Windows Server 2025 changes

This page's changes and edits · All guidance changes

Microsoft's edit · 3 Mar 2025 12:08 UTC

Increasing the clarity of Windows Server upgrades

Microsoft's commit message in MicrosoftDocs/windowsserverdocs · commit fff3fe7 · +0 −9 lines · also on GitHub

⋯ 14 unchanged lines

1515

1616 Explore upgrade options and the desktop experience.

1717

18 −### Upgrade by using Windows Update

19 −

20 −You can perform an in-place upgrade from source media or Windows Update. Microsoft offers an optional in-place upgrade capability through Windows Update, which is known as a feature update. The feature update is available to Windows Server 2019 and Windows Server 2022 devices.

21 −

22 −When you upgrade by using Windows Update from the **Settings** dialog, you can perform the installation directly from Windows Update within the desktop or by using `SConfig` for Server Core. Your organization might prefer to implement upgrades incrementally and want to control the availability of this optional upgrade by using Group Policy.

23 −

24 −To learn more about how to manage the offer of feature updates, see [Manage feature updates with Group Policy on Windows Server](manage-feature-updates-group-policy.md).

25 −

2618 ### In-place upgrade from Windows Server 2012 R2

2719

2820 With Windows Server 2025, you can upgrade up to four versions at a time. You can upgrade directly to Windows Server 2025 from Windows Server 2012 R2 and later.

⋯ 111 unchanged lines

140132 Utilities like Active Directory Administrative Center (ADAC), Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC), `net computer`, and `dsmod` also honor this new behavior. Both ADAC and ADUC no longer allow creation of a pre-Windows 2000 account.

141133

142134 - **Kerberos PKINIT support for cryptographic agility**: The Kerberos Public Key Cryptography for Initial Authentication in Kerberos (PKINIT) protocol implementation is updated to allow for cryptographic agility by supporting more algorithms and removing hardcoded algorithms.

143 −- **Kerberos changes for Algorithms used for Ticket Granting Tickets**: The Kerberos Distribution Center will no longer issue Ticket Granting Tickets using RC4 encryption, such as RC4-HMAC(NT).

144135 - **LAN Manager GPO setting**: The GPO setting **Network security: Don't store LAN Manager hash value on next password change** is no longer present and doesn't apply to new versions of Windows.

145136 - **LDAP encryption by default**: All LDAP client communication after a Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL) bind uses LDAP sealing by default. To learn more about SASL, see [SASL Authentication](/openspecs/windows_protocols/ms-adts/989e0748-0953-455d-9d37-d08dfbf3998b).

146137 - **LDAP support for Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3**: LDAP uses the latest SCHANNEL implementation and supports TLS 1.3 for LDAP over TLS connections. Using TLS 1.3 eliminates obsolete cryptographic algorithms and enhances security over older versions. TLS 1.3 aims to encrypt as much of the handshake as possible. To learn more, see [Protocols in TLS/SSL (Schannel SSP)](/windows/win32/secauthn/protocols-in-tls-ssl--schannel-ssp-) and [TLS Cipher Suites in Windows Server 2022](/windows/win32/secauthn/tls-cipher-suites-in-windows-server-2022).

⋯ 324 unchanged lines

Microsoft's Markdown source from MicrosoftDocs/windowsserverdocs, © Microsoft Corporation, under CC BY 4.0. Changed lines with up to 3 unchanged lines around each; ChangeIntel kept this copy 10 Oct 08:22 UTC. The commit date is when the source changed, which can be hours or days before Learn published it.