Microsoft to remove SMBv1 from Windows 11

Microsoft is going to disable the SMBv1 protocol by default in Windows 11. This puts a definitive end to the thirty-year-old protocol, which was no longer supplied by default in Windows 10 and Windows Server since 2017.

Microsoft writes that it has since started disabling existing SMBv1 instances in Windows. This concerns the last place where the protocol was still active, in Windows 11. SMBv1 was still installed by default, but the protocol disappears. System administrators who still want or need to continue using the tool can still install it. However, the binaries will also be removed in the future. Windows and Windows Server users will no longer be able to find the SMB1 drivers and DLLs in their systems. Microsoft will continue to offer it as a separate download for organizations that still have certain old equipment linked to PCs that still require SMBv1. It is not known when Microsoft intends to do this.

SMBv1 is a protocol that is almost thirty years old that is now increasingly causing security problems. Microsoft has been phasing out for some time now. The protocol has not been installed on Windows 10 and Windows Server since 2017. That went gradually, but now the tool can no longer be used anywhere in Windows 10. Now also Windows 11 Home follows. SMBv3 will then become the default.