Microsoft warns that .NET 7 support will end on May 14

Microsoft will end support for .NET 7 on May 14 this year. The company recommends that users upgrade to .NET 8. Users could also use .NET 6, which like version 8 is an LTS release. Visual Studio requires at least .NET 8.

Microsoft writes in a support document that it will stop official support of the developer platform as of May 14. It was released in 2022 as a standard term support release with eighteen months of support. On May 14, Patch Tuesday, the framework will receive security updates one last time, but after that they will stop. Applications that use .NET 7 will continue to work, but Microsoft warns that technical support for that software may no longer be available.

According to Microsoft, developers should switch to .NET 8. That was published in November last year and is a long-term support release that will receive upgrades until November 2026. It is also theoretically possible to move to .NET 6, which was also an LTS release and will be supported with security updates until November of this year.

Microsoft says that Visual Studio users will also be able to best to upgrade. As of the June update for versions 17.4 and 17.6, the .NET 7 component is no longer supported. Existing applications will continue to work, the company says. From then on, it is necessary to use the .NET 8 SDK for both .NET 6 and .NET 8 software.