[German]Microsoft has recently discontinued virtualization-based security (VBS enclaves) as a feature for older Windows versions prior to Windows 11 24H2 and Windows Server 2025. and declared it as deprecated. Also Windows UWP Maps and Windows Maps Platform APIs have already been deprecated as of April 8, 2025.
VBS enclaves deprecated
VBS enclaves is a security feature that Microsoft has developed for Windows. According to this Microsoft article, a virtualization-based security (VBS) enclave is a software-based security environment (Trusted Execution Environment) within the address space of a host application. VBS enclaves use underlying VBS technology to isolate the confidential part of an application in a secure memory partition.
VBS enclaves make it possible to isolate confidential workloads from both the host application and the rest of the system. This function has stuck in the back of my mind, especially in connection with conflicts (slow VMs with third-party products for virtualization).
In April 2025, Microsoft classified VBS enclaves as "deprecated" – I became aware of this via this Neowin.net article – the discontinuation of the feature can be found on this Microsoft page with the list of "Deprecated Features".
In the announcement, Microsoft deprecates VBS enclaves and writes that they are no longer supported on Windows 11 version 23H2 and earlier versions of Windows. Support for VBS enclaves will only remain for Windows 11 version 24H2 and later.
VBS enclaves are also no longer supported on Windows Server 2022 and earlier versions of Windows Server. Support for VBS enclaves will only remain for Windows Server 2025 and later.
Windows UWP Maps Control and API discontinued
In an announcement dated April 8, 2025, Microsoft has discontinued Windows UWP Map Control and the Windows Maps Platform APIs on this Microsoft page with the list of "Deprecated Features". The Maps UWP control and Maps Platform support in Windows will continue to work, but will no longer be developed and updated.
Windows UWP Map Control and the Windows Maps Platform APIs offered developers of UWP apps the option of querying location data or displaying it in the app. Microsoft has published this article on the Bing blog. In May 2024, Microsoft announced the unification of Bing Maps for Enterprise with Azure Maps to create a compliant Azure offering based on the same Bing Maps data. (via)
