The MDT download is gone, so RIP

We knew the day would come, and have talked about it for a while (see my previous post). In the march toward oblivion, Microsoft appears to have taken the last step now: the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit installer MSI files are no longer available on the Microsoft download center.

Assuming that wasn’t an accident, that’s the final step. Of course we know that it will live on as people will share the installers among themselves, and that it really hasn’t been supported for quite some time anyway.

If you are looking for a supported replacement, we can help you out there. Read more about DeployR here, and expect a variety of additional posts around that in the coming weeks.

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6 responses to “The MDT download is gone, so RIP”

idoyavin

January 7, 2026 at 12:31 am

Hej Michael,

I totally agree that we need a solid bare-metal imaging solution. I managed to build an installation for Windows 11 24H2 on my MDT server, although it was a bit of a battle 🙂 I also have an idea for how we could integrate an upgrade path to Windows 11 25H2 when we’re ready for that, but I understand this would mainly be a way to buy some time, so to speak. I find DeployR very interesting indeed. Do you have any estimate on when it might be available—ideally as a free edition if it’s comparable to MDT? That said, I do think it may be a bit unfair to compare it directly to Microsoft, so I think it would be reasonable for it to have a cost, as long as it’s affordable.:-)

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pickluxx

January 7, 2026 at 2:11 am

Thank you, Michael.MDT has been an amazing tool for me over many years – I truly loved it and owe it a great deal professionally. It shaped the way I worked and helped me tremendously. Even though this moment has been coming for a while, what remains most is gratitude for everything it enabled.

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goja

January 7, 2026 at 7:37 am

USB drives and CD-ROMs are still the best. I learned this here.

https://github.com/ilikeyi/Solutions/blob/main/_Learn/Deploy/Deploy.pdf

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1. Michael Niehaus
  
  January 7, 2026 at 11:03 am
  
  That handles the easy part, getting the OS onto the device. The hard part is customizing the OS once it is installed.
  
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bbbuk

January 7, 2026 at 2:41 pm

Thanks for that update. We knew it was coming.

We already use Intune/autopilot so only reason we use MDT for is bare metal OSD deployment (mainly where rebuild is needed) and use Andrew Taylor’s fork of your get-windowsautopilotinfo script (thanks to you and Andrew for maintaining that)

Does DeployR allow just that basic feature similar to MDT? We use USB sticks for building so don’t need PXE server or anything.

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1. Michael Niehaus
  
  January 7, 2026 at 2:44 pm
  
  Yes, DeployR provides the same features as MDT, and then some. We are still working on USB scenarios — booting from USB is there, but the content would come over the network. There are a few variations on the media scenarios, so we’re taking our time to do it right.
  
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