Features removed or no longer developed in Windows Server
Each release of Windows Server brings new features and improvements, while sometimes removing older ones to make room for better alternatives. This article details the features and functionalities removed or deprecated in Windows Server.
Tip
You can get early access to Windows Server builds by joining the Windows Insider Program for Business, which is a great way to test feature changes.
Note
Windows Server Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) releases have a Fixed Policy Lifecycle which includes 5 years of mainstream support and 5 years of extended support for a total lifecycle of 10 years. To learn more, see:
This list is subject to change and might not include every affected feature or functionality.
Features no longer in development
We're no longer actively developing these features and may remove them from a future update. Some features were replaced with other features or functionality, while others are now available from different sources. Deprecation means a feature, functionality, or service is no longer in active development. A deprecated feature may be removed in future releases. A deprecated component still ships in Windows Server, is supported for production deployments, and continues to receive security and quality updates as per the product lifecycle.
Feature | Explanation |
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Computer Browser | The Computer Browser driver and service are deprecated. The browser (browser protocol and service) is a dated and insecure device location protocol. This protocol, service, and driver were first disabled by default in Windows 10 with the removal of the SMB1 service. For more information on Computer Browser, see MS-BRWS Common Internet File System. |
Failover Clustering Cluster Sets | Failover Clustering Cluster Sets feature is no longer in active feature development and is deprecated. |
Network Load Balancing (NLB) | NLB is no longer in active feature development and is deprecated. Consider using a Software Load Balancer (SLB) as an alternative. To learn more about SLB, see What is Software Load Balancer (SLB) for SDN? |
NTLM | NTLMv1 is removed. LANMAN and NTLMv2 are no longer under active feature development and are deprecated. NTLMv2 will continue to work but will be removed from Windows Server in a future release. Replace calls to NTLM to calls to Negotiate, which try to authenticate with Kerberos and only fall back to NTLM when necessary. For more information, see The evolution of Windows authentication. |
Remote Mailslots | Remote Mailslots are deprecated. The Remote Mailslot protocol, which was initially introduced in MS DOS, is a dated and simple IPC method that is both unreliable and insecure. This protocol was first disabled by default in Windows 11 Insider Preview Build. For more information on Remote Mailslots, see About Mailslots and [MS-MAIL]: Remote Mailslot Protocol. |
TLS 1.0 TLS 1.1 | TLS versions 1.0 and 1.1 are deprecated per internet standards and regulatory bodies due to security concerns mentioned in RFC 8996. These versions are disabled by default in Windows Server 2025. For more information on TLS deprecation, see TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 deprecation in Windows. |
WebDAV Redirector service | The WebDAV Redirector service is deprecated. The service isn't installed by default in Windows Server. For more information on the WebDAV Redirector service, see WebDAV - Win32 apps. |
Windows Internal Database (WID) | WID is used by several roles, including ADFS, ADRMS, IPAM, RD Connection Broker, and WSUS. Consider using a free or full version of SQL Server for these roles. WID will be removed from Windows in a future release. To learn more about the different types of SQL Server available, see SQL Server editions. |
Windows Management Instrumentation Command line (WMIC) | Beginning with Windows Server 2025, WMIC is available as a feature on demand (FoD) which can be added with the DISM /Add-Capability command. It will be removed from Windows in a future release.PowerShell for WMI replaces the WMIC tool. Use PowerShell or programmatically query WMI as a replacement for WMIC. To learn more about WMIC depreciation, see WMI command line (WMIC) utility deprecation: Next steps |
Windows PowerShell 2.0 Engine | The Windows PowerShell 2.0 Engine is deprecated and isn't installed by default. Windows PowerShell 2.0 applications, and components should be migrated to PowerShell 5.0+. To learn more about the deprecation, see Windows PowerShell 2.0 Deprecation. |
VBScript | VBScript is available as a feature on demand (FoD) and preinstalled in Windows Server 2025, before its removal from the operating system in a later release. As a replacement for VBScript, use PowerShell for automating tasks, custom actions, or scripts. To learn more about migrating to PowerShell, see The VBScript-to-Windows PowerShell Conversion Guide. If you're using VBScript within your webpage, functionality is currently limited to browsers predating Internet Explorer 11. We recommend migrating your webpages to JavaScript, which provides cross-browser compatibility and modern browser support. |
Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) | WSUS is no longer actively developed, all the existing capabilities and content continue to be available for your deployments. |
Features removed
We're removing the following features and functionalities from the installed product image in Windows Server. Applications or code that depend on these features won't function in future releases unless you use an alternate method. Removal occurs when a feature or functionality is no longer available for use and are eliminated from a product or service. The removal of features and functionalities can take place in any release of Windows Server. Some features are deprecated yet still ship in current versions of Windows Server. Components aren't removed from generally available supported versions that are within their product lifecycle.
Feature | Explanation |
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Data Encryption Standard (DES) | DES, the symmetric-key block encryption cipher, is considered insecure against modern cryptographic attacks, and replaced by more robust encryption algorithms. DES was disabled starting with Windows Server 2008 R2 and is removed from Windows Server 2025 and later releases. |
Internet Information Services (IIS) 6 Management Console (Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console) | The console is removed after being no longer developed in Windows Server 2019. You should also start migration from IIS 6.0 or earlier versions, and move to the latest version of IIS, which is always available in the most recent release of Windows Server. |
NTLMv1 | Replace calls to NTLM by calls to Negotiate, which tries to authenticate with Kerberos and only falls back to NTLM when necessary. For more information, see The evolution of Windows authentication. |
SMTP Server | As SMTP Server features were removed from Windows Server 2025, there's no replacement within the operating system. Consider using Exchange Server or a non-Microsoft SMTP server as an alternative. To learn more about enabling SMTP connection in Exchange Server, see Receive connectors in Exchange Server. |
Wordpad | We recommend Microsoft Word for rich text documents like .doc and .rtf and Windows Notepad for plain text documents like .txt . |