In this post, I am going to list some of the most important new features and improvements in Windows Server 2025 and what they mean for IT teams. Windows Server 2025 brings a strong mix of security improvements, hybrid-cloud enhancements, performance upgrades, and modern management capabilities.
The Windows Server version 2025 helps you adapt to business imperatives on-premises and in the cloud with seamless hybrid, multicloud, and edge capabilities. It also offers the high-performing, reliable infrastructure foundation you need, with improvements in scalability, ease of use, and features that enable AI, ML, and other innovations.
For organizations running traditional datacenter workloads, virtualized infrastructure, or hybrid environments connected to Azure, this release is designed to make servers more secure, easier to manage, and better suited for modern applications.
Note that Windows Server 2025 will reach the end of support on November 13th, 2029, and the extended support end date is five years later, which is on November 14, 2034. Take a look at the list of features that have been deprecated and removed from Server 2025.
Windows Server 2025 New Features
Here are some key new features and enhancements you can use after installing or upgrading to Windows Server 2025.
🖥️ Desktop Experience & Upgrade
Windows Server 2025 introduces a Windows 11-inspired desktop interface featuring a modern UI and an updated task manager with Mica material. Bluetooth support has been enhanced, enabling connections for mice, keyboards, headsets, audio devices, and more. Additionally, users can perform upgrades spanning up to four versions, with direct upgrades possible from Windows Server 2012 R2 and newer versions.
📩 Email and Accounts
Starting with Windows Server 2025, you can add Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft Account, or Work/School accounts directly through Settings. Do note that domain join is still required for most situations.
🩹 Hotpatching enabled by Azure Arc
Hotpatch is now available for Windows Server 2025 machines connected to Azure Arc. To use this you must ensure Hotpatch is enabled in the Azure Arc portal. You can then use Hotpatch to apply OS security updates without restarting your machine.
💽 NVMe storage performance
Windows Server 2025 revolutionizes storage performance with the introduction of Native NVMe Support, which eliminates legacy SCSI translation layers. This overhauled I/O stack delivers up to 80% higher IOPS, reduces latency, and cuts per-I/O CPU cycles nearly in half compared to Windows Server 2022.
🔐 Credential Guard
Starting with Windows Server 2025, Credential Guard is enabled by default on devices that meet the requirements to block credential theft attacks by protecting NTLM password hashes, Kerberos Ticket Granting Tickets (TGTs), and credentials stored by apps as domain credentials.
🪟 Additions to Active Directory Domain Services
There have been many new functionalities and enhancements added to Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) and Active Directory Lightweight Domain Services (AD LDS) for optimizing your domain management experience. The additions include:
- 32K Database Page Size that drastically increases scalability.
- Three new log database files are introduced that extend the Active Directory schema: sch89.ldf, sch90.ldf, and sch91.ldf.
- Enterprise administrators can now repair objects with the missing core attributes SamAccountType and ObjectCategory.
- Improvements to mapping of short NetBIOS-style domain names to DNS-style domain names.
- Active Directory now uses default computer account passwords that are randomly generated.
🪩 Block cloning support
Dev Drive supports block cloning with Windows 11 24H2 and Windows Server 2025, enabling faster file copying by using ReFS to perform low-cost metadata operations instead of costly read-and-write actions. Also, Windows Server 2025 includes SMB compression support for the industry standard LZ4 compression algorithm.
🌐 Accelerated Networking (AccelNet)
AccelNet streamlines SR-IOV management for Windows Server 2025 VMs, reducing latency, jitter, and CPU usage while handling prerequisites, host configuration, and VM performance.
🔎 DTrace for Server 2025
Windows Server 2025 includes DTrace, a native command-line tool for real-time system performance monitoring and troubleshooting, enabling dynamic instrumentation of kernel and user-space code without modification, supporting techniques like aggregations, histograms, and user-level event tracing.
👤 Windows LAPS
Windows LAPS manages domain-joined computers local admin passwords by auto-generating unique, secure passwords, storing them in Active Directory, and updating them regularly to enhance security and reduce unauthorized access risks.
📟 Inclusion of OpenSSH and WinGet
In Windows Server 2025, the OpenSSH server is installed by default, and Server Manager offers a one-step option to enable or disable the sshd.exe service. In addition, WinGet is also installed by default, which is a command-line Windows Package Manager tool that provides comprehensive package manager solutions for installing applications on Windows devices.
🧾 Delegated Managed Service Account
This account type allows transitioning from a service account to a delegated Managed Service Account (dMSA). It features managed, fully randomized keys to reduce application modifications, with original service account passwords being deactivated.
Final Thoughts
If your organization is planning a server refresh, evaluating hybrid-cloud operations, or looking to modernize management and security practices, Windows Server 2025 is something you can consider because it offers.
- Better built-in security
- Stronger hybrid integration
- Improved virtualization and storage
- More modern administration and automation support
In short, Windows Server 2025 aims to help IT teams run infrastructure that is safer, smarter, and more adaptable.
