Windows Server (formerly Windows NT Server) is a group of

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

s (OS) for servers that

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

has been developing since July 27, 1993. The first OS that was released for this platform was

Windows NT 3.1 Windows NT 3.1 is the first major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft, released on July 27, 1993. At the time of Windows NT's release, Microsoft's Windows 3.1 desktop environment had established brand recognition ...

Advanced Server. With the release of

Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2003 is the sixth version of Windows Server operating system produced by Microsoft. It is part of the Windows NT family of operating systems and was released to manufacturing on March 28, 2003 and generally available on April 24, 2 ...

, the brand name was changed to Windows Server. Microsoft's history of developing

s for server computers goes back to

Advanced Server edition.

Windows 2000 Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses. It was the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), releas ...

Server edition was the first OS to include

Active Directory Active Directory (AD) is a directory service developed by Microsoft for Windows domain networks. It is included in most Windows Server operating systems as a set of processes and services. Initially, Active Directory was used only for centralize ...

DNS The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed naming system for computers, services, and other resources in the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information with domain names assigned to ...

Server,

DHCP The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a network management protocol used on Internet Protocol (IP) networks for automatically assigning IP addresses and other communication parameters to devices connected to the network using a cli ...

Server, and

Group Policy Group Policy is a feature of the Microsoft Windows NT family of operating systems (including Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server 2003+) that controls the working environment of user accounts and computer accounts. G ...

Members

Main releases

Main releases include: * Windows NT 3.1 Advanced Server (July 1993) * Windows NT Server 3.5 (September 1994) * Windows NT Server 3.51 (May 1995) * Windows NT 4.0 Server (July 1996) *

Windows 2000 Server Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses. It was the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was released to manufacturing on December 15, 1999, and was officiall ...

(December 1999) *

(April 2003) *

Windows Server 2003 R2 Windows Server 2003 is the sixth version of Windows Server operating system produced by Microsoft. It is part of the Windows NT family of operating systems and was released to manufacturing on March 28, 2003 and generally available on April 24, 2 ...

(December 2005) *

Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2008 is the fourth release of the Windows Server operating system produced by Microsoft as part of the Windows NT family of the operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on February 4, 2008, and generally to retail on Fe ...

(February 2008) *

Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2008 R2 is the fifth version of the Windows Server operating system produced by Microsoft and released as part of the Windows NT family of operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generall ...

(October 2009) *

Windows Server 2012 Windows Server 2012, codenamed "Windows Server 8", is the sixth version of the Windows Server operating system by Microsoft, as part of the Windows NT family of operating systems. It is the server version of Windows based on Windows 8 and succe ...

(September 2012) *

Windows Server 2012 R2 Windows Server 2012 R2, codenamed "Windows Server 8.1" or "Windows Server Blue", is the seventh version of the Windows Server operating system by Microsoft, as part of the Windows NT family of operating systems. It was unveiled on June 3, 2013 a ...

(October 2013) *

Windows Server 2016 Windows Server 2016 is the eighth release of the Windows Server Server (computing), server operating system developed by Microsoft as part of the Windows NT family of operating systems. It was developed concurrently with Windows 10 and is the su ...

(October 2016) *

Windows Server 2019 Windows Server 2019 is the ninth version of the Windows Server operating system by Microsoft, as part of the Windows NT family of operating systems. It is the second version of the Server (computing), server operating system based on the Windows ...

(October 2018) *

Windows Server 2022 Windows Server 2022 or Windows Server 2022 Edition is the tenth and latest major long term servicing channel (LTSC) release of the Windows Server operating system by Microsoft, as part of the Windows NT family of operating systems. It was annou ...

(August 2021) Traditionally, Microsoft supports Windows Server for 10 years, with five years of mainstream support and an additional five years of extended support. These releases also offer a complete desktop experience. Starting with Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Core and Nano Server configurations were made available to reduce the OS footprint. Between 2015 and 2021, Microsoft referred to these releases as "

long-term support Long-term support (LTS) is a product lifecycle management policy in which a stable release of computer software is maintained for a longer period of time than the standard edition. The term is typically reserved for open-source software, where i ...

" releases to set them apart from semi-annual releases (see below.) For sixteen years, Microsoft released a major version of Windows Server every four years, with one minor version released two years after a major release. The minor versions had an "R2" suffix in their names. In October 2018, Microsoft broke this tradition with the release of Windows Server 2019, which should have been "Windows Server 2016 R2". Windows Server 2022 is also a minor upgrade over its predecessor.

Branded releases

Certain editions of Windows Server have a customized name: *Windows Storage Server (editions of Windows Server 2003 through 2016; editions of Windows Server IoT 2019 and its successors) *

Windows HPC Server 2008 Windows HPC Server 2008, released by Microsoft on 22 September 2008, is the successor product to Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003. Like WCCS, Windows HPC Server 2008 is designed for high-end applications that require high performance computing ...

* Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 *

Windows Home Server Windows Home Server (code-named Quattro) is a home server operating system from Microsoft. It was announced on 7 January 2007 at the Consumer Electronics Show by Bill Gates, released to manufacturing on 16 July 2007 and officially released o ...

(an edition of Windows Server 2003) *

Windows Home Server 2011 Windows Home Server 2011, code named Vail, is a home server operating system by Microsoft designed for small office/home offices and homes with multiple connected PCs to offer protected file storage, file sharing, automated PC backup, remote ...

(an edition of Windows Server 2008 R2) *

Hyper-V Microsoft Hyper-V, codenamed Viridian, and briefly known before its release as Windows Server Virtualization, is a native hypervisor; it can create virtual machines on x86-64 systems running Windows. Starting with Windows 8, Hyper-V superseded W ...

Server (a discontinued,

freeware Freeware is software, most often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the f ...

edition of Windows Server 2008 through 2019) *

Windows MultiPoint Server Windows MultiPoint Server is an operating system based on Microsoft Windows Server using Remote Desktop Services technology to host multiple simultaneous independent computing stations or terminals connected to a single computer ( multiseat compu ...

Windows Server Essentials Windows Server Essentials (formerly Small Business Server or SBS) is an integrated server suite from Microsoft for businesses with no more than 25 users or 50 devices. It includes Windows Server, Exchange Server, Windows SharePoint Services, and ...

(discontinued) *

Windows Essential Business Server Windows Essential Business Server 2008 (code named ''Centro'') was Microsoft's server offering for mid-size businesses (up to a maximum of 300 Users and/or Devices). It was released to manufacturing on 15 September 2008 and was officially launche ...

(discontinued) *Azure Stack HCI (an edition of Windows Server 2019 and later)

Semi-annual releases (discontinued)

Following the release of Windows Server 2016, Microsoft attempted to mirror the lifecycle of Windows 10 in the Windows Server family, releasing new versions twice a year which were supported for 18 months. These semi-annual versions were only available as part of Microsoft subscription services, including Software Assurance, Azure Marketplace, and

Microsoft Visual Studio Visual Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) from Microsoft. It is used to develop computer programs including websites, web apps, web services and mobile apps. Visual Studio uses Microsoft software development platforms such a ...

subscriptions, until their discontinuation in July 2021. The semi-annual releases do not include any desktop environments. Instead, they are restricted to the Nano Server configuration installed in a Docker

container A container is any receptacle or enclosure for holding a product used in storage, packaging, and transportation, including shipping. Things kept inside of a container are protected on several sides by being inside of its structure. The term ...

, and the Server Core configuration, licensed only to serve as a container host. Semi-annual releases include: *Windows Server, version 1709 (unsupported as of ) *Windows Server, version 1803 (unsupported as of ) *Windows Server, version 1809 (unsupported as of ) *Windows Server, version 1903 (unsupported as of ) *Windows Server, version 1909 (unsupported as of ) *Windows Server, version 2004 (unsupported as of ) *Windows Server, version 20H2 (unsupported as of )

References

External links