Missing Visual Studio 2026 support

[ivancea]

Problem Description

Having Visual Studio 2026 installed but not VS2022, the command npx @react-native-community/cli run-windows --logging won't work, reporting missing MSBuild.

I'm opening this as a bug, as VS2022 installation is inherently complicated/buggy, at least if you have VS2026 already.

Steps To Reproduce

In a fresh project created with npx --yes @react-native-community/cli@latest init <projectName> --version "^0.80.0", and without VS2022, execute:

> npx @react-native-community/cli run-windows --logging

 i Running x64 node on a x64 machine
 i Verbose: ON
Looking for VS installs with version range: [17.11.0,18.0)
Looking for vswhere at: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\vswhere.exe
 ‼ No public VS release found
 i Trying pre-release VS
Looking for VS installs with version range: [17.11.0,18.0]
Looking for vswhere at: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\vswhere.exe
 × Could not find MSBuild with VCTools for Visual Studio 17.11.0 or later. Make sure all required components have been installed
Command failed with error NoMSBuild: Could not find MSBuild with VCTools for Visual Studio 17.11.0 or later. Make sure all required components have been installed

Expected Results

It should work, as it's the newest release of VS2026. Also, installing VS2022 is difficult if you have VS2026 installed.

Temporary solution

Manually changing the value '17.11.0' with '18.0.0' in /node_modules/@react-native-windows/cli/lib-commonjs/utils/msbuildtools.js solved the problem for me (for anybody interested).
Obviously this isn't a solution, as proper support should be added, but a escape hatch

CLI version

20.0.0

Environment

info Fetching system and libraries information...
System:
  OS: Windows 11 10.0.26200
  CPU: "(24) x64 AMD Ryzen 9 7900X 12-Core Processor            "
  Memory: 28.26 GB / 63.14 GB
Binaries:
  Node:
    version: 24.11.1
    path: C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.EXE
  Yarn: Not Found
  npm:
    version: 11.6.3
    path: C:\Program Files\nodejs\npm.CMD
  Watchman: Not Found
SDKs:
  Android SDK: Not Found
  Windows SDK:
    AllowDevelopmentWithoutDevLicense: Enabled
    Versions:
      - 10.0.22621.0
      - 10.0.26100.0
IDEs:
  Android Studio: Not Found
  Visual Studio:
    - 18.0.11217.181 (Visual Studio Community 2026)
Languages:
  Java:
    version: 22.0.2
    path: C:\Program Files\OpenJDK\jdk-22.0.2\bin\javac.EXE
  Ruby: Not Found
npmPackages:
  "@react-native-community/cli":
    installed: 20.0.0
    wanted: 20.0.0
  react:
    installed: 19.1.1
    wanted: 19.1.1
  react-native:
    installed: 0.80.1
    wanted: 0.80.1
  react-native-windows:
    installed: 0.80.0
    wanted: ^0.80.0
npmGlobalPackages:
  "*react-native*": Not Found
Android:
  hermesEnabled: true
  newArchEnabled: true
iOS:
  hermesEnabled: Not found
  newArchEnabled: Not found

info React Native v0.82.1 is now available (your project is running on v0.80.1).
info Changelog: https://github.com/facebook/react-native/releases/tag/v0.82.1
info Diff: https://react-native-community.github.io/upgrade-helper/?from=0.80.1&to=0.82.1
info For more info, check out "https://reactnative.dev/docs/upgrading?os=windows".

Community Modules

No response

Target React Native Architecture

New Architecture (WinAppSDK) Only

Target Platform Version

None

Visual Studio Version

None

Build Configuration

None

Snack, code example, screenshot, or link to a repository

None

[protikbiswas100]

#15415