Windows Server 2025: Differences between editions

Microsoft Windows Server 2025 is an operating system of the Windows series and the successor of Windows Server 2022.

This article presents the differences between Windows Server 2025 editions. Pricing information on Windows Server 2025 can be found in the Thomas-Krenn online shop at Microsoft software. For Windows Server 2025, Microsoft is now adopting the same approach it used for Windows Server 2019 and Windows Server 2022, which is a Core Licensing. Information on this new licensing model can be found in the article Windows Server Core Licensing.

Editions

Microsoft Windows Server 2025 is available in four different editions:

• Essentials
• Standard
• Datacenter
• Datacenter Azure Edition

These four editions are suitable for the following application areas:

Edition	Suitable for...	Virtualization rights	Access licenses	CPU limit
Essentials	small companies with basic IT needs; very small IT department or no IT department of their own	Installation: 1 physical or 1 virtual *	no CALs required (limited to 25 users / 50 devices)	max. 1 CPU, max. 10 cores
Standard	for all companies that require extended features and virtualize to a lesser extent	2 virtual Windows Server machines**	CALs required***	unlimited cores
Datacenter	for all companies with high IT workload needs and with a high number of virtual systems	An unlimited number of virtual Windows Server machines
Datacenter Azure Edition	small companies with basic IT needs; very small IT department or no IT department on their own			2,048 logical processors

^{(*) The Windows Server Essentials license allows an installation of a physical and virtual Essentials Server if the physical server only provides the Hyper-V role for the virtualization of the Essentials Server.}

^{(**) The Windows Server Standard Edition License allows 2 OSEs (operating system environments) if all physical cores are licensed.}

^{(***) CALs are required for every user or for every device, which accesses a server directly or indirectly. Detailed information on this topic can be found on the Microsoft website.}

Minimum hardware requirements for Windows Server 2025

The following table presents the official minimum requirements for Windows Server 2025. The actual requirements are dependent on the system configuration and on the installed applications and features.

Description	Minimum requirements
Processor architecture	x64
Processor speed	1,4 GHz
Storage (RAM)	512 MB* (recommended: ECC or similar technologies)
Hard drive storage space	32 GB**
Network card	1x Ethernet with a minimum throughput in the 1 GBit/s-range

^{(*) 2GB for server with "desktop view".}

^{(**) Computer with more than 16 GB RAM require larger storage space for paging, hibernation, and backup files.}

What is new in Windows Server 2025

In Windows Server 2022, the list of the new features is relatively short. Microsoft focuses on the new operating system Azure Stack HCI with new features.

We can look forward to the following new features in Windows Server 2025:

• Hotpatching
• TLS 1.3
• Improved Active Directory
• Optimized and improved performance for virtual machines and containers
• Improved administration

Removed or not further developed features in Windows Server 2025

In Windows Server 2025, there are few features that were not further developed or that were removed from Windows Server 2025.

The following features will no longer be included in Windows Server 2025:

* IIS 6 administration console(Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console)

• NTLMv1
• WordPad
• SMTP-Server
• Windows PowerShell 2.0 Engine

References

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Author: Benjamin Bayer

Translator: Alina Ranzinger Alina has been working at Thomas-Krenn.AG since 2024. After her training as multilingual business assistant, she got her job as assistant of the Product Management and is responsible for the translation of texts and for the organisation of the department.