Microsoft announces immediate retirement of Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT)



 Microsoft Learn:

Summary​

Microsoft is announcing the immediate retirement of Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT). MDT will no longer receive updates, fixes, or support. Existing installations will continue to function as is. However, we encourage customers to transition to modern deployment solutions.

Impact​

  • MDT is no longer supported, and won't receive future enhancements or security updates.
  • MDT download packages might be removed or deprecated from official distribution channels.
  • No future compatibility updates for new Windows releases will be provided.


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Could have seen that one coming down Broadway. It was a trusted, faithful companion; farewell, old friend. Thank you to Michael, Aaron and everyone else involved.
 

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Windows 11 Enterprise 25H2
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Windows 11 Enterprise 25H2
Shawn, I know you're a fan of MS, however for the last few years they have been selling us users down the river.
I don't mean to offend, I just have to say , since MS became a Corporation, and Bill lost control, things only seem about $$$$$.
I still have my ADKs so, not worried.
 

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Win 10 Pro 19045.6937 Win 11 25H2 VMXeon W-10885M64GB ECC DDR4 128GB maxIntel 1080p + Quadro RTX 5000 Max-Q 16GB 4K
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Win 10 Pro 19045.6937 Win 11 25H2 VM
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Dell Precicion 15 Workstation
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Modern Deployment, what is that ? I am pretty sure they are talking about the xml files we use to install office or deploy office like office 2021 ?
 

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Modern Deployment, what is that ? I am pretty sure they are talking about the xml files we use to install office or deploy office like office 2021 ?
I had a chuckle at the irony of that, since MDT is loaded with XML and VBScript. They mean modern deployment as in Autopilot and in-place upgrades. Or you can fall back on old reliable, Config Manager, although it's getting long in the tooth as well.

And besides, the cool kids aren't deploying 365 Apps/Office with XML files anymore.
 

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Windows 11 Enterprise 25H2
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Windows 11 Enterprise 25H2

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Windows 11 Pro + Win11 Canary VM.I9 13th gen i9-13900H 2.60 GHZ16 GB solderedIntegrated Intel Iris XE
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Windows 11 Pro + Win11 Canary VM.
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Manufacturer/Model
ASUS Zenbook 14
CPU
I9 13th gen i9-13900H 2.60 GHZ
Motherboard
Yep, Laptop has one.
Memory
16 GB soldered
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Integrated Intel Iris XE
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Realtek built in
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laptop OLED screen
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2880x1800 touchscreen
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1 TB NVME SSD (only weakness is only one slot)
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Internal + 65W thunderbolt USB4 charger
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Yep, got one
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Stella Artois (UK pint cans - 568 ml) - extra cost.
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Built in UK keybd
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Bluetooth , wireless dongled, wired
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900 mbs (ethernet), wifi 6 typical 350-450 mb/s both up and down
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Edge
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Defender
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TPM 2.0, 2xUSB4 thunderbolt, 1xUsb3 (usb a), 1xUsb-c, hdmi out, 3.5 mm audio out/in combo, ASUS backlit trackpad (inc. switchable number pad)

Macrium Reflect Home V8
Office 365 Family (6 users each 1TB onedrive space)
Hyper-V (a vm runs almost as fast as my older laptop)
Michael Niehaus explains why MS finally killed MDT:
A complete history of MDT (abridged)

There was a little more surprise when Microsoft pulled the MDT download without warning and posted an immediate retirement notice on January 6th. What prompted that move? Some behind-the-scenes conversations confirmed that this was related to a security issue in the monitoring component. So, faced with the option of either fixing the issue and releasing a new version, or just retiring MDT and yanking it from the download center, the choice was easy.

Is there cause for concern with this security issue? If you have enabled the monitoring feature, you might want to disable it, especially if (for some crazy reason) you have your MDT server connected to the internet.
 

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Windows 7
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Windows 7
Huh. I just assumed nobody wanted to migrate all that VBScript before its ultimate demise.
 

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Windows 11 Enterprise 25H2
OS
Windows 11 Enterprise 25H2
If you read the full blog post, he goes into how the product's been half-supported during its lifetime.

Been there myself. Someone builds a mostly complete project, it gets adopted (with a dedicated following), but management never admits they killed off the work years ago, and the zombie lingers on. It's just good enough, that nobody thinks they need to compete with it, or replace it. Until it's too late...

The team 2Pint's assembling for DeployR is a group of heavy MDT hitters (Johan Arwidmark, Gary Blok, Michael Niehaus, and more). It'll probably receive more attention than MS would have provided.
 

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Windows 7
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Windows 7
I read the post, and I also ran into Niehaus and Johan at quite a few MMS conferences, the original Microsoft ones, so I knew most of the story already. I was kind of hoping the Friends of MDT thing would catch on, but I don't think it ever did. Anyway I last used MDT in like 2013; it felt back then like it wasn't getting enough attention.
 

My Computer My Computer

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Windows 11 Enterprise 25H2
OS
Windows 11 Enterprise 25H2
So what the replacement?
 

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    HP Pavilion Laptop 15-cw1xxx
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    Windows 11 24h2Intel® Core™ i5-3330S Processor8.00 GB DDR3 1600 MHzNVIDIA GeForce GT 640M
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    Apple iMac "Core i5" 2.7 21.5" (Late 2012)
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    Intel® Core™ i5-3330S Processor
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    iMac Aluminum Body
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    HP SK-2085
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    Lenovo
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    Google Chrome
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    Windows Defender

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Windows XP,11 Linux Fedora Rawhide pre-releas...2 X Intel i7
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