Link Search Menu Expand Document

Windows Server (formerly Windows NT Server) is a group of operating systems (OS) for servers by Microsoft. The brand name was changed to Windows Server in 2003.

Release Released Active Support Security Support
Windows Server 2022 1 year and 4 months ago
(18 Aug 2021)
Ends in 3 years and 9 months
(13 Oct 2026)
Ends in 8 years
(14 Oct 2031)
Windows Server 20H2 2 years ago
(20 Oct 2020)
Ended 7 months ago
(10 May 2022)
Ended 7 months ago
(10 May 2022)
Windows Server 2004 2 years and 7 months ago
(27 May 2020)
Ended 1 year ago
(14 Dec 2021)
Ended 1 year ago
(14 Dec 2021)
Windows Server 1909 3 years ago
(12 Nov 2019)
Ended 1 year and 7 months ago
(11 May 2021)
Ended 1 year and 7 months ago
(11 May 2021)
Windows Server 1809 4 years ago
(13 Nov 2018)
Ended 2 years ago
(10 Nov 2020)
Ended 2 years ago
(10 Nov 2020)
Windows Server 2019 4 years ago
(13 Nov 2018)
Ends in 1 year
(09 Jan 2024)
Ends in 6 years
(09 Jan 2029)
Windows Server 1903 4 years and 7 months ago
(21 May 2018)
Ended 2 years ago
(08 Dec 2020)
Ended 2 years ago
(08 Dec 2020)
Windows Server 1803 4 years and 8 months ago
(30 Apr 2018)
Ended 3 years ago
(12 Nov 2019)
Ended 3 years ago
(12 Nov 2019)
Windows Server 1709 5 years ago
(17 Oct 2017)
Ended 3 years and 8 months ago
(09 Apr 2019)
Ended 3 years and 8 months ago
(09 Apr 2019)
Windows Server 2016 6 years ago
(15 Oct 2016)
Ended 11 months ago
(11 Jan 2022)
Ends in 4 years
(12 Jan 2027)
Windows Server 2012-R2 9 years ago
(25 Nov 2013)
Ended 4 years ago
(09 Oct 2018)
Ends in 9 months
(10 Oct 2023)
Windows Server 2012 10 years ago
(30 Oct 2012)
Ended 4 years ago
(09 Oct 2018)
Ends in 9 months
(10 Oct 2023)
Windows Server 2008-R2-SP1 11 years ago
(22 Feb 2011)
Ended 7 years and 11 months ago
(13 Jan 2015)
Ended 2 years and 11 months ago
(14 Jan 2020)
Windows Server 2008-SP2 13 years ago
(29 Apr 2009)
Ended 7 years and 11 months ago
(13 Jan 2015)
Ended 2 years and 11 months ago
(14 Jan 2020)
Windows Server 2003 19 years ago
(24 Apr 2003)
Ended 12 years ago
(13 Jul 2010)
Ended 7 years ago
(14 Jul 2015)
Windows Server 2000 22 years ago
(17 Feb 2000)
Ended 17 years ago
(30 Jun 2005)
Ended 12 years ago
(13 Jul 2010)

Traditionally, Microsoft supports Windows Server for 10 years, with five years of mainstream support and an additional five years of extended support. Between 2015 and 2021, Microsoft referred to these releases as “long-term support” releases to set them apart from semi-annual releases.

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.

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 subscriptions, until their discontinuation in July 2021. The semi-annual releases did not include any desktop environments. All Semi-Annual releases are now unsupported.

More information is available on the Microsoft Windows Server website.

You can check the version that you are currently using by running:
winver

You can submit an improvement to this page on GitHub :octocat: . This page has a corresponding Talk Page.

A JSON version of this page is available at /api/windows-server.json. See the API Documentation for more.

This page was last updated on 22 December 2022.