Paul Krill
Editor at Large

Microsoft’s .NET Core 3.1 nears the end

news
Jul 29, 20221 min

Microsoft announced that it will stop providing service updates, security fixes, and technical support for .NET Core 3.1 on December 13, 2022.

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Microsoft’s .NET Core 3.1, a release of Microsoft’s open source, cross-platform software development framework published in December 2019, will no longer be supported as of December 13, 2022.

.NET Core 3.1 reaches end-of-support status that day, with Microsoft discontinuing servicing updates and technical support, the company said. In a bulletin posted earlier this month, Microsoft advised users to move to .NET 6, the current Long-Term Support (LTS) release of the platform, as soon as possible. Those still using .NET Core 3.1 after the end of support will need to update to either .NET 6 or .NET 7, due this November, to continue being supported.

Applications built on .NET Core 3.1 will continue to run after the end-of-support date, but every security fix in .NET 6 is potentially an unpatched, undocumented security vulnerability for those apps, Microsoft warned. End users of apps are advised to reach out to the vendor managing their software to confirm whether an updated version of the software is needed and available.

Beginning with the December 2022 servicing update for Visual Studio 2019 16.11, Visual Studio 2019 17.0, and Visual Studio 2022 17.2, the .NET Core 3.1 component will be changed to out of support and optional. Thusly, workloads in Visual Studio may be installed without installing .NET Core 3.1.

Paul Krill

Paul Krill is editor at large at InfoWorld. Paul has been covering computer technology as a news and feature reporter for more than 35 years, including 30 years at InfoWorld. He has specialized in coverage of software development tools and technologies since the 1990s, and he continues to lead InfoWorld’s news coverage of software development platforms including Java and .NET and programming languages including JavaScript, TypeScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, Rust, and Go. Long trusted as a reporter who prioritizes accuracy, integrity, and the best interests of readers, Paul is sought out by technology companies and industry organizations who want to reach InfoWorld’s audience of software developers and other information technology professionals. Paul has won a “Best Technology News Coverage” award from IDG.

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