Windows: Microsoft declares speech recognition as deprecated

[German]The list of discontinued Windows functions that will eventually be removed is getting longer and longer. After Cortana, WebDAV client, etc., Microsoft also no longer wants to retain the speech recognition introduced with Windows Vista. Microsoft declared these functions "deprecated" from Windows in December 2023 and will remove them. Microsoft Defender Application Guard for Office was also discontinued at the end of November 2023.

I came across this new development via the following post on BlueSky. Xeno points out that Windows Speech Recognition has been moved to the list of "deprecated features". This means that speech recognition is classified as obsolete and will be removed from Windows in the future.

Microsoft has added a new entry Windows speech recognition to the page with Deprecated Windows features as of December 2023 and writes about it: Windows speech recognition is deprecated and will no longer be developed.

This feature will be replaced by "Voice Access". The function is available for devices with Windows 11, version 22H2, or higher. Currently, Voice Access supports five English locales: English – US, English – UK, English – India, English – New Zealand, English – Canada and English – Australia. Further information can be found in this Microsoft support article.

Microsoft Defender Application Guard for Office

I hadn't mentioned it in the blog before. The Microsoft Defender Application Guard for Office will also be buried over time, as Microsoft announced at the end of November 2023. The entry in question states that Microsoft Defender Application Guard for Office is obsolete and will no longer be updated. This discontinuation also affects the Windows.Security.Isolation APIs used for Microsoft Defender Application Guard for Office.

Microsoft recommends transitioning to Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and the attack surface reduction rules, along with Protected View and Windows Defender Application Control.