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Microsoft Graveyard is a real, unofficial website cataloging Microsoft products that have been discontinued or are approaching retirement. Created by developer Victor Frye, it launched in late January 2024 as an open-source community project. It is useful for browsing Microsoft product history, but it is not Microsoft’s official record of support status or retirement dates.
What Microsoft Graveyard is—and who made it
The site presents a visual archive of products associated with Microsoft, from software and services to hardware, games, studios and projects that never reached a full release. Its homepage describes the collection as being “In remembrance of those killed by Microsoft” and credits Victor Frye. The project was inspired by Killed by Google and is hosted as an open-source repository on GitHub.
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
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Microsoft Windows History and Interesting Facts | $15.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
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The History of Microsoft: Code, Empire and Reinvention | $7.00 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
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Microsoft Windows: A History | $1.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 4 |
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Microsoft Word for Genealogists 2026 Edition | $29.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 5 |
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Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire | $98.33 | Buy on Amazon |
A report published by Neowin on January 27, 2024 said the site had launched “earlier this week”; that establishes a late-January launch, not a precise launch day. The site is a third-party project, not operated or endorsed by Microsoft. Its collection can be expanded or corrected by contributors, so it should not be treated as a complete or official register.
What you can find in the catalog
Entries typically give a product name, a short description, launch and retirement dates or years, and an estimated lifespan, along with a link for further reading. The collection mixes products with very different histories: some were discontinued, some are scheduled for retirement, and others were canceled before release or represent a closed studio rather than a product customers could use.
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Examples visible in the catalog as of September 26, 2026 include Zune, Windows Media Center, Cortana, Paint 3D, Windows Mail and Calendar, Kinect, Surface Duo, Xbox 360, Visual Studio for Mac, Atom, Wunderlist, Fable Legends, Lionhead Studios and Ensemble Studios. The catalog also includes older operating-system entries such as Windows XP and MS-DOS, and more recent entries such as Windows Maps, Movies & TV, Dev Home, Wallet, Delve, Windows People and Flip. These are examples, not an exhaustive list, and the site’s entries can change.
That range gives the site historical value: readers can browse Microsoft’s experiments in mobile computing, consumer services, hardware, developer tools and games in one place. A discontinued product is not automatically evidence of a strategic failure. Some offerings were folded into other products, some were acquired before being retired, and some ended as Microsoft shifted its priorities.
“Dead” is an informal label, not a lifecycle status
The graveyard metaphor is memorable, but it can describe different events. A product may be discontinued while existing copies remain usable; an app may be removed from the Store without immediately stopping work; a service may shut down on a set date; or a product may simply stop receiving updates. A canceled project, a closed studio and a retired app also do not have the same customer impact.
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Microsoft’s official lifecycle language is more specific. Depending on the product and applicable policy, retirement or end of support means Microsoft no longer provides new security or non-security updates, assisted support, or updates to online technical content. That does not necessarily mean installed software stops running, and a listing on Microsoft Graveyard is not a security assessment.
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Acquisitions and product families add further nuance. Wunderlist, for example, was not originally created by Microsoft; its presence in a Microsoft-focused archive does not change its origin. Likewise, retirement of Visual Studio for Mac did not mean Visual Studio, .NET or Visual Studio Code disappeared. Read each entry as a pointer to a particular product, version, service or organization—not a verdict on every related technology.
Microsoft Graveyard versus Microsoft’s official sources
| Resource | What it is for | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Graveyard | Visual, community-maintained archive of discontinued and soon-to-retire Microsoft-related products | Unofficial; useful for discovery and historical context |
| Microsoft Lifecycle | Lifecycle policies and official support, retirement and end-of-support information | First-party Microsoft source |
| Microsoft product end-of-support overview and product-specific Microsoft Learn pages | Definitions, technical details and product-specific guidance | First-party Microsoft source |
| Microsoft Store | Whether an app is currently available to download through the Store | First-party for Store availability; not a complete support-status record |
Microsoft’s lifecycle pages distinguish policies and statuses such as Modern Lifecycle, Fixed Lifecycle, end of servicing, end of support and product retirement. The exact rules depend on the product and its applicable policy, so a single label on an unofficial catalog cannot replace checking the relevant Microsoft page.
How to verify an entry before acting on it
- Find the entry on Microsoft Graveyard. Note the exact product name, platform or edition, and date shown. Treat year-only dates and lifespan summaries as a quick overview, not necessarily an exact support timeline.
- Check Microsoft Lifecycle. Search the official lifecycle hub for the product and confirm that the page refers to the edition or version you use.
- Open the product-specific Microsoft documentation. Look for the announced retirement or end-of-support date, what updates or support end, and any migration instructions.
- Check availability separately. If you need to install or reinstall an app, verify its current Microsoft Store status. Store removal and end of support are different events.
- Use official guidance for operational decisions. For security, licensing, compliance, data access or a migration plan, rely on the relevant Microsoft documentation rather than the archive. Avoid obtaining abandoned software from untrusted third-party download mirrors.
Examples show why the distinction matters
Paint 3D: Store removal did not mean existing copies stopped working
Microsoft’s deprecated-features documentation says Paint 3D was deprecated in August 2024 and removed from the Microsoft Store on November 4, 2024. Existing installations may continue to work, but normal Store redownload is no longer available after removal. Microsoft listed Paint, Photos and Babylon.js Sandbox as alternatives for different uses. These facts describe deprecation and availability; they do not establish that every installed copy ceased functioning on the removal date. Microsoft’s deprecated-features documentation
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Windows Maps: app retirement and map alternatives
Microsoft’s documentation says Windows Maps was deprecated and scheduled for removal from the Store by July 2025; Windows 11 version 24H2 no longer preinstalled the app. Microsoft directed users to Bing Maps for map functionality. That direction should not be read as a claim that every developer API or mapping use case has the same replacement. Microsoft’s deprecated-features documentation
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Visual Studio for Mac: a formal end to servicing
Microsoft retired Visual Studio for Mac on August 31, 2024, after which it said the product would receive no further servicing updates. Microsoft recommended Visual Studio on Windows through a virtual machine or cloud-hosted environment, or Visual Studio Code on Mac. The retirement date marks the end of servicing, not the disappearance of the wider Visual Studio family; Microsoft also described legacy installation availability for eligible Visual Studio subscribers separately. Microsoft’s Visual Studio for Mac end-of-servicing announcement
3D Viewer: deprecation and a later Store-removal date
Microsoft’s deprecated-features documentation states that 3D Viewer was deprecated in February 2026 and scheduled for removal from the Microsoft Store on July 1, 2026. Existing installations may continue to work, while normal Store redownload is unavailable after removal. The deprecation announcement and Store-removal date are separate milestones. Microsoft’s deprecated-features documentation
Who should use the site?
- For nostalgia and discovery: browse entries to revisit old apps, services, games and hardware, or find products to research further.
- For historical context: use it as a starting point for understanding product experiments, acquisitions and changes in Microsoft’s priorities.
- For support or security decisions: verify exact dates and status on Microsoft Lifecycle or product-specific Microsoft documentation.
- For downloads or migration: check Microsoft’s current Store listings and official product guidance; the archive is not a download service or migration tool.
Because the project is community-maintained, its descriptions may be informal, its coverage may be incomplete, and links may point to secondary sources rather than Microsoft notices. A “soon-to-be-dead” entry can reflect an announced plan, not an independently verified lifecycle record.
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