Microsoft has updated the documentation for Windows 10 and Windows 11, marking three functions of the operating systems as obsolete. The Computer Browser service, Webclient Service (WebDAV) and Remote Mailslots are now deprecated. This means that active development of these features has ceased, but they still remain available in Windows 11/10.
Here's are some details on the reason why the features are deprecated.
- Computer Browser Service and its driver. This is an outdated and insecure protocol responsible for discovering other computers on a local network or domain. This protocol, service, and driver were disabled by default in Windows 10 after SMB1 support was removed.
- WebClient (WebDAV) service. From now on, WebClient does not start on Windows by default.
- Remote Mailslots is an outdated, simple, unreliable, and insecure IPC method that first appeared in MS-DOS. This protocol was previously disabled in Windows 11 Insider builds.
These changes are part of Microsoft's efforts to offer a more secure SMB implementation. The now-deprecated components were first added in Server Message Block version 1 (SMB1), which is 30 years old. It was the only choice till Windows XP. In Windows Vista, Microsoft implemented a new version of SMB, known as SMB2. There is a newer version of SMB, SMBv3, in modern Windows versions. So, along with SMB1, its tools and services are getting deprecated too.
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