The world of technology moves fast, and it can be difficult to keep up with everything. However, staying on top of the digital space is crucial for any business or individuals doing their business online. Older technologies become outdated instantly, and you might find yourself using technology that will detract from your progress.
In the tech industry, it’s always been a race to be the first one to introduce new and innovative products. Companies are constantly updating their software, services, and hardware.
One company that is known for its newest and best products is Microsoft. It continues to update its services, which means it introduces new features, has new releases, and has released Windows Server 2022.
This article explores the crucial differences between Windows Server 2019 and 2022 and the deprecated features in Windows Server 2022.
Next-level security
Security is becoming increasingly important, especially in Windows Server 2019. For example, if Machine Learning detects that a file could be malicious, Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection will block it. But Windows Server 2022 has not stood still and has implemented even more developments to help you stay safe.
One of the newest security features in the new version of Windows Server 2022 is hardware root-of-trust. Security breaches become more challenging to mount when your operating system and firmware are safeguarded against tampering. In addition, Microsoft has also executed virtualization-based security to protect computers against data leaks, malware, and malicious code injection.
Windows Server 2022 is a step forward in security from previous versions, with Secured-Core Server protecting the hardware, firmware, and OS against threats. In addition, the Secure Message Block network file-sharing protocol can be encrypted by default, improving security for all users.
Other improvements include enabling hypervisor-protected code integrity by default and using the Windows Defender Credential Guard virtualization-based isolation technology for protecting sensitive assets. Tying these all up is a client capable of performing DNS queries over Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure(HTTPs), preventing potential interference with such lookups.
Feature Comparison Between Windows Server 2022 vs. 2019
| Key Features | Windows Server 2019 | Windows Server 2022 |
| Automatic Windows Admin Center Updates | No | Yes |
| Customizable Columns for VM Information | No | Yes |
| Detachable Events Overview Screen | Configurable | Built-in |
| Configurable Destination Virtual Switch | No | Yes |
| Event Workspace to track data | No | Yes |
| Automated Extension Lifecycle Management | No | Yes |
| Enhanced Security | ||
| Hardware-enforced Stack Protection | No | Yes |
| TLS | Supports 1.2 | 1.3 Is Enabled by Default |
| Secured-core server | No | Yes |
| Hypervisor-based code integrity | No | Yes |
| Hybrid Cloud Capabilities | ||
| Azure Arc | supported | 1.3 Is Enabled by Default |
| Storage Migration Service | Supported | Deployment and Management Is Simplified |
| Improved Platform Flexibility | ||
| Uncompressed Image Size | Approx. 3.7 GB | Approx. 2.7 GB |
| Virtualized Time Zone | Mirrors Host Timezone | Configurable Within Container |
| Group Managed Service Accounts (gMSA) Requires Domain Joining | Yes | No |
| DSR Routing | No | Yes |
| Better Kubernetes Experience | ||
| HostProcess containers | No | Yes |
| Multiple Subnets Per Windows Worker Node | No | Yes |
| Upgraded Hyper V Manager | ||
| Action Bar | No | Yes |
| New Partitioning Tool | No | Yes |
| Live Storage Migration | No | Yes |
| Running Workloads Between Server | No | Yes |
| Affinity and Anti-Affinity Rules | No | Yes |
| VM Clones | No | Yes |
Storage Migration Service
Windows Server 2022 lets you migrate your data to Azure or Windows Server with ease and without any problems. In addition to all the new features, there are some helpful ones you can continue using during migration, including –
- Migrate groups and local users to the latest server.
- Emigrate storage from a Linux server that uses Samba.
- Emigrate to unique networks.
- Synchronize the migrated data to Azure by utilizing Azure File Sync.
Windows Server 2019 supports the Storage Migration Service, while Windows Server 2022 has its newer version. On the other hand, Windows Server 2016 does not have a Storage Migration Service.
Windows Server 2022 for Web Hosting
The latest Windows Server release includes many enhancements that make it more robust and secure than ever. With TLS 1.3 Encryption, support for running the latest web applications, and HTTP/3, your site will load much faster. Window Server 2022 now supports the latest version of HTTP and version 3. While previous versions of HTTP were TCP-based, HTTP/3 is always UDP-based. As a result, web pages should load faster as UDP is connectionless and does not require a connection to be established before data is transferred.
Window Server 2022 was designed with security and reliability in mind. It supports the latest ASP.NET 6, and developers can use it to create dynamic Websites and Web Applications capable of running faster and using fewer resources than classic ASP.NET websites. ASP.NET Core is a new open-source web framework hosted by Microsoft. It allows developers to build robust, fast, and modern sites with fewer codes thanks to its simplified programming model, dependency injection, automatic view recompilation, and more.
Deprecated Features in Windows Server 2022
Windows Server 2022 has since been released. Some of its features (including the following) are no longer supported:
It’s been said that Microsoft will remove iSNS, but you can still connect to your existing server or add targets for iSCSI.
Azure Confidential Computing and Azure Security Center are two major focuses for Microsoft, so Guarded Fabric and Shielded VMs are on hold.
We will still be able to support these features, but it will be for now.
Running sconfig.cmd from a CMD window: Sconfig is now launched by default when signing into a server with Server Core installed. Therefore, if you need to run Sconfig, you must do it from PowerShell, which is now the default shell on Server Core.
Installing WDS: Deploying images with WDS boot.wim: Workflows that rely on WDS will still be allowed to run but not after showing a deprecation notice. WDS images will be blocked on Windows 11 and future Windows Server versions because there are now better, more capable options for deploying Windows images.
Is It Worth Upgrading Windows Server 2019 to Windows Server 2022?
Windows Server is a popular operating system among organizations but faces stiff competition. Microsoft has responded to the popularity of cloud computing by introducing Azure support in Windows Server 2019 and improving upon that feature in Windows Server 2022.
However, the cost of upgrading may pose a problem for organizations, especially when an upgrade necessitates purchasing new hardware and software. This consideration also prevented many organizations from upgrading their old Windows server OS versions to Windows 2019 when the newest version of Windows came out. If you haven’t upgraded to Windows 2019 yet, you don’t need to do so at this point: go directly on to Windows 2022.
Should you upgrade to Windows Server 2022? The above features and improvements will help you decide.
