Microsoft shutters fan favorite deployment platform, to the dismay of many | Daily Reports Online
- MDT has been removed – existing deployments will work, but a migration is necessary
- No further security updates or support for future OS releases will be issued
- Reddit users have criticized the alternative solutions
Microsoft has confirmed it will no longer support Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT), meaning updates, support, and security patches/fixes are all off the cards.
Although existing MDT deployments should keep working for now, no compatibility updates will be issued for future versions of Windows, and download packages may be removed from official channels.
Originally released in 2003, the now legacy enterprise deployment toolset was used to deploy Windows OS and apps either fully automated, with user input or via bootable media.
The change didn’t exactly come as a surprise – Redmond announced the deprecation in December 2024, warning that it would be pulled after October 2025. “Microsoft is announcing the immediate retirement of Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT),” the company confirmed las week on a support page.
“The MDT Integration with CM and Standalone is no longer supported with Configuration Manager,” the company shared in another support page. “Customers should remove MDT TS steps, followed by removing MDT integration, to avoid TS corruption and modification failures.”
Furthermore, there had been few meaningful updates in recent years, so all signs were pointing towards an eventual deprecation.
Microsoft suggests MDT users should now consider using Windows Autopilot for cloud-based deployment and provisioning, or Configuration Manager operating system deployment (OSD) for on-prem infrastructure needs.
However, Microsoft admitted that there is no “direct in-place upgrade path” and that a transition would be required.
Although the overall impact might be limited with many organizations having already migrated, that hasn’t stopped fans taking to platforms like Reddit to share archived download links. Many also raised that MDT was free, had no telemetry, and don’t force Azure cloud adoption.
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