Forum Discussion

Numlock587's avatar
Numlock587
Copper Contributor
Feb 16, 2026

Did Microsoft make a mistake? WinServer 2022 Standard and up.

Microsoft removed functionality of Windows Deployment Service. I know their are ways to to get around this but they either are hackjobs or deploying your own windows with PE. as far as i know of writ...
Nano Server
networking
windows server
Jamony's avatar
Jamony
MCT
Jul 15, 2026

No—you don't need a VM, and you don't need to remove DNS or DHCP. WDS was only partially deprecated. PXE boot still works; the affected workflow is using boot.wim directly from newer Windows installation media to run Setup in WDS mode. For Windows 11 and Server 2025 that end-to-end workflow is blocked, while Server 2022 shows a deprecation warning.

 

Keep WDS for PXE and use a custom WinPE boot image from your deployment solution, then run Setup or a task sequence from a network share. If WDS and Microsoft DHCP share the same server, use:

 

wdsutil /Set-Server /UseDhcpPorts:No /DhcpOption60:Yes

 

For routed subnets, use IP helpers to both the DHCP and WDS/PXE addresses instead of DHCP options 66/67. DNS and DHCP can stay where they are; only the old install-media boot-image workflow needs replacing.