14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has announced the features that would go away with the release of the October 2018 Update, as well as the ones no longer being developed and planned for removal in a future update.
The company emphasizes that since these features would get the ax, all the other applications or codes that depend on them would no longer work either, so an alternative method is necessary.
In terms of features being removed, Microsoft says that Business Scanning, also known as Distributed Scan Management (DSM) is the first to go dark, followed by FontSmoothing setting unattend.xml, Hologram app, Phone Companion, the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) management console, and future updates through Windows Embedded Developer Update for Windows Embedded Standard 8 and Windows Embedded 8 Standard.
limpet.exe, which is a tool that Microsoft has released to access TPM for Azure connectivity, would go open-source with the release of the October 2018 Update.
Features not getting any updates
In addition, there are three different features that would no longer get any updates, which means that at some point in the future could go away too.
“We're no longer actively developing these features and may remove them from a future update. Some features have been replaced with other features or functionality, while others are now available from different sources,” Microsoft says.
One of the most popular such features is the Snipping Tool, which is being replaced in Windows 10 by Snip & Sketch. Snipping Tool will remain available for a little longer in Windows 10, but it could go dark as well, possibly after its successor becomes more widely adopted.
The October 2018 Update will go live next month and insiders will receive the RTM build in just a few days. The rollout will take place in stages, so it could take a while until everyone gets it.