Windows Server Update Services, short for WSUS, a product that helps IT admins manage and distribute updates for Microsoft products across their organizations, is getting some changes related to driver synchronization. In a new blog post on the Tech Community website, Microsoft announced its plans to deprecate WSUS driver sync in favor of its latest cloud-based driver services.
Before announcing the deprecation, Microsoft conducted a survey, which resulted in only 34% of participants reporting using WSUS for driver synchronization. Moreover, most of those 34% are already in the process of switching to a different solution. Of course, some customers still use WSUS for driver sync, so Microsoft is not pulling the plug right away.
Out of the participants who use WSUS, only 34% reported that they use it to synchronize drivers. Most of this 34% reported that they are in the process of implementing a different solution and don’t anticipate any problems with deprecation. Only 8% of participants indicated concerns over potential effects from deprecation, and we want to help everyone to get ready.
According to the announcement post, WSUS driver synchronization will be deprecated on April 18, 2025. Also, deprecated features usually stick around for some time and continue operating until completely removed in future updates.
Our plan is to deprecate WSUS driver synchronization on April 18, 2025. For on-premises contexts, drivers will be available on the Microsoft Update catalog, but you will not be able to import them into WSUS. You’ll need to use other means, such as Device Driver Packages, to distribute the drivers within your network.
IT admins who want to prepare for the deprecation can learn about other driver services, such as Windows Driver update management in Microsoft Intune, Windows Update for Business deployment service, and more. It is worth adding that WSUS is not something a home user would care about, but Microsoft has already deprecated quite a lot of features that affect regular consumers.
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