Windows Server 2022 (CUDA) and Windows Server 2025 - Q2 2026 Edge Release

Ecosystem CircleCI Images
1

Hey Everyone!

Updated edge images are being released for Windows Server 2025 (standard GUI and NVIDIA/CUDA) and Windows Server 2022 (standard GUI and NVIDIA/CUDA).

This release is available under the edge tag.

They are also available as dated tags if you wish to pin.

windows-server-2025-gui:2026.05.1

windows-server-2025-nvidia-medium:2026.05.1

windows-server-2022-gui:2026.05.1

windows-server-2022-nvidia-medium:2026.05.1

Note: Edge-only dated tags will automatically redirect to the current published image once the new images are rolled out.

What’s New

Standard Update

A broad refresh of toolchains across both images: aws-cli, Docker, gcloud, Git, Git LFS, Go, Node.js, npm, OpenJDK, Python, Ruby, Rust, Chocolatey, Azure CLI, jq, Vim, and xz have all been updated.

Newly added: AWS Tools for PowerShell (AWS.Tools.Common 5.0.215) is now pre-installed on both images, enabling AWS operations directly from PowerShell alongside the existing aws CLI.

The shell environment has moved from MSYS bash (5.2.37) to Cygwin bash (5.3.9), and the underlying kernel has been bumped from 3.5.7 to 3.6.7.

Windows Server 2025

  • Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools and Community Edition (17.14.33, May 2026) are now installed by default on the GUI image.

  • .NET runtimes expanded to include 8.0, 9.0, and 10.0 alongside 6.0/7.0.

  • OpenJDK moved from 22 to 25.

Windows Server 2022

  • Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools and Community Edition bumped to 17.14.33 (May 2026) on both GUI and NVIDIA images.

  • .NET runtimes expanded to include 8.0, 9.0, and 10.0 alongside 6.0/7.0.

  • OpenJDK moved from 22 to 25.

CUDA (Windows Server 2025 and 2022 NVIDIA)

CUDA-enabled edge images have been updated for both Windows Server 2025 and 2022. For guidance on utilizing these images, please refer to our documentation on: Using the GPU execution environment - CircleCI

New in this release: NVIDIA driver updated from 581.42 to 596.49 (CUDA runtime advanced from 13.0 to 13.2). Visual Studio 2022 bumped to 17.14.33. .NET runtime support extended to include 10.0.

Example


version: 2.1
workflows:
  main:
    jobs:
     - build
jobs:
  build:
    machine:
      image: windows-server-2025-gui:edge
    resource_class: windows.medium
    steps:
      - checkout
      - run: echo "Do some things"

Software Versions

Notes:

  • The “Old version” column reflects the previously published current image (dated 2025.10.1).

  • The “New version” column reflects the upcoming edge image (dated 2026.05.1).

  • Some software has more than one version installed; the default is shown.

Windows Server 2025 (GUI)

Software Old version (2025.10.1) New version (2026.05.1)
Kernel (uname -r) 3.5.7-882031da.x86_64 3.6.7-fb42d713.x86_64
Bash 5.2.37 (MSYS) 5.3.9 (Cygwin)
aws-cli 2.31.8 2.34.46
Azure CLI 2.77.0 2.86.0
Chocolatey 2.5.1 2.7.2
Docker 25.0.3 29.4.0
Google Cloud SDK 538.0.0 568.0.0
Git 2.48.1 2.54.0
Git LFS 3.6.1 3.7.1
Go 1.25.1 1.26.3
jq 1.7.0 1.8.1
Node.js 24.9.0 26.1.0
npm 11.6.0 11.13.0
OpenJDK 22.0.2 25
Python 3.13.7 3.14.5
Ruby 3.4.5 3.4.9
Rust 1.90.0 1.95.0
Visual Studio 2022 not installed 17.14.33 (May 2026)
Vim 9.1.1818 9.2.478
xz Utils 5.6.4 5.8.3

Additional changes: .NET runtimes expanded from 6.0/7.0 to include 8.0, 9.0, and 10.0; visualstudio2022buildtools and visualstudio2022community (117.14.33) added.

CUDA (Windows Server 2025)

Software Old version (2025.10.1) New version (2026.05.1)
NVIDIA Driver 581.42 596.49
CUDA runtime (nvidia-smi) 13.0 13.2
CUDA Toolkit (Chocolatey) 12.9.1.576 12.9.1.576

Additional changes: .NET runtimes expanded from 6.0/7.0 to include 8.0, 9.0, and 10.0; visualstudio2022buildtools and visualstudio2022community (117.14.33) added.

Windows Server 2022 (GUI)

Software Old version (2025.10.1) New version (2026.05.1)
Kernel (uname -r) 3.5.7-882031da.x86_64 3.6.7-fb42d713.x86_64
Bash 5.2.37 (MSYS) 5.3.9 (Cygwin)
aws-cli 2.31.8 2.34.46
Azure CLI 2.77.0 2.86.0
Chocolatey 2.5.1 2.7.2
Docker 25.0.3 29.4.0
Google Cloud SDK 538.0.0 568.0.0
Git 2.48.1 2.54.0
Git LFS 3.6.1 3.7.1
Go 1.25.1 1.26.3
jq 1.7.0 1.8.1
Node.js 24.9.0 26.1.0
npm 11.6.0 11.13.0
OpenJDK 22.0.2 25
Python 3.13.7 3.14.5
Ruby 3.4.5 3.4.9
Rust 1.90.0 1.95.0
Syft 1.33.0 1.42.4
Visual Studio 2022 17.8.4 17.14.33 (May 2026)
Vim 9.1.1818 9.2.478
xz Utils 5.6.4 5.8.3

Additional changes: .NET runtimes expanded from 6.0/7.0 to include 8.0, 9.0, and 10.0; visualstudio2022buildtools and visualstudio2022community bumped from 117.8.4 to 117.14.33.

CUDA (Windows Server 2022)

Software Old version (2025.10.1) New version (2026.05.1)
NVIDIA Driver 581.42 596.49
CUDA runtime (nvidia-smi) 13.0 13.2
CUDA Toolkit (Chocolatey) 12.9.1.576 12.9.1.576

Additional changes: .NET runtimes expanded from 6.0/7.0 to include 8.0, 9.0, and 10.0; visualstudio2022buildtools and visualstudio2022community bumped from 117.8.4 to 117.14.33.

2

This looks to have introduced a bug in windows builds that affects PowerShell steps with progress bars? They seem to run forever - happens to our builds that haven’t changed but since Friday seem to get stuck.

3

@ahmedwab are you aware of this?

4

Thanks for bringing this up. I am aware of this and already put up a fix that addresses that error. It was unrelated to the new Windows images.