Microsoft announced at the Windows Server Summit the name of the new server operating system. Windows Server 2025 will notably bring the following elements:
General
- Hot Patching
- A perpetual license and a "Pay-as-you-Go" model are available
- Wi-Fi will be enabled by default, provided compatible hardware is available.
- Introduction to
- Local KDC: A Kerberos Key Distribution service built into Windows, not just in the domain controller.
- IAKerb: A Kerberos Negotiation Mechanism
- Deprecation of Mailslots
- Simplified upgrade from Windows Server 2022 to Windows Server 2025 via Windows Update
- Simplified onboarding in Azure Arc.
- Support for Microsoft 365 Apps during the main support period.
Storage
- Optimization for NVMe storage (70% more IOPS)
- Performance improvements
- Lower CPU usage
- NVMe-oF TCP initiator
- Performance improvements and logs for Storage Replica
- Storage Replica compression is available in all editions of Windows Server
- Deduplication and native Compression for ReFS.
- Disabling NTLM for SMB
- SMB Signing is enabled by default for Windows Enterprise, Education and Pro as well as all editions of Windows
Failover Clustering
- Live migration of VMs based on certificates
- Stretch Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) Clusters between two sites
- Improvement of reliability and performance of Cluster-Aware Updating (CAU)
Virtualisation
- Windows Server 2025 offers better GPU support through Hyper-V via GPU-P support enabling the creation of GPU partitions.
Containers
- You can run WS2022 container images without having to update the base image
- Reduction in image size with smaller incremental layers
- Improved application compatibility coverage for Nano Server
Active Directory
- A new functional level Active Directory (Windows Server 2025)
- LDAP communications will support TLS 1.3 for LDAP over TLS.
- The legacy SAM-RPC protocols will be blocked by default.
- NUMA Support for Active Directory
- The new domain controllers are installed with a 32K page size and use 64-bit long value IDs (instead of 8K previously). Backward compatibility is maintained as the 32K page size is optional. A forest-level change is required to use the 32K page size; in that case all domain controllers must be compatible.
- Additional performance counters will be added
- The Active Directory diagnostic data collector set will be updated.
- Addition of a RootDSE mode to define priority over specific replication links
- Reinforced replication links are prioritised in the replication queue
- Announcement of NTLM deprecation.
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More
information on what's new: What's New in Windows Server v.Next (microsoft.com)
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