Microsoft Visual C++ 14 ((exclusive)) Jun 2026

VC++ 14.0 retained the same backend as VS2013 but added:

Thousands of LOB (line-of-business) applications built between 2015–2017 use VC++ 14.0 and have never been recompiled with newer tools. Their deployment depends on the VC++ 2015 redistributable. microsoft visual c++ 14

A unique property of VC++ 14.0’s ABI stability: An executable compiled with v140 can run on a system that has later VC++ 14.x redistributable (VS2017, VS2019, VS2022) because all use the same major ABI version (14). Microsoft achieved this by ensuring that later runtimes are binary-compatible supersets . VC++ 14

As of April 2026, the VC++ 14.0 redistributable is no longer receiving security updates from Microsoft. Organizations should migrate to VC++ 14.2x (VS2019) or 14.3x (VS2022) redistributables, which remain compatible with applications built with v140, but offer ongoing updates. Microsoft achieved this by ensuring that later runtimes

VC++ 14.0 was designed as a “conformance release.” Microsoft’s C++ team, led by Herb Sutter, declared a renewed commitment to ISO standards, adopting a more aggressive update cadence. The result was a compiler that, for the first time in years, could compile major open-source projects (e.g., Boost, LLVM, Python’s CPython) with fewer proprietary workarounds.