Microsoft has released Windows Server 2025. Since 01.11.24 the new Windows Server version can be downloaded in the Visual Studio subscription. A 180-day trial version of Windows Server 2025 can be downloaded at the following link:
Windows Server 2025 is an LTSC version that will receive mainstream support until October 2029. Extended Support will then end in October 2034.
The innovations in Windows Server 2025 include these features, among others:
- Improvements to the Active Directory
- New overall structure and domain function level
- 32k Pagesize
- NUMA Support
- Hot patching
- Only 4 reboots per year instead of 12
- only for Azure ARC enabled server
- Requires subscription
- Improvements to Hyper-V
- up to 240 TB RAM and 2048 vCPUs for VMs
- Dynamic Processor Compatibility
- Improvements to ReFS
- Deduplication and compression
- GPU partitioning
- A GPU can be shared with several VMs
- Upgrade to Windows Server 2025 via Windows Update
The following features have been removed from Windows Server 2025:
- IIS 6 management console
- WordPad
- SMTP server
- Windows PowerShell 2.0 Engine
Incidentally, the RDS role (also known as Terminal Server) is still available, although there has been some speculation in the past that this function may no longer be available. Together with Office 2024, however, Windows Server 2025 can still be operated as a terminal server.
System Center 2025 has also been released in parallel with Windows Server 2025 and is also available for download. Here are an overview of the new features that System Center 2025 offers.
Incidentally, I have just upgraded my Hyper-V server, which I use for my Exchange text environments, to Windows Server 2025. The upgrade went absolutely smoothly: I mounted the ISO and ran the setup. After about 30 minutes, the upgrade was complete and I found myself on the familiar Windows 11 GUI.
In the near future, further articles on the new Windows Server version, in particular on the topic of Active Directory, will appear here.