I rely on Visual Studio heavily, but VS2026 is extremely buggy, whereas VS2022 was stable for me. All kind of features stop working mid-use, like even search on text. When you experience it, you think you're losing your mind, like, "I swear I typed that right?!". And IDE hangs, of course.
As with much Microsoft software back in the day, my workaround has been: turn off the car, get out of the car, get back in the car, restart the engine.
I'm asking because I know I can't be the only one. And, well, misery loves company.
Visual Studio 2026 is now generally available
Visual Studio 2026 Insiders is here!
VS2022 Community has been removed and VS 2026 will load but not deploy my UWP based solution
Have you tried Visual Studio 2026? - Visual Studio - Visual Studio Magazine Community
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Hi
Thank you for posting in Microsoft Learn Q&A.
1. Getting VS 2022 Community
You can download VS 2022 Community here:
https://aka.ms/vs/release/vs_community.exe
Microsoft’s current guidance for UWP in VS 2022 (17.10 and later) is here:
Get started with C# and UWP
From that page (for Visual Studio 2022 version 17.10 and later):
Visual Studio 2022 version 17.10 and later
For app development using UWP, select the WinUI application development workload. Then, in the Installation details pane, under the WinUI application development node, select the UWP option you need (this will also select any additional required components). For C#, select Universal Windows Platform tools and Windows 11 SDK (10.0.26100.0).
Those options are what enable the UWP Blank App and other UWP project templates to appear and build correctly in VS 2022.
2. About VS 2026
There was a known issue where VS 2026 couldn’t find the correct platform toolset/SDK for UWP and failed to build or deploy (see this thread:
Visual Studio 2026 not finding Platform Toolset (v143), MSVC Build Tools component).
That item is now marked Closed – Fixed by Microsoft:
A fix for this issue has been released! Install the most recent release from https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/. Thank you for providing valuable feedback which has helped improve the product.
So if you want to use VS 2026, I’d suggest:
- Make sure you’re on the latest VS 2026 version (update from the Visual Studio Installer or download fresh from the link above).
- In the VS 2026 Installer, configure workloads similar to VS 2022:
- Select WinUI application development.
- In Installation details, under that workload, select the UWP option you need.
- Ensure any UWP‑related tools and the required Windows SDK version(s) are selected.
Then try deploying your UWP solution again. If deployment still fails with “failed to deploy the root project”, grab the detailed text from the Output window (Deploy view) and share it, so it’s easier to see what’s going wrong.
3. If VS 2022 still doesn’t work for your UWP project
If, after installing VS 2022 with the setup above, your UWP solution still doesn’t load or deploy correctly, feel free to share more details (for example, the exact error message from the Output window, your Target version / Min version from Package.appxmanifest, and which workloads/components you have installed). With that information it should be possible to troubleshoot what’s missing or misconfigured and help you get a working setup again.
Hi Danny, thankyou for your response. I did manage to install a community version of VS2022 using a link similar to the one you suggested, however regardless of the selected workflows and options, it would not load my UWP code. This was finally fixed by replacing the Program Files (x86)/Windows Kits folder with the same folder from my existing VS2022 Community, running in a separate OS partition. Not a pretty fix, but it works and gets me out of an immediate problem. Thank you for your interest and input.