Microsoft has officially deprecated the VBScript language from future Windows versions

Back in May, Microsoft released Windows 11 build 25309 to the Windows Insider Program for Dev Channel users. Among the announced features, it also has some things that were not included in the official blog post. One of them was that there was an uninstall option for VBScript (Visual Basic Script) a legacy scripting language that Microsoft created decades ago.

This small bit in the Dev Channel build of Windows 11 strongly hinted that Microsoft was going to end support for VBScript in the near future. This week, Microsoft confirmed it would soon no longer be a part of future Windows releases.

In Microsoft's updated support page for deprecated features, the company stated:

VBScript will be available as a feature on demand before being retired in future Windows releases. Initially, the VBScript feature on demand will be preinstalled to allow for uninterrupted use while you prepare for the retirement of VBScript.

It's not hard to see why the company is finally making this move. VBScript was first created back in 1996 and was made to be an easy-to-use language. VBScript was also used in Microsoft's early versions of its Internet Explorer browser.

However, VBScript has also been used to help distribute malware by cybercriminals. Over the years, Microsoft has slowly been phasing out the use of the language in its products. It is not used in its new Edge browser at all, and in 2017, it disabled VBScript by default in IE 10 for Windows 10.

In 2019, Microsoft made the move to disable VBScript in its last version of Internet Explorer 11 for Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1. This week's move to set up a timeline to completely remove VBScript from future Windows versions is the final nail on the coffin for this scripting language, but it's very unlikely to affect too many developers.

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