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Microsoft’s “weirdest version”: Windows Server 2022 quietly becomes available
Microsoft rolled out Windows Server 2022 earlier this week in an unusually quiet way.
According to this Windows Server 2022 lifecycle support page, which was noted by Tero Alhonen in this twitter postWindows Server 2022 reached general availability on August 18.
It’s possible that a working ISO has been available from Microsoft’s Volume Licensing Service Center since August 19, a date which was also noted by Alhonen in this twitter postalthough he later explained that the product keys were missing.
The Visual Studio Developer Subscriptions download page lists the availability of “Windows Server 2022 Optional Languages and Features”. However, the full elements of the product did not appear to be there at press time.
Announcement date speculation
Microsoft, remarkably, has not given a public notice on the commercial release of its latest Windows Server product. Wesley Miller, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft, an independent consulting firm, speculated in the Twitter thread above that Microsoft is waiting until September 1 to announce the commercial release of Windows Server 2022, when product terms Microsoft might be available:
As I noted yesterday, it would be very weird if it reached VL and the product terms hadn’t been updated – which usually only happens on the first of a month. This is still not the case. I would bet that everything will happen on September 1st.
Microsoft’s product terms posts, which list updated prices for its products, usually arrive on the first of the month. However, Microsoft’s GA release announcement model is usually to announce a GA product before the product terms are released, which basically means the product is announced, but you can’t buy it until the first of the month.
In this case, Microsoft hasn’t really announced that Windows Server 2022 has reached GA – at least not in the usual way it announces such matters.
“This is the weirdest exit I’ve ever seen,” Miller commented.
Microsoft announced earlier this week that it plans to hold a Windows Server Summit online event on September 16, which is a public event but requires registration to attend. This September 16 date could also be Microsoft’s planned announcement date.
Windows Server 2022 was in the production release (RTM) stage in June. However, it was also called a “preview” at the time. It was an odd description, since “RTM” is Microsoft’s old nomenclature for finished software that undergoes testing by original equipment manufacturers before the final product is released. In other words, RTMs are not previews.
Windows Server 2022 editions and features
Microsoft plans to release a Standard edition, Datacenter edition, and Datacenter Azure edition of Windows Server 2022, with Core and Desktop installation options. Products will be updated through the Long-Term Servicing Channel release model, as Microsoft has discontinued the semi-annual channel update option (updates arrive twice a year) for all Windows Server products supported.
Windows Server 2022 has some notable new features. On the security side, it has a Secured Core boot protection, a default use of the TLS 1.3 protocol and a domain name system on HTTPS encryption. Communications will be better protected from viewing with Server Message Block (SMB) on QUIC capability. The server will also have SMB compression for faster file access.
More details about new features in Windows Server 2022 can be found in this Redmond article.
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