Windows Server Update Services put on ice as Microsoft pushes for the cloud

What just happened? If you’re an IT admin relying on Windows Server Update Services to manage updates across your network, it’s time to consider alternatives. Microsoft has officially announced that, while WSUS will continue to operate for now, the company is no longer investing in new capabilities or accepting feature requests for the service.

For those not intimately familiar with the inner workings of Windows enterprise administration, Windows Server Update Services has been a staple tool since its introduction in 2005 as “Software Update Services.” It allows IT teams to centrally manage and deploy updates across their Windows device fleets from a dedicated server, rather than having each machine fetch patches individually from Microsoft’s servers.

The ability to control the flow of updates is crucial for large organizations that need to test and validate them before rolling them out to thousands of installed systems. WSUS even functions on air-gapped networks, enabling admins to download updates on an internet-connected machine and then import them behind the corporate firewall.

Microsoft has been dropping hints about WSUS’s impending deprecation for a while now. It was listed as one of the “features removed or no longer developed” in Windows Server 2025 last August. Additionally, this June, the company revealed plans to stop WSUS driver synchronization.

This week’s official announcement marks the beginning of WSUS’s life as a frozen-in-time legacy product.

“As part of our vision for simplified Windows management from the cloud, 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,” Microsoft said.

It’s not a complete eulogy just yet, though. Microsoft states it will preserve current functionality and continue to publish updates through the WSUS channel even after its deprecated status. For admins, it will continue to work as-is for the foreseeable future.

The long-term plan, however, is for enterprises to migrate to Microsoft’s newer cloud-based update management solutions, such as Windows Autopatch for clients, Microsoft Intune for mobile devices, and Azure Update Manager for servers. These solutions would replace the need to host local WSUS servers on-premises.

Of course, cloud services require an internet connection and a paid subscription, which may not be suitable for some highly secured corporate networks. Nevertheless, Microsoft is clearly pushing its customers in that direction as its modern “cloud-first” approach takes hold.

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