Windows Server 2025 is now available

[shamil-mubarakshin]

Breaking changes

Windows Server 2025 is now available for GitHub Actions users.
You can use the windows-2025 image label in your YAML to select this image.

GitHub Actions

jobs:
  jobName:
    runs-on: windows-2025

The image is marked as "beta" for now. It means some software can be unstable on the new platform. Also, there could be queueing issues as the capacity will be balanced only throughout the next weeks.
Please report any problems with the new image to this repository.

Platforms affected

• Azure DevOps
• GitHub Actions

Runner images affected

• Ubuntu 20.04
• Ubuntu 22.04
• Ubuntu 24.04
• macOS 11
• macOS 12
• macOS 13
• macOS 13 Arm64
• macOS 14
• macOS 14 Arm64
• Windows Server 2019
• Windows Server 2022
• Windows Server 2025

Software difference between Windows Server 2022 and Windows Server 2025

Tool name	Windows Server 2022	Windows Server 2025	Notes
Go	1.20.* (cached) 1.21.* (default) 1.22.* (cached) 1.23.* (cached)	1.21.* (cached) 1.22.* (cached) 1.23.* (default)	If your use-case requires using any of these versions, consider using tasks to install Go on-flight: actions/setup-go (GitHub Actions) Go Tool Installer (Azure DevOps)
Node.js	16.* (cached) 18.* (default) 20.* (cached) 22.* (cached)	18.* (cached) 20.* (cached) 22.* (default)	If your use-case requires using any of these versions, consider using tasks to install Node.js on-flight: actions/setup-node (GitHub Actions) Node.js Tool Installer (Azure DevOps)
Ruby	3.0.* (default) 3.1.* (cached) 3.2.* (cached)	3.1.* (cached) 3.2.* (cached) 3.3.* (default)
Python	3.7.* (cached) 3.8.* (cached) 3.9.* (default) 3.10.* (cached) 3.11.* (cached) 3.12.* (cached)	3.9.* (default) 3.10.* (cached) 3.11.* (cached) 3.12.* (default) 3.13.* (cached)	On GitHub Actions, actions/setup-python can install any version on-flight so this change doesn't impact users
PyPy	2.7.* (cached) 3.7.* (cached) 3.8.* (cached) 3.9.* (cached) 3.10.* (cached)	3.9.* (cached) 3.10.* (cached)	Deprecated all the versions besides the most recent ones
LLVM	18.*	19.*	Updated to the recent version
strawberryperl	5.32.1	5.40.0	Updated to the recent version
maven	3.8.*	3.9.*	Updated to the recent version
InnoSetup	latest available	-	Removed from the Windows Server 2025 image due to maintenance reasons.
Mercurial	5.0.0	-	Removed from the Windows Server 2025 image due to maintenance reasons.
mingw	12.2.0	14.2.0	Includes updates to gcc GNU gdb GNU Binutils
NSIS	3.10	-	Removed from the Windows Server 2025 image due to maintenance reasons.
openssl	1.1.1	3.4.0	Updated to the recent version
Azure Service Fabric runtime	9.1.1436.9590	10.1.2493.9590	Updated to the recent version
Azure Service Fabric SDK	6.1.1436	7.0.2712	Updated to the recent version
svn (tortoisesvn)	latest available	-	Removed from the Windows Server 2025 image due to maintenance reasons.
Alibaba Cloud CLI	latest available	-	Removed from the Windows Server 2025 image due to maintenance reasons.
bindgen	latest available	-	Removed from the Windows Server 2025 image due to maintenance reasons.
cargo-audit	latest available	-	Removed from the Windows Server 2025 image due to maintenance reasons.
cargo-outdated	latest available	-	Removed from the Windows Server 2025 image due to maintenance reasons.
cbindgen	latest available	-	Removed from the Windows Server 2025 image due to maintenance reasons.
Java	8.* (default) 11.* 17.* 21.*	8.* 11.* 17.* (default) 21.*	Default Java switched to 17.* for Windows Server 2025 image.
PostgreSQL	14.12	17.*	Updated to the recent version
MongoDB	5.0.*	7.0.*	Updated to the recent version
Visual Studio components	*	Excluded Component.Unreal.Android Component.Xamarin Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Windows10SDK.19041 Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Windows10SDK.20348 Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Windows11SDK.22000 Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Windows11SDK.22621	Removed from the Windows Server 2025 image due to maintenance reasons.
.NET Core SDK	6.* 7.* 8.* 9*	8.* 9.*	Please consider using tasks to install any version on-flight: actions/setup-dotnet (GitHub Actions) Use .NET Core (Azure DevOps)
PowerShell modules	*	Excluded AzureRM Azure	Removed from the Windows Server 2025 image due to maintenance reasons.
Android Command Line Tools	8.0	16.0	Updated to the recent version
Android SDK Build-tools	34.0.0 33.0.0 33.0.1 33.0.2 33.0.3 32.0.0 31.0.0	35.0.0	Updated to the recent version
Android cmake	3.18.1 3.22.1	3.22.1 3.30.5	Updated to the recent version
Cached Docker images	mcr.microsoft.com/windows/servercore:ltsc2022 mcr.microsoft.com/windows/nanoserver:ltsc2022 mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/framework/aspnet:4.8-windowsservercore-ltsc2022 mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/framework/runtime:4.8-windowsservercore-ltsc2022 mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/framework/sdk:4.8-windowsservercore-ltsc2022	-	Removed from the Windows Server 2025 image due to maintenance reasons.

Miscellaneous:

• Standalone WDK installation was deprecated. Starting with Visual Studio 17.12, the recommended way to install the WDK is via nuget
• Only the latest version of Haskell will be installed on the image
• Temporary user installer and its profile were removed from the image
• mongo.exe shell has been removed from MongoDB since version 6
• The following directories were compressed:
  • C:\Windows\assembly
  • C:\Windows\WinSxS
  • C:\Program Files\dotnet
  • C:\Program Files (x86)\Android

[dongle-the-gadget]

Is Windows SDK 10.0.22621 included in the Windows Server 2025 image? This issue says it is not but the README says it does.

[vedantmgoyal9]

WSLv2 on GitHub Actions is now supported. vedantmgoyal9/setup-wsl2#3

Is there any possibility WSLv2 can be enabled by default, instead of WSLv1?

[MikeMcC399]

Will you consider adding WMIC Feature on Demand to the windows-2025 runner?

For Microsoft Windows Servers, wmic has been deprecated since 2016 and it is not installed by default on Windows Server 2025 (see Features we're no longer developing).

Unfortunately there are some npm packages which rely on this deprecated facility and which have so far not followed migration advice from Microsoft.

The following issues have been raised for the respective npm modules:

• Error: spawn wmic ENOENT on Windows Server 2025 simonepri/pidtree#26
• Error: spawn wmic.exe ENOENT on Windows Server 2025 indexzero/ps-tree#69

Although it is theoretically possible to execute the following, it is a massively sized package that would be installed, so it is not really a practical workaround:

DISM /Online /Add-Capability /CapabilityName:WMIC~~~~

[ifarbod]

Is there any possibility of having the ARM64 version in a separate image? (just like macos-15 / macos-15-arm64)

[janbrasna]

I believe there should be only one default Python, not two, right?

3.9.* (default)
3.10.* (cached)
3.11.* (cached)
3.12.* (default)
3.13.* (cached)