Windows Server 2022

Windows Server 2022 is Microsoft's server operating system for file sharing, Active Directory, web hosting with IIS, Remote Desktop Services and Hyper-V virtualization. An LTSC release from August 2021. Mainstream support ended in October 2026 and extended support keeps security updates coming until October 2031.

Key features

• Secured-core server: hardware-backed security with TPM 2.0, DRTM and DMA protection
• TLS 1.3 and HTTPS by default, plus DNS-over-HTTPS client support
• SMB: AES-256 encryption, SMB compression and encrypted SMB Direct
• Azure Arc to manage on-premises servers from the Azure portal
• Containers: smaller Server Core images, gMSA without domain-joining the host and Kubernetes improvements
• Hyper-V: nested virtualization on AMD processors
• Storage: Storage Migration Service upgrades and storage bus cache on standalone servers

Standard or Datacenter?

• Standard suits physical or lightly virtualized servers. A fully licensed server gets rights to run two virtual machines (operating system environments).
• Datacenter suits heavily virtualized environments with unlimited virtual machines, plus features found only in this edition such as Storage Spaces Direct, shielded virtual machines and software-defined networking.

Under Microsoft's licensing terms Windows Server is licensed per core, with a minimum of 16 cores counted per server. Every user or device that connects to the server also needs a Client Access License (CAL), and Remote Desktop Services needs RDS CALs on top.

License and delivery

The key activates once on a single server. If you reinstall the server from scratch after activation, the same key cannot be used again, so activate it after setup and drivers are done. Use the key within 24 hours of delivery. Each option shows its delivery type, and prepared delivery usually takes 5 to 60 minutes.

For other releases see Windows Server 2025, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016 or the Windows Server category. Every Microsoft product is on the brand page.

1. Finish installing Windows Server 2022 from Microsoft's installation media and make sure the edition (Standard or Datacenter) matches the option you bought.
2. Open Command Prompt as administrator.
3. Enter the key from your order with slmgr /ipk XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX.
4. Activate with slmgr /ato. Check the status with slmgr /xpr.
5. If the Evaluation edition is installed, first convert it with DISM /online /Set-Edition:ServerStandard /ProductKey:KEY /AcceptEula (ServerDatacenter for Datacenter).