How to Find Out What Features Microsoft Is Killing in Every Windows 10 Update
Microsoft releases small updates to Windows 10 fairly regularly, keeping larger patches, tweaks, and features for a bi-annual release. In fact, we only had one thing – the big November update, also known as Windows 10 version 1909. And with it, the ax for some Windows 10 features that Microsoft no longer wants to work on.
If negative news is ruining your day, we’ve already covered several features you can play with in Windows 10 (1909). Unfortunately, this is not a very busy update for new cases.
What I’m just as curious about at times like this is that in fact, any major Windows 10 update is Microsoft’s graveyard, also known as the expansive list of features the company is not going to develop. In fact, his website, which tracks these things, is named exactly like this: “ Windows 10 Features We No Longer Developing.” Bookmark this site and check back every time Microsoft releases a major update for Windows 10 to see what Microsoft is no longer interested in (or what might be missing in Windows 10 soon).
For example, as part of the November update, Microsoft decided to remove (or change) these five features:
- Hyper-V vSwitch on LBFO: In a future release, Hyper-V vSwitch will no longer be able to bind to an LBFO group. Instead, it can be linked using Switch Embedded Teaming (SET). 1909
- Language Community Tab in Feedback Hub : The Language Community tab will be removed from the Feedback Hub. The standard feedback process is: Feedback Hub – Feedback is the recommended way to provide translation feedback.
- My People / Shell People: My people are no longer being developed. It may be removed in a future update. 1909
- TFS1 / TFS2 IME: TSF1 and TSF2 IME will be replaced by TSF3 IME in a future release. The Text Services Framework (TFS) supports language technologies. TSF IMEs are Windows components that you can add to enable typing for Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Korean. 1909 g.
- Package State Roaming (PSR): PSR will be removed in a future update. PSR allows non-Microsoft developers to access roaming data on devices by allowing UWP app developers to write data to Windows and sync it with other Windows instances for that user.
Only one, maybe two of these relate to your daily life with Windows 10 – goodbye my people – but that doesn’t mean some gems are sometimes missing from this list. Regarding the Windows 10 July update (version 1903), you may have found out that Microsoft will soon stop you from connecting to networks “protected” by legacy Wi-Fi encryption:
“Starting with the 1903 release, a warning message appears when connecting to WEP or TKIP secured Wi-Fi networks (which are not as secure as those using WPA2 or WPA3). In future releases, any connection to a Wi-Fi network using these old ciphers will be prohibited. Wi-Fi routers must be updated to use the AES ciphers available with WPA2 or WPA3. “
Around the time of Windows 10 1809 Update (November 2018), you would find out that Microsoft was brutally planning to ditch one of my most used utilities:
“The Snipping Tool is an app included with Windows 10 that is used to take screenshots either in full screen mode or in a small, customizable snippet of the screen. In Windows 10, version 1809, we are introducing a new universal Snip & Sketch app that provides the same screen clipping experience as well as additional functionality. You can launch Snip & Sketch directly and start a snippet from there, or simply press WIN + Shift + S. Snip & Sketch can also be launched using the Screenshot button in the Action Center. We are no longer developing the Snipping Tool as a standalone application, but instead bundling its functionality into Snip & Sketch. “
The next time you’re waiting for a big Windows 10 update to download and install, take a few minutes and see what Microsoft is n’t doing as part of the update. You might be surprised you might be bored, but you will usually find at least one interesting tidbit hidden away.