rust-lang / rust-lang/rustup

No Windows SDK installed when installing Rust on a freshly installed Windows 11

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bug
Dominant language
Rust
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Description

Verification
Problem

I just reinstalled Windows 11 Home Edition 24H2. When I installed Rustup, I didn't see the Windows SDK installed. I remember it being installed with Windows SDK 22000. After installing Rust, I tried creating a new project with cargo and then running cargo run. The terminal complained that I was missing link.exe. I then went to Visual Studio 17.14.12 and saw that the only Windows SDKs available were 19041, 22621, and 26100. I chose to install 26100. After the installation, I ran cargo run again, and it worked correctly.

Image

Image Image
Steps
  1. Prepare a Windows 11 system that has not installed Rust and Visudo Studio related content.
  2. Double-click rustup-init.exe.
  3. Choose to install Visual Studio Community Edition.
Possible Solution(s)

If I remember correctly, it used to install Windows SDK version 22000. Now it seems it is gone, maybe it's time to choose to install another version of Windows SDK by default.

Notes

No response

Rustup version
rustup 1.28.2 (e4f3ad6f8 2025-04-28)
info: This is the version for the rustup toolchain manager, not the rustc compiler.
info: The currently active `rustc` version is `rustc 1.89.0 (29483883e 2025-08-04)`
Installed toolchains
Default host: x86_64-pc-windows-msvc
rustup home:  C:\Users\shapg\.rustup

installed toolchains
--------------------
stable-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc (active, default)

active toolchain
----------------
name: stable-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc
active because: it's the default toolchain
installed targets:
  x86_64-pc-windows-msvc
OS version
Windows 11 Home Edition 24H2 26100.4946

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the rustup-init.exe installation flow on a fresh Windows 11 24H2 system and reproduce the missing link.exe failure when creating and running a Cargo project. Compare the Visual Studio installation choices with the available Windows SDK versions, then verify that a fresh install provides a working MSVC toolchain and that cargo run succeeds.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
operating-systems, tooling
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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