This blog post summarizes changes to the vcpkg package manager as part of the 2026.04.27 registry release and the 2026-04-06 and 2026-04-08 tool releases. These updates include improved locking for parallel builds, cross-platform PE dependency analysis, manifest support for the depend-info command, and other improvements and bug fixes.
- There are now 2,807 total ports available in the vcpkg curated registry. A port is a versioned recipe for building a package from source, such as a C or C++ library.
- 35 new ports were added to the curated registry.
- 370 ports were updated in April. As always, we validate each change to a port by building all other ports that depend on or are depended by the library that is being updated for our main triplets.
- 103 community contributors made commits.
- The main vcpkg repo has over 7,400 forks and 27,000 stars on GitHub.
vcpkg changelog (2026.04.27 release)
- The install locking file has been moved from
VCPKG_ROOTto theinstalleddirectory. This allows multiple vcpkg instances sharing the same root to install to different locations without blocking each other. Additionally, locks have been added to thebuildtreesandpackagesdirectories to improve reliability of parallel builds, particularly when using the MSBuild integration (PRs: Microsoft/vcpkg-tool#1938, Microsoft/vcpkg-tool#1979). - The
z-applocalcommand is now cross-platform for PE dependency analysis, thanks @zynfly! (PR: Microsoft/vcpkg-tool#1910). - The
vcpkg depend-infocommand now supports manifest mode, thanks @dg0yt! (PR: Microsoft/vcpkg-tool#1909). - CI terminology has been updated:
supportsexpressions in port features are now treated as top-level, and theexcludeconcept has been replaced withskipfor clearer semantics (PRs: Microsoft/vcpkg-tool#1955, Microsoft/vcpkg-tool#1956). - Fixed
--skip-failuresfeature set divergence between PR and CI modes (PR: Microsoft/vcpkg-tool#1958). - Other minor improvements and bug fixes.
Total ports available for tested triplets
| Triplet | Ports available |
|---|---|
| x86-windows | 2585 |
| x64-windows | 2718 |
| x64-windows-release | 2718 |
| x64-windows-static | 2595 |
| x64-windows-static-md | 2653 |
| arm64-windows | 2386 |
| arm64-windows-static-md | 2370 |
| arm64-osx | 2529 |
| x64-linux | 2724 |
| arm-neon-android | 2146 |
| x64-android | 2229 |
| arm64-android | 2196 |
| arm64-linux | 2228 |
While vcpkg supports a much larger variety of target platforms and architectures (as community triplets), the list above is validated exhaustively to ensure updated ports don’t break other ports in the catalog.
Thank you to our contributors
vcpkg couldn’t be where it is today without contributions from our open-source community. Thank you for your continued support! The following people contributed to the vcpkg, vcpkg-tool, or vcpkg-docs repos in this release (listed by commit author or GitHub username):
| Adrien Bourdeaux | albertony | Alex Emirov | Alexander Vieth |
| Alexis Placet | Alonso Schaich | Andrei Gramakov | Andrew Kaster |
| Andrew Tribick | Brian Budge | Bruno | BullyWiiPlaza |
| Byoungchan Lee | Charles Cabergs | Chris Gnam | Chuck Walbourn |
| Connor Broyles | CQ_Undefine | Daniel Schürmann | Daniele E. Domenichelli |
| eao197 | Eduard Mishkurov | Egor Tyuvaev | Ethan J. Musser |
| Ethin Probst | Eyal Rozenberg | florsap | Frank Hale |
| Fred Helmesjö | Fyodor Krasnov | galabovaa | golk |
| Harald | hehanjing | hical | hmmhmmhm |
| Hossein Moein | Ioannis Makris | JacobBarthelmeh | Jia Yue Hua |
| Jinwoo Sung | JoergAtGithub | John Wason | jreichel-nvidia |
| jtafarrelly | Julian Xhokaxhiu | Kadir | Kai Pastor |
| Kam | Keith | Kim Laine | kzhdev |
| Leia | Liam | Mark Seeliger | Martin Hořeňovský |
| Matthew A Johnson | MatthewBeshay | Matthias Kuhn | MauriceHubain-Cyncly |
| Mitchell Thompkins | miyan | Morcules | MrROBUST |
| MudassarTariq | NotGoatse | Oliver | pastdue |
| Patrick Colis | Paul Lemire | Peter Steneteg | qr243vbi |
| Rafael Kitover | Raúl Cumplido | Raul Metsma | Rémy Tassoux |
| Saikari | Saulo Verissimo | Sergio Triana Escobedo | sidy3d |
| simunma | Stephan Vedder | Stephen Webb | Steve Brain |
| SunBlack | talregev | tartanpaint | Taylor Foxhall |
| Theodore Tsirpanis | Tobias Loew | Todor Prokopov | toge |
| Tom Conder | Tom Tan | tstraus | Vitalii Koshura |
| Waldemar Kornewald | Weihang Ding | xavier2k6 | Yateng Hong |
| Yingfan Guo | 南宫茜 | 逐雁南飛 |
Learn more
You can find the main release notes on GitHub. Recent updates to the vcpkg tool can be viewed on the vcpkg-tool Releases page. To contribute to vcpkg documentation, visit the vcpkg-docs repo. If you’re new to vcpkg or curious about how a package manager can make your life easier as a C/C++ developer, check out the vcpkg website – vcpkg.io.
If you would like to contribute to vcpkg and its library catalog, or want to give us feedback on anything, check out our GitHub repo. Please report bugs or request updates to ports in our issue tracker or join more general discussion in our discussion forum.
