Microsoft Defender Application Guard for Office is now deprecated

Microsoft Defender Antivirus logo blue on blue background

Microsoft has updated its Windows documentation again, adding another deprecated component to the list. According to the company, Microsoft Defender Application Guard for Office is no longer in development and won't receive additional updates. The change also applies to Windows Security Isolation APIs for Microsoft Defender Application Guard for Office.

Microsoft Defender Application Guard for Office

Microsoft Defender Application Guard for Office is being deprecated and is no longer being updated. This deprecation also includes the Windows.Security.Isolation APIs that are used for Microsoft Defender Application Guard for Office. We recommend transitioning to Microsoft Defender for Endpoint attack surface reduction rules along with Protected View and Windows Defender Application Control.

For those unfamiliar, Microsoft Defender Application Guard for Office prevents untrusted and, thus, potentially harmful Office files from accessing trusted resources within a company, keeping the network and connected computers safe from cyberattacks.

Microsoft Defender Application Guard for Office is an enterprise-focused product that requires a Microsoft 365 E5 or E5 Security license, and it is not available for "regular customers" with home computers. Therefore, the change won't affect your personal device.

However, Microsoft deprecated a few other Windows components that do affect Windows consumers. The company is no longer developing Steps Recorder (psr.exe), a troubleshooting utility from the Windows 7 era, the Tips app, the WebDAV service, Remote Mailslots, and the Computer Browser driver.

Here is how Microsoft describes deprecated features in its documentation:

The features in this article are no longer being actively developed, and might be removed in a future update. Some features have been replaced with other features or functionality and some are now available from other sources.

As a reminder, deprecated and removed features are not the same. Microsoft has a separate list of capabilities removed from Windows 11, and you can check it out on the official website.