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What is feature deprecation you ask?
But just how many features did Microsoft deprecate from Windows this year?
The Cortana app is no longer functional.
By my count, 16 different features were announced as deprecated in the past 12 months.
Let’s dive in.
As of writing this,the Cortana app is fully dead.
WordPad is waving goodbye after almost 30 years.
WordPad has always served as a rich text editor compared to Notepad, which is a barebones text editor.
Windows WordPad was great because it supported Word documents, something Windows Notepad doesn’t support.
The new Outlook incorporates both email and calendar capabilities, and uses Edge’s WebView2 to render the interface.
The Mail & Calendar app warns that it’s being replaced.
For screen recording, we recommend the Snipping Tool, Xbox Game Bar, or Microsoft Clipchamp.
The timeline user experience was retired in Windows 11, although it remains in Windows 10.
The timeline user experience and all your local activity history still remains on Windows 10 devices.
Windows Tips are no more.
Users can access web history using their internet tool and access recent files through OneDrive and Office.
Legacy Console Mode:Thelegacy console modeis deprecated and no longer being updated.
In future Windows releases, it will be available as an optionalFeature on Demand.
Goodbye classic Speech Recognition Tool.
This feature won’t be installed by default.
This change increases the security posture of Windows customers and encourages modern protocol adoption.
For more information, seeResources for deprecated features.
Microsoft Support Diagonostic Tool:MSDTis deprecated and will be removed in a future release of Windows.
MSDT is used to gather diagnostic data for analysis by support professionals.
For more information, seeResources for deprecated features.
This deprecation also includes theWindows.Security.Isolation APIsthat are used for Microsoft Defender tool Guard for Office.
We recommend transitioning to Microsoft Defender for Endpointattack surface reduction rulesalong withProtected ViewandWindows Defender app Control.
Computer web client Protocol:The Computer web client driver and service are deprecated.
The internet tool (internet tool protocol and service) is a dated and insecure equipment location protocol.
For more information on Computer internet tool, seeMS-BRWS Common Internet File System.
WebDAV Service:The Webclient (WebDAV) service is deprecated.
The Webclient service isn’t started by default in Windows.
For more information on WebDAV, seeWebDAV - Win32 apps.
Remote Mailstots:Remote Mailslots are deprecated.
This protocol was first disabled by default inWindows 11 Insider Preview Build.
For more information on Remote Mailslots, seeAbout Mailslotsand[MS-MAIL]: Remote Mailslot Protocol.
VBScript:VBScript is deprecated.
For more information, seeResources for deprecated features.
Customers should refer to theIotivity.orgwebsite for alternatives such asIotivity LiteorIotivity.
Cleaning house
Microsoft has been quite busy in the deprecation department in the last 12 months.
Specifically, I’m sad to see WordPad be deprecated.
What are your thoughts on this list of deprecated features?
Are you happy to see it go, or do you wish some of it was staying?
