Microsoft is ending support for troubleshooters such as the Support Diagnostic Tool, the program that allowed Windows to automatically fix problems in the operating system. That will happen in 2025, but some troubleshooters will be phased out earlier.
Microsoft writes on a support page that it wants to remove all troubleshooters from Windows 11 from 2025. It concerns all troubleshooters in Windows, such as the Speech or the Keyboard troubleshooter. These are built-in tools that allow Windows to automatically detect and in some cases resolve problems, for example by resetting a driver. All of those troubleshooters operate on the same underlying platform, the Microsoft Support Diagnostics Tool, or MSDT. Microsoft wants to pull the plug on this in the long term.
That will definitely happen in 2025. A certain number of troubleshooters will be removed before then. This will already happen in 2023 with the next update of Windows 11. That process will be completed in 2024; over the course of those two years, all troubleshooters must disappear from Windows one by one until the end of 2025, no tools are available anymore.
Microsoft is removing troubleshooters for audio, Backgroud intelligent transfer service or BITS, bluetooth, networking, printers, program compatibility, video playback, Windows Media Player, and Windows Update. The removal only happens on the most recent version of Windows 11. Users on version 22H2 or older, or on Windows 10, Windows 8.1, or Windows 7, will not be affected.
In the future, instead of an automatic diagnosis and possible repair, users will be directed to Microsoft’s own Get Help forums. Microsoft gives no reason for discontinuing the tool. In the past, vulnerabilities and zero-days have been regularly discovered in MSDT, but it is not known whether this is related.
