Microsoft has made some significant changes in its approach to deprecating features in Windows. Historically, Microsoft used to deprecate features once a year, but the company is now doing so much more aggressively. For example, in 2022, it deprecated only two features, Windows Information Protection and Update Compliance. However, this year, a total of 16 Windows features were deprecated across several months, with two of them being deprecated only this month.

There are several interesting aspects to this change. It is likely not solely about Microsoft wanting to phase out legacy technologies from Windows but has more to do with the increasing regulations on Big Tech. This shift reflects the manner in which Microsoft has been adding new features to Windows, particularly in the past year. It seems that for everything Microsoft gives, it also takes away.

Deprecated features are those that Microsoft is no longer developing, either because they’ve been replaced by newer functionality or are no longer needed. After a feature is deprecated, Microsoft typically stops installing it by default, while keeping it available optionally for some time. Eventually, however, deprecated features will be removed from Windows for good.

Some of the recently deprecated features include the Universal Windows Platform (UWP), Computer Browser, the Webclient (WebDAV) Service, Remote Mailslots, the Windows Tips app, Steps Recorder, Microsoft Defender Application Guard for Office, Windows Speech Recognition (WSR), Legacy Console mode, Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT), Cortana, TLS 1.0 and 1.1, AllJoyn, WordPad, VBScript, and Timeline for Entra ID accounts.

These changes are beneficial for Windows, as they help in simplifying, modernizing, and making it more secure. It is important to keep track of these developments, as they play a critical role in maintaining the health and security of Windows.