Blame your phone for killing off this traditional Windows app

If you’ve ever used your phone to navigate from one appointment to the next, then you’ve probably never used Windows Maps. That’s basically why Microsoft is getting rid of it.

In an ongoing calendar of deprecated features within Windows, Microsoft has targeted Maps for deprecation by April. It will be removed from the Windows Store by July and will no longer be supported, the company said. In July, a new update will turn the Maps app off.

“Any personal data or files you have saved, such as guided navigation or URLs to maps, won’t be removed, but they’ll no longer function in the Maps app past July 2025,” Microsoft said. The Maps app won’t come preinstalled on new PCs past the current Windows 11 24H2 release, either.

Maps will still be supported within Windows, however. You’ll simply have to visit Bing’s own maps page to access them.

Maps is a legacy app that was invaluable on Windows Phones, though that platform died years ago. Now, there’s no real reason to hold on to Maps, or to add those few kilobytes to the install size of Windows.

Maps, whose data is credited to both TomTom and Microsoft itself, also previously agreed to change the “Gulf of Mexico” to the “Gulf of America.” So if that riles you up, you’ll be glad to see Maps go.