Please consider this a quick PSA (Public Service Announcement) as it is still common that I run into environments with the IIS SMTP service still running and processing mail.
While the component has had a long and interesting life, it is now unsupported as it is tied to the support lifecycle of Windows Server 2003.
For more details and information please see:
How to: Install and Configure SMTP Virtual Servers in IIS 6.0
Update 13-5-2025: Adding an update as this came up again today. While the SMTP component is still present on the Windows Server 2022 DVD, and remains unsupported, it is finally removed from Windows Server 2025.
Note that it is not present on a Windows Server 2025 server:
In the Features removed or no longer developed in Windows Server article, it notes that SMTP is removed for Server 2025.
Cheers,
Rhoderick
The only thing you (MS) will achieve with that, is us moving to linux. Who would want to change one SMTP service, a small windows component, for a giant Exchange server with lots of services and why?
Is it really that hard for a corporation as big as MS to keep such an easy component in support lifecycle?