Tag Archives: LTSC

Visual Studio 2026 Update Channels

Microsoft have made changes to the Update Channels for Visual Studio 2026. The new Insiders Channel replaces the long-standing Preview Channel as the way to give developers early access to upcoming features, and the Stable Channel gives access to validated, production-ready features every month. In addition, each year, in November, the product will update to the next annual version. So, for example, in November 2026 Visual Studio 2026 will update in place to Visual Studio 2027. At the same time, Microsoft will offer a Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) edition for the prior annual release where you’ll get a static feature set for a year with security updates. Note that if you’re using Visual Studio 2026 Professional, you’ll need to purchase a new annual version each year.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3M14nM9.

Office LTSC

Microsoft announce that a commercial preview of Office LTSC, the next perpetual release of Office, will be available in April 2021.

This release of Office will align with Windows 10 LTSC for use in specific, limited scenarios, and will be supported for five years. It will be released in the second half of 2021 and there will be a 10% price increase. Microsoft confirm that there will be another release in the future too.

There are also plans to release Office 2021 for personal and small business users later in the year, and there are no plans for a price increase for these products.

Find the announcement article here: http://bit.ly/3aKyTEC.

Windows Server 2022

Microsoft announce that Windows Server 2022 is now in preview. It will be the next release in the Long Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) and will be generally available later this year. Organisations wanting to try out the new Windows Server 2022 preview can either download it, or try it out on Azure.

Find the announcement, with download links, here: http://bit.ly/3rsbo9q.

System Center 2019 Feature Updates

System Center 2019 is generally available and there’s more detail added to the original announcement about the frequency of feature updates.

System Center 2019 moves to the Long Term Servicing Channel but new features are delivered every six months during the mainstream support windows via Update Rollup releases for which you don’t need Software Assurance.

Customers will be eligible to move to System Center 2019 from the previous LTSC release (System Center 2016) as well as the last two Semi-Annual Channel releases (1801 and 1807).

Find the article here: http://bit.ly/2T7YfQN.