runs alongside the current windows-2025 image, providing a safe validation path ahead of the default Windows image migration. Visual Studio 2026 will be integrated into the windows-2025 image when it reaches general availability on May 4, 2026.

You can test against Visual Studio 2026 without disrupting existing pipelines, identify and fix compatibility issues on your timeline, maintain fallback options (like windows-2022) if needed, and plan migrations with full visibility into the upgrade timeline.

To use the the new runner image, update the runs-on: target in your YAML workflow file to windows-2025-vs2026. For additional information on the available windows runner images, visit our documentation.

See https://github.blog/changelog/2026-02-05-github-actions-early-february-2026-updates/

Runner Image Details

actions/runner-images#13638