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Windows updates and patch distribution without WSUS

Clear Signs

Article from ADMIN 89/2025

By Tam Hanna

Microsoft decided to discontinue the Windows Server Update Services update helper and declare it deprecated at the end of Windows 2025 support. We look at whether companies need to take action now and analyze the tools available as alternatives for Windows updates and patch distribution.

Microsoft Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) server role has established itself as an effective tool for managing Windows updates. However, if you take a closer look at the Windows ecosystem, the decision to discontinue WSUS was to be expected – the trend toward the cloud is clear. Moreover, Microsoft has not actively developed the features implemented in WSUS for some time now.

No Immediate End

Discontinuation announcements often trigger panic reactions in the Microsoft world, but if practical experience with Windows technologies teaches us one thing, it is that talk is often greater than the effect. The best example of this is the fuss surrounding the discontinuation of Visual Basic 6 (VB6); despite all the doomsday scenarios, VB6-based applications still run without issues on Windows 11. As a general rule, you can say that Microsoft is reluctant to discontinue services that are actively requested by its customers.

The most important fact concerning WSUS is that Microsoft has indicated in its WSUS roadmap that the product will be supported by Windows Server 2025, which means a long update cycle: Microsoft has set the end date for mainstream support – five years, as always – to October 9, 2029. Extended commercial support with security updates will be available for another five years; that is, until 2034. The prices for this extended service vary from case to case and depend not least on an organization's negotiating skills. You can find cost estimates online [1] that are based on an annual price of up to 75 percent of the original license charge.

Action will need to be taken by October 2029 at the latest, but because this date is still quite a long way off, you currently have no reason to take any action. Another possibility is that Microsoft will change its deprecation decision and integrate the service into a

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