docs: use Visual Studio Build Tools 2022 for Windows

[MikeMcC399]

• closes Microsoft Windows Visual Studio Community 2026 edition build incompatibility #33018

Additional details

• Cypress dependencies that use platform-dependent rebuilds are not compatible with Visual Studio Community 2026. See description and error logs in Microsoft Windows Visual Studio Community 2026 edition build incompatibility #33018.

• CONTRIBUTING > Requirements > Windows currently instructs to install the "Visual Studio Community 2022 edition" using the URL https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/thank-you-downloading-visual-studio/?sku=Community. This link however now downloads "Visual Studio Community 2026 edition".

• The Visual Studio download older versions page does not include "Visual Studio Community 2022 edition" and states:

  Older versions require an active Visual Studio Subscription.

• Visual Studio 2022 - Evergreen bootstrappers lists alternate download URLs, including "Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools" from https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vs_buildtools.exe supported until Jan 2032. The msi version of Node.js for Windows optionally installs the build tools for exactly this purpose.

CONTRIBUTING > Requirements > Windows is changed to recommend Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools instead of "Visual Studio Community 2022 edition".

Steps to test

On Windows 11 25H2:

Follow the instructions in CONTRIBUTING > Requirements > Windows to install Python.

Uninstall any previous installations of Visual Studio. Install Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools, select "Desktop development with C++" workload. Restart computer.

git clone https://github.com/cypress-io/cypress
cd cypress
nvm install 22.19.0
nvm use 22.19.0
npm install yarn@latest -g
git clean -xfd # if repeating
yarn

Confirm that build is successful, particularly check that there are no errors in the steps:

[5/6] Building fresh packages...
[6/6] Cleaning modules...

How has the user experience changed?

Contributor instructions only. Contributors using Microsoft Windows should be able to set up a working environment following the instructions in CONTRIBUTING > Requirements > Windows in order to build Cypress from source.

PR Tasks

• [na] Have tests been added/updated?
• [na] Has a PR for user-facing changes been opened in cypress-documentation?
• [na] Have API changes been updated in the type definitions?

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Note

Update Windows setup in CONTRIBUTING to use Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools (Desktop C++ workload) instead of Visual Studio Community 2022.

^{Written by Cursor Bugbot for commit 6e3a58c. This will update automatically on new commits. Configure here.}

[cypress-app-bot]

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