{"id":12457,"date":"2024-05-27T06:00:06","date_gmt":"2024-05-27T13:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/?p=12457"},"modified":"2024-05-27T06:00:06","modified_gmt":"2024-05-27T13:00:06","slug":"windows-server-2025-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/windows\/windows-server-2025-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking Good on Windows Server 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<div align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"no-lazy-load\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/windows-server-2025-banner-500x60.png\" style=\"margin-bottom:20px;\" title=\"Looking Good on Windows Server 2025 Preview\" alt=\"Looking Good on Windows Server 2025 Preview\" border=\"0\" width=\"500\" height=\"60\" \/><\/div>\n<div id=\"blog-toc-container\" style=\"margin-top:20px;\">\n<p id=\"blog-toc-title\">In this article&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"#whats-new\">What&#8217;s new in Windows Server 2025?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#windows-services\">Any changes to Windows Services?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#alwaysup\">Is AlwaysUp Compatible with Server 2025?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#service-protector\">Does Service Protector work on Server 2025?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#free-utilities\">How about your free utilities? Any quirks on 2025?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#official-release\">Preparing for the official release (24H2)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><a name=\"whats-new\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"blog-caption\">What&#8217;s new in Windows Server 2025?<\/h2>\n<p>Microsoft&#8217;s engineers have been very busy in the three years since the last major release of Windows Server.<\/p>\n<p>And as you can see from the <a href=\"https:\/\/learn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/windows-server\/get-started\/whats-new-windows-server-2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">list of updates included in Windows Server 2025 preview<\/a>, the team focused on under-the-hood revisions to core technologies &mdash; instead of publishing new apps or pushing out eye-catching bells and whistles.<\/p>\n<p>Here are the improvements that we found most intriguing:<\/p>\n<h3>#1: Hotpatching<\/h3>\n<p>Operating system patches &mdash; which plug security holes and occasionally tweak functionality &mdash; can be applied without having to reboot the server. That means you can roll out patches whenever you like, with zero downtime (and without the need to schedule after-hours maintenance windows).<\/p>\n<h3>#2: Next-Gen Active Directory (AD)<\/h3>\n<p>It&#8217;s clear that Microsoft spent significant effort &#8220;future-proofing&#8221; it&#8217;s popular directory service. For example, this new version of AD can address many more objects (the database page size went from 8k to 32k) and it can utilize more than 64 cores. The updates are numerous.<\/p>\n<h3>#3: Delegated Managed Service Accounts<\/h3>\n<p>Server 2025 introduces the new <a href=\"https:\/\/learn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/windows-server\/security\/delegated-managed-service-accounts\/delegated-managed-service-accounts-overview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">delegated Managed Service Account (dMSA)<\/a>. Unlike a conventional account, where you manage password complexity and lifecycle, Active Directory administers the credentials for a dMSA. Furthermore, you can restrict a dMSA to specific devices and contexts, which is ideal for protecting non-interactive use-cases.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top:32px\">\nIf you&#8217;d like to find out more, check out this 30 minute video from the <a href=\"https:\/\/techcommunity.microsoft.com\/t5\/tech-community-live\/windows-server-summit-2024\/ev-p\/4068971\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2024 Windows Summit<\/a> that highlights the technical upgrades in the new operating system:\n<\/p>\n<div align=\"left\" class=\"video-responsive\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" style=\"border-width:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:rgb(205,205,205)\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/j470Tp4b6es?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<hr class=\"blog-section\" \/>\n<p><a name=\"windows-services\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"blog-caption\">Any changes to Windows Services?<\/h2>\n<p>Other than the option to use the new delegated Managed Service Account, Microsoft hasn&#8217;t documented any impacts to Windows Services in Server 2025.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, everything looked pretty much the same as we played with the various tools.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s nothing new in the built-in <a href=\"\/blog\/windows-services\/essential-tools-windows-services-msc\/\">Services application<\/a>:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"\/blog\/images\/services-in-windows-server-2025-preview.png\" class=\"zoomPopup\" title=\"Services in Windows Server 2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-padding\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/services-in-windows-server-2025-preview.png\" title=\"Services in Windows Server 2025 (click to enlarge)\" alt=\"Services in Windows Server 2025\" border=\"0\" width=\"520\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>But then, it wasn&#8217;t a surprise because that basic management tool hasn&#8217;t been updated in over a decade!<\/p>\n<hr class=\"blog-section\" \/>\n<p><a name=\"alwaysup\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"blog-caption\">Is AlwaysUp Compatible with Server 2025?<\/h2>\n<p>Yes, AlwaysUp runs flawlessly on Windows Server 2025.<\/p>\n<p>We installed a bunch of applications &mdash; including as <a href=\"\/products\/AlwaysUp\/Apps\/RunDropboxAsAService.html\">Dropbox<\/a>, <a href=\"\/products\/AlwaysUp\/Apps\/RunOneDriveAsAService.html\">OneDrive<\/a> and <a href=\"\/products\/AlwaysUp\/Apps\/RunJavaApplicationAsAService.html\">Java<\/a> &mdash; as services and let each one run continuously for at least a week. And after thoroughly examining the event viewer and our own debug logs, we didn&#8217;t detect any problems at all.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"\/blog\/images\/alwaysup-windows-server-2025-preview.png\" class=\"zoomPopup\" title=\"AlwaysUp running on Windows Server 2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-padding\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/alwaysup-windows-server-2025-preview.png\" title=\"AlwaysUp running on Windows Server 2025 (click to enlarge)\" alt=\"AlwaysUp running on Windows Server 2025\" border=\"0\" width=\"520\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<hr class=\"blog-section\" \/>\n<p><a name=\"service-protector\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"blog-caption\">Does Service Protector work on Server 2025?<\/h2>\n<p>Like AlwaysUp, Service Protector ran without any hiccups.<\/p>\n<p>To test, we employed our &#8220;bad service simulator&#8221; &mdash; a deliberately diabolical piece of code that randomly uses too much memory, hangs, or crashes. Service Protector was able to handle all eventualities, proving that Microsoft&#8217;s Windows Services API remains robust on Server 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Afterwards, we focused on validating services that our customers run. Service Protector was able to babysit <a href=\"\/products\/ServiceProtector\/Services\/KeepFilebeatWindowsServiceRunning24x7.html\">FileBeat<\/a>, <a href=\"\/products\/ServiceProtector\/Services\/KeepMongoDBWindowsServiceRunning24x7.html\">MongoDB<\/a> and <a href=\"\/products\/ServiceProtector\/Services\/MonitorMariaDBWindowsService.html\">MariaDB<\/a> as well as it does on Windows Server 2019 and 2022:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"\/blog\/images\/service-protector-windows-server-2025-preview.png\" class=\"zoomPopup\" title=\"Service Protector running on Windows Server 2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-padding\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/service-protector-windows-server-2025-preview.png\" title=\"Service Protector running on Windows Server 2025 (click to enlarge)\" alt=\"Service Protector running on Windows Server 2025\" border=\"0\" width=\"520\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<hr class=\"blog-section\" \/>\n<p><a name=\"free-utilities\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"blog-caption\">How about your free utilities? Any quirks on 2025?<\/h2>\n<p>We installed and tested <a href=\"\/products\/ServiceSecurityEditor\/\">Service Security Editor<\/a>, <a href=\"\/products\/ServiceScheduler\/\">Service Scheduler<\/a>, <a href=\"\/products\/ServiceTriggerEditor\/\">Service Trigger Editor<\/a> and <a href=\"\/products\/WindowsServiceAuditor\/\">Windows Service Auditor<\/a> without incident on Windows Server 2025:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"\/blog\/images\/free-tools-windows-server-2025-preview.png\" class=\"zoomPopup\" title=\"Our free programs running on Windows Server 2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-padding\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/free-tools-windows-server-2025-preview.png\" title=\"Our free programs running on Windows Server 2025 (click to enlarge)\" alt=\"Our free programs running on Windows Server 2025\" border=\"0\" width=\"520\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>And our most popular non-service software &mdash; <a href=\"\/products\/MyFolders\/\">MyFolders<\/a> and <a href=\"\/products\/http-ping\/\">http-ping<\/a> &mdash; passed inspection as well.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"blog-section\" \/>\n<p><a name=\"official-release\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"blog-caption\">Preparing for the official release (24H2)<\/h2>\n<p>Microsoft expects to make Windows Server 2025 available to all customers in the <a href=\"https:\/\/betawiki.net\/wiki\/Windows_Server_2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">second half of 2024<\/a>. Until then, we&#8217;ll continue to test drive the preview releases, to ensure that all our software is ready to go on day one. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top:30px\" align=\"center\">\n<div class=\"cta-button-1\">\n<table role=\"presentation\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\" align=\"left\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"center\"><a href=\"\/blog\/category\/windows\/\" title=\"More about Windows releases\"><span><nobr>Read more about Windows releases&#8230;<\/nobr><\/span><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- relpost-thumb-wrapper --><div class=\"relpost-thumb-wrapper\"><!-- filter-class --><div class=\"relpost-thumb-container\"><style>.relpost-block-single-image, .relpost-post-image { margin-bottom: 10px; }<\/style><h3>You may also like...<\/h3><div style=\"clear: both\"><\/div><div style=\"clear: both\"><\/div><!-- relpost-block-container --><div class=\"relpost-block-container relpost-block-column-layout\" style=\"--relposth-columns: 3;--relposth-columns_t: 2; --relposth-columns_m: 2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/windows-services\/send-email-without-outlook\/\"class=\"relpost-block-single\" ><div class=\"relpost-custom-block-single\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"relpost-block-single-image\" alt=\"3 Proven Ways to Send Email from a Windows Service (Without Outlook)\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/send-email-from-windows-service-150x150-1.png\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\/1\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\/1\"><\/img><div class=\"relpost-block-single-text\"  style=\"height: 75px;font-family: Arial;  font-size: 12px;  color: #333333;\"><h2 class=\"relpost_card_title\">3 Proven Ways to Send Email from a Windows Service (Without Outlook)<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/alwaysup\/version-12-5-released\/\"class=\"relpost-block-single\" ><div class=\"relpost-custom-block-single\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"relpost-block-single-image\" alt=\"AlwaysUp 12.5: Dropbox fixes, Email improvements, AutoStartDelay and More\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/whats-new-2-150x150-1.png\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\/1\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\/1\"><\/img><div class=\"relpost-block-single-text\"  style=\"height: 75px;font-family: Arial;  font-size: 12px;  color: #333333;\"><h2 class=\"relpost_card_title\">AlwaysUp 12.5: Dropbox fixes, Email improvements, AutoStartDelay and More<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/windows-services\/net-fix-access-denied\/\"class=\"relpost-block-single\" ><div class=\"relpost-custom-block-single\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"relpost-block-single-image\" alt=\"Q&amp;A: NET STOP Fails with Access is Denied. How I Do Make it Work?\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/access-denied-150-150.png\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\/1\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\/1\"><\/img><div class=\"relpost-block-single-text\"  style=\"height: 75px;font-family: Arial;  font-size: 12px;  color: #333333;\"><h2 class=\"relpost_card_title\">Q&amp;A: NET STOP Fails with &quot;Access is Denied&quot;. How I Do Make it Work?<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/div><!-- close relpost-block-container --><div style=\"clear: both\"><\/div><\/div><!-- close filter class --><\/div><!-- close relpost-thumb-wrapper -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this article&#8230; What&#8217;s new in Windows Server 2025? Any changes to Windows Services? Is AlwaysUp Compatible with Server 2025? Does Service Protector work on Server 2025? How about your free utilities? Any quirks on 2025? Preparing for the official &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/windows\/windows-server-2025-preview\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[352,26,351,147,292,148,150,354,350,240,196],"class_list":["post-12457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-windows","tag-active-directory","tag-alwaysup-tag","tag-delegated-managed-service-account","tag-service-protector-tag","tag-service-scheduler","tag-service-security-editor-2","tag-service-trigger-editor-2","tag-windows-release","tag-windows-server-2025","tag-windows-service-auditor","tag-windows-services-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12457"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12537,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12457\/revisions\/12537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}