[English]Another brief information: Microsoft has announced the discontinuation of Visual Studio App Center this week. Furthermore, features such as Test Base (Azure) and TLS server authentication certificates with less than 2048 bits were classified as "deprecated" and discontinued for March 2024.
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On the Microsoft page Deprecated features for Windows client, two new entries with the status "March 2024" have been added recently, listing "deprecated" functions (i.e. functions that are no longer being developed).
TLS authentication certificates
TLS server authentication certificates that use RSA keys with key lengths of less than 2048 bits have been discontinued in support. As early as 2013, Internet standards and regulatory authorities prohibited the use of 1024-bit keys and explicitly recommended that RSA keys should have a key length of 2048 bits or more.
Microsoft is now withdrawing support in Windows for certificates that use RSA keys with key lengths of less than 2048 bits. This deprecation is intended to ensure that all RSA certificates used for TLS server authentication must have a key length of at least 2048 bits in order to be considered valid by Windows.
TLS certificates issued by corporate or test certification authorities (CA) are not affected by this change. However, it is recommended to update them to RSA keys with a key length of at least 2048 bits to ensure security. This change is necessary to ensure the security of Windows customers who use certificates for authentication and cryptographic purposes, Microsoft writes.
Test Base discontinued
Test Base for Microsoft 365 is an Azure cloud service for application testing that has now been deprecated. The service will be discontinued in the future and will no longer be available. I do not know whether this service has been used by the readership.
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Visual Studio App Center
Microsoft has also announced the shutdown of the Visual Studio App Center. Visual Studio App Center is a collection of cloud tools and services that help developers create, test, deploy, monitor and maintain applications for Windows, iOS, Android and other platforms. neowin.net has described here that this App Center is "expected to be discontinued on March 31, 2025". However, Microsoft has provided a number of alternatives for developers, which are described at neowin.net.
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