build: Bump VS minimum supported version to 18.0 #33861

1. 
   hebasto commented at 3:09 pm on November 12, 2025: member

   The new VS 18.0 release includes numerous bug fixes.

   Drafted pending Visual Studio 2026 availability in GHA.

2. hebasto added the label Refactoring on Nov 12, 2025
3. hebasto added the label Windows on Nov 12, 2025
4. hebasto added the label Build system on Nov 12, 2025
5. 
   DrahtBot commented at 3:10 pm on November 12, 2025: contributor

   The following sections might be updated with supplementary metadata relevant to reviewers and maintainers.

   Code Coverage & Benchmarks

   For details see: https://corecheck.dev/bitcoin/bitcoin/pulls/33861.

   Reviews

   See the guideline for information on the review process. A summary of reviews will appear here.

   Conflicts

   Reviewers, this pull request conflicts with the following ones:

   • #33974 (cmake: Check dependencies after build option interaction by hebasto)
   • #31507 (build: Use clang-cl to build on Windows natively by hebasto)

   If you consider this pull request important, please also help to review the conflicting pull requests. Ideally, start with the one that should be merged first.

6. 
   fanquake commented at 3:35 pm on November 12, 2025: member

   Seems a bit premature, if this is still waiting for multiple pieces of unreleased software? Could just wait for it to be shown as fixed in a nightly build?
7. DrahtBot added the label CI failed on Nov 12, 2025
8. hebasto force-pushed on Nov 30, 2025
9. hebasto force-pushed on Nov 30, 2025
10. DrahtBot added the label Needs rebase on Dec 1, 2025
11. hebasto force-pushed on Dec 1, 2025
12. build: Bump VS minimum supported version to 18.0 da3dbfc59c
13. refactor: Remove workaround for resolved MSVC bug

    The bug was fixed in Visual Studio 18.0.

    5d77c7d881
14. in .github/workflows/ci.yml:225 in 58e0680e92

    218@@ -219,10 +219,10 @@ jobs:
    219         include:
    220           - job-type: standard
    221             generate-options: '-DBUILD_BENCH=ON -DBUILD_KERNEL_LIB=ON -DBUILD_UTIL_CHAINSTATE=ON -DWERROR=ON'
    222-            job-name: 'Windows native, VS 2022'
    223+            job-name: 'Windows native, VS 2026'
    224           - job-type: fuzz
    225             generate-options: '-DVCPKG_MANIFEST_NO_DEFAULT_FEATURES=ON -DVCPKG_MANIFEST_FEATURES="wallet" -DBUILD_GUI=OFF -DWITH_ZMQ=OFF -DBUILD_FOR_FUZZING=ON -DWERROR=ON'
    226-            job-name: 'Windows native, fuzz, VS 2022'
    227+            job-name: 'Windows native, fuzz, VS 2026'
    

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    maflcko commented at 11:05 am on December 1, 2025:

    could remove the version/year here, as the docs and presets should already be clear on it? (no other ci task is having the version/year in the title)

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    hebasto commented at 11:09 am on December 1, 2025:

    Thanks! Updated.
15. hebasto force-pushed on Dec 1, 2025
16. DrahtBot removed the label Needs rebase on Dec 1, 2025

Contributors
hebasto DrahtBot fanquake maflcko

Labels
Refactoring Windows Build system CI failed