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This article describes GDK support for Visual Studio 2022. Visual Studio 2022 version 17.12 or 17.14 supports Microsoft Game Development Kit (GDK) development. Long Term Support Channels are provided for versions 17.12 and 17.14 per Visual Studio Product Lifecycle and Servicing.
Visual Studio 2022 versions 17.0 through 17.11 are out of support as of January 2026.

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Installing Visual Studio 2022

The GDK supports development with either the Professional edition or the Enterprise edition of Visual Studio 2022. The Community edition isn’t supported.
GDK Visual Studio extension (VSIX) components aren’t supported on ARM-based devices. To use GDK Visual Studio project templates, property pages, and debugging extensions, install the GDK on an x64-based development PC.
When installing Visual Studio 2022, select the Game development with C++ workload during setup as shown in the following screenshot. Installing the Game Development with C++ workload with Visual Studio 2022 In addition to the core C++ tools that you need for game development, make sure the Windows 10 SDK (22000) component is installed to provide the Windows SDK required to build games with the GDK. You can also use the Windows SDK for Windows 11, Version 22H2 (10.0.22621) or Windows SDK for Windows 11, Version 24H2 (10.0.26100), but they’re not required. While not required, installing the Desktop development with C++ workload provides more tools and samples that you might find helpful. For example, Desktop development with C++ is required if you’re building with the Clang/LLVM toolset.

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Installing optional toolsets

The Game development with C++ workload installs the Visual Studio 2022 version of the MSVC build tools (version v143). In addition to the v143 toolset, the GDK also supports building with the following toolsets:
  • v142 (the Visual Studio 2019 toolset)
  • the C++ Clang tools for windows
This flexibility allows you to upgrade to the Visual Studio 2022 IDE without updating your toolset. You can find the optional toolsets under the Desktop Development with C++ workload, or by searching the Individual Components in the Visual Studio installation dialog. Selecting optional toolsets when installing Visual Studio 2022

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Selecting a toolset for a project

Specify the toolset to use for a project by using the Platform Toolset property from the project’s property page. Specifying the toolset to use when building a project You can also specify the PlatformToolset property manually in the project file, as shown in the following property group.

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Debugging XBOX projects by using Visual Studio 2022

To debug by using Visual Studio 2022, build the title you’re debugging by using the March 2022 (or newer) GDK. This dependency exists because the Game OS that ships in those versions of the GDK contains binaries that are required for debugging by using Visual Studio 2022. If you attempt to debug by using Visual Studio 2022 against an older Game OS, you see the following error message. Attempting to use the Visual Studio 2022 debugger against a Game OS older than the version shipped in the March 2022 GDK When you use the Attach dialog under the Debug menu in Visual Studio 2022, select XBOX Direct Connection in the Connection Type dropdown and enter the console’s Host IP address in the Connection Target text box. Use the xbconnect command line tool to determine the Host IP. Using the Visual Studio 2022 attach dialog
These values are different from the values you enter when attaching by using Visual Studio 2019. When you use Visual Studio 2019, the connection type is Remote no authentication and the IP address is the console’s System IP address.

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Visual Studio 2022 servicing model

Visual Studio 2022 includes a new servicing model that you can use to select a servicing baseline, and then only get updates for that baseline. This new model replaces the servicing models from previous versions of Visual Studio, which strongly encouraged the use of the latest available version. For more details, see Visual Studio Product Lifecycle and Servicing.

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Reporting bugs

Report bug reports for the Visual C++ compiler (if possible) via Visual Studio Report a Problem…. For more information, see Microsoft Docs and the Developer Community website. Be sure to read this page for details on creating a good bug report for the compiler.
You can add a comment to a public report issue marked as “Microsoft only” if private information is required to reproduce the issue.
For bug reporting for the clang/LLVM for Windows compiler, use https://bugs.llvm.org/ For bug reports for the Microsoft Standard C++ Library (also known as STL), use https://github.com/microsoft/STL/issues As always, feel free to reach out to your Microsoft Representative for critical issues that need escalation.

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Known issues

  • The Game OS doesn’t support the std:chrono time zone functionality added in C++20 P0355R7 <chrono> Calendars And Time Zones because it doesn’t include icu.dll, icuin.dll, icuuc.dll, or the associated data files in the XVD image. If you use these functions, your app throws a C++ exception at runtime. The calendars functionality in PR0355R7 is supported.

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See also

Visual Studio Project templates in Visual Studio for XBOX development Visual Studio properties for XBOX development Debugging XBOX projects by using Visual Studio
Last modified on August 20, 2026

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Visual Studio 2022 support notesVisual Studio 2019 support notesVisual Studio 2019 GDK support notesVisual Studio 2026 GDK support notesVisual Studio (contents)