Windows Server Update Services Deprecation: What It Means for Your Update Strategy
Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) is a long-standing update service from Microsoft aimed at enterprises, allowing IT administrators to manage the pace of updates for internal network devices.
Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that, as of April 18, 2025, it would discontinue the WSUS driver synchronization feature, as only about one-third of IT administrators actively use it in real-world environments.
Unexpectedly, Microsoft has now revealed its intention to deprecate the WSUS update service itself. Going forward, the service will no longer accept any new feature requests, nor will Microsoft continue its development.
“Microsoft has announced deprecation of Windows Server Update Services (WSUS). Specifically, this means that we are no longer investing in new capabilities, nor are we accepting new feature requests for WSUS. However, we are preserving current functionality and will continue to publish updates through the WSUS channel. We will also support any content already published through the WSUS channel,” Microsoft wrote.
Although WSUS will remain available in Windows Server 2025, Microsoft recommends that IT administrators transition to cloud-based update tools such as Windows Autopatch, Microsoft Intune, and Azure Update Manager for server updates.
Considering that Windows Server 2025 still supports this feature, and given that Windows Server is updated only once every three years, it is unlikely that Microsoft will fully discontinue WSUS in the near term.
However, by 2027–2028, during the next major Windows Server update, it is highly probable that WSUS will no longer be supported, and at that point, Microsoft may choose to permanently shut down the service, ceasing support for deploying updates via WSUS.
