Get Ready for Upcoming Microsoft Client-Management Changes

• Windows Server Update Services has been deprecated with no future features, but remains functional in Windows Server 2025.
• Features of the free Windows Update for Business (WUfB) service are being rolled into the paid Autopatch service.
• Intune has delayed automatic push updates to enrolled clients, for the time being.
• Customers need to watch Microsoft blogs as they are more frequently including stealth announcements of proposed behavior changes.

In the past several months, Microsoft started clarifying its intentions around what ultimately will be major changes to its client-management portfolio. Some of these changes are imminent; others are still likely years away, and one has been given a brief stay until it can be properly blocked if not desired. In any case, it is not too soon to start making plans for Microsoft’s inevitable move to cloud-based client management, specifically Microsoft’s hosted, paid Windows Autopatch service.

Windows Server Update Services Fades Away

Early in Oct. 2024, Microsoft announced that it is deprecating its Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) updating mechanism. “Deprecated,” as Microsoft uses the term, “refers to the stage in the product lifecycle when a feature or functionality is no longer in active development and may be removed in future releases.” Customers should not expect any new features in WSUS, and the feature will probably be removed with the next release of Windows Server, likely due in 2028.