Microsoft Pulls the Plug On Its Free, Two-Decade-Old Windows Deployment Toolkit (theregister.com)
- Reference: 0180569534
- News link: https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/01/12/2012246/microsoft-pulls-the-plug-on-its-free-two-decade-old-windows-deployment-toolkit
- Source link: https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/12/microsoft_deployment_platform/
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/12/microsoft_deployment_platform/
Every time I read something like this (Score:2)
Every time I read something like this I envision Satya sitting in corner rubbing his hands together with an evil grin across his face. Funny as hell but frightening at the same time. The apprentice has now become the master. Thanks Bill.
Eye Opening Breakdown (Score:5, Informative)
I recently saw this chart, breaking down Microsoft's revenue.
[1]https://www.visualcapitalist.c... [visualcapitalist.com]
It made me realize why they don't care about the desires of Windows users.
[1] https://www.visualcapitalist.com/how-microsoft-makes-its-billions/
Re: (Score:3)
I would point out that once people start abandoning Windows on the client side, their motivation to use MS cloud and server products are severely diminished as well. So while Windows isn't the biggest money maker, it is arguably their strongest chain to keep people linked into their subscription services...
Re: Eye Opening Breakdown (Score:1)
Agree! The only reason that businesses select Office 365, and the reviled Teams, is that they are already using Windows as a client. Literally will toss Slack out, along with years of built out documentation, chats, procedures, etc.
Re: (Score:2)
I wonder how much of their server products and office products are not cloud nowadays?
How many companies switched from running Exchange in their data center to outsourcing the email server? How many are big enough to justify the IT costs of running an email server? Keeping up with security against minor and state level actors. Purchasing the bandwidth to ingest spam that come in alonside legit emails.
How many colleges and Universities no longer run email servers for students and staff?
The market to run t
Re: (Score:2)
> How many companies switched from running Exchange in their data center to outsourcing the email server? How many are big enough to justify the IT costs of running an email server? Keeping up with security against minor and state level actors. Purchasing the bandwidth to ingest spam that come in alonside legit emails.
Quote a few. Getting rid of on-prem Exchange is usually the thing everyone is most excited for. Almost no-one wants to manage Exchange anymore, and I don't blame them. It's a pain in the ass and way over complicated for what it is.
> How many colleges and Universities no longer run email servers for students and staff?
> The market to run those private copies has shrunk too. What can't you do on a phone or tablet or a computer's web browser (being win, mac, linux, chromebook). The capabilities are increasing too. Emulators can run in web browsers. And CAD systems.
Again, quite a few. Both Google and Microsoft give academic institutions sweetheart deals on their office suites.
Because it's missing from the summary... (Score:2)
> The house that Gates built recommends Windows Autopilot or Configuration Manager Operating System Deployment (OSD) as alternatives.
Yuck.
Excellent! (Score:2)
Stop deploying Windows! Okay, I know that won't immediately work for most businesses, but it will get businesses to realize that Microsoft is controlling their entire operation, and consider backup plans and possibly OpenSource and its utilities. That's too much control from Microsoft, who will now demand a fee for the tools to distribute the apps you're locked into.
I used to test software. (Score:2)
It was best to do "raw installations" of Windows to catch bugs, with the drivers that Microsoft installs. The "Generic stuff", works ok for a lot of things, but software gets 'hickups' when it is run on bare metal, and not the virtualized stuff.
Re: (Score:2)
This 100%. They want to disable this and all of Audit Mode where you can easily add the registry entries needed to enable local account creation.
They Need To Collect Their Rent (Score:2)
That was a free tool, often used by small enterprises.
There's no money in free and little money in small businesses. So, screw them. They get nothing.
Microsoft still offers OS deployment, if you're willing to pay for a server OS license. Or more, if you can afford it. Much more.
Windows Deployment Services is "free", but it runs on Windows Server and requires an Active Directory domain. That's a minimum of two licenses unless you're seriously cutting corners, and you need at least four licenses if you're tak
Is there anything Microsoft does that...... (Score:1)
...... isn't purely to lock in users to their cloud services?
They are getting ready (Score:5, Funny)
They are getting ready to force the experience. I welcome this. It will speed adoption of linux.