Windows Server 2025 and onwards will no longer be available as a function. Although Server 2022 will stop receiving security updates 14/10/2031 you have plenty of time to plan, it might be worth looking into alternative solutions. If you need assistance, give us a call, and we can talk about your options. There are some other key things noteworthy as well:
Features removed in Server 2025
These have been removed from Server 2025
| Feature | Explanation |
| IIS 6 Management Console (Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console) | The console has been 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. |
| Wordpad | WordPad has been removed from Windows Server 2025. We recommend Microsoft Word for rich text documents like .doc and .rtf and Windows Notepad for plain text documents like .txt. |
| SMTP Server | The SMTP Server features has been removed from Windows Server 2025. There's no replacement within the operating systems. 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. |
| Windows PowerShell 2.0 Engine | The Windows PowerShell 2.0 Engine has been removed, applications and components should be migrated to PowerShell 5.0+. |
Feature no longer developing
Microsoft is no longer developing these and may remove them from Server 2025 at a later date.
| Feature | Explanation |
| 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. |
| NTLM | All versions of NTLM, including LANMAN, NTLMv1, and NTLMv2, are no longer under active feature development and are deprecated. Use of NTLM will continue to work in the next release of Windows Server and the next annual release of Windows. Calls to NTLM should be replaced by calls to Negotiate, which will 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 have been deprecated by internet standards and regulatory bodies due to various security concerns. 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 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 |
| 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) | Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) is no longer actively developed, all the existing capabilities and content continue to be available for your deployments. |