- Microsoft may retire some peer-to-peer features from Windows 11 and 12.
- Windows 11 build 25951 no longer includes about a dozen peer networking DLL files.
- These are old networking services, which may explain the reason why the company is removing them.
Microsoft appears to be making some additional changes that will remove peer-to-peer (also referred to as P2P) features from Windows 11 23H2 as well as Windows 12 and higher releases. According to a new report from Neowin, Windows enthusiast Xeno (on X) has discovered that the development team (now led by Yusuf Mehdi after Panos Panay departed from the company) has removed a number of DLL networking-related files.
On the latest preview of Windows 11 (build 25951), the company seems to be removing files for distributed routing and peer-to-peer services from the build’s “System32” folder, which means that three particular services will no longer be available in the operating system moving forward, including “Peer Name Resolution Protocol,” “Peer Networking Grouping,” and “Peer Networking Identity Manager.”
Xeno notes a dozen DLL files are getting deleted in this clean-up, including:
- drt.dll (Distributed Routing Table)
- drtprov.dll (Distributed Routing Table Providers)
- drttransport.dll (Distributed Routing Table Transport Providers)
- Groupinghc.dll (Grouping Helper Class)
- P2P.dll (Peer-to-Peer Grouping)
- P2PGraph.dll (Peer-to-Peer Graphing)
- p2pnetsh.dll (Peer-to-Peer NetSh Helper)
- p2psvc.dll (Peer-to-Peer Services)
- pnrpauto.dll (PNRP Auto Service Dll)
- Pnrphc.dll (PNRP Helper Class)
- pnrpnsp.dll (PNRP Name Space Provider)
- pnrpsvc.dll (PNRP Service Dll)
These are obsolete networking services that perhaps the company kept in the operating system for compatibility reasons. However, the company has been putting a lot of effort into making Windows 11 a more secure system, which could explain the decision to remove these peer-to-peer services.
Peer-to-peer networking is a serverless networking technology that allows several network devices to share resources and communicate directly. The technology has been available since Windows XP with Service Pack 1 (SP1) and higher releases.
Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 21 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].