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Windows Server 2008
Not to be confused with Windows Server 2008 R2.
| Version of Microsoft Windows | |
 | |
 | |
| OS family | Windows NT |
|---|---|
| Version | 6.0 |
| Codename | Longhorn Server |
| Architecture | x86, x64, IA-64 |
| Latest build | 6.0.6003 (Service Pack 2 Update) |
| Release date | 2008-02-27 |
| Support end | 2020-01-14 2023-01-10 (with Extended Security Updates) 2024-01-09 (with Extended Security Updates only for Azure customers) |
| Client counterpart | |
| Windows Vista | |
| Replaces | |
| Windows Server 2003 | |
| Replaced by | |
| Windows Server 2008 R2 | |
Windows Server 2008 is the server counterpart of Windows Vista, which was released on 27 February 2008, a little over a year after its client counterpart. It replaces Windows Server 2003 and was replaced by Windows Server 2008 R2. It was the first version of Windows Server to include Hyper-V and also the last version of Windows Server to support the x86 architecture.
It is also the first version of Windows Server to include the Core SKU which excludes Desktop Experience components.
This is the first version of Windows to drop support for systems without ACPI as well as forbidding installations on partitions formatted under the FAT32 file system, as the operating system will not boot on devices that do not meet these specifications. This is the first version of Windows Server that lacks support for systems without ACPI, as it will display a black screen with error messages when launched.
Windows Server 2008 drops the ability to upgrade from versions prior to Windows Server 2003/2003 R2 and its x64 Edition.
Naming[edit | edit source]
Just like its client counterpart, Windows Server 2008 used Longhorn, by exactness "Longhorn Server", as its codename. However, even after Longhorn has been replaced with Vista in 2005, "Longhorn Server" was still used as codename of Server 2008 until its removal in build 6001.16659 in 2007, two years after its client counterpart and a few months after the release of Windows Vista.
The earliest build to identify itself as Windows Server 2008 was build 6001.16606.
System requirements[edit | edit source]
Microsoft recommends Windows Server 2008 to be installed on a system with a x86 processor with a speed of at least 1 GHz (1,4 GHz for x64) or an Intel Itanium 2, at least 512 MB of RAM, 10 GB of hard drive space, a SVGA or better display adapter, and a DVD-ROM drive. Windows Server 2008 drops support for systems without ACPI.
Hardware compatibility[edit | edit source]
Intel CPUs whose microarchitectures are based on Haswell or later are not supported on Windows Server 2008.[1] Numerous issues relating to certain services or applications failing to start on the affected CPUs have been reported by various users, with extreme cases often leading to potential bugchecks.[2] The KB4493471 update contains a new version of the HAL (hardware abstraction layer) that fixes most of these issues.
Windows Server 2003 R2, earlier operating systems and x86 versions of Windows Server 2008 are not affected by the aforementioned problems.
List of known builds[edit | edit source]
Available build Confirmed build Unconfirmed build Fake build Pre-reset builds[edit | edit source]
Milestone 5[edit | edit source]
Milestone 6[edit | edit source]
Milestone 7[edit | edit source]
Post-reset builds[edit | edit source]
Development reset[edit | edit source]
These builds are also referred to as Omega-13 builds.
Beta 1[edit | edit source]
Beta 2[edit | edit source]
Beta 3[edit | edit source]
Release Candidate 0[edit | edit source]
Release Candidate 1[edit | edit source]
Pre-RTM[edit | edit source]
RTM[edit | edit source]
Service Pack 2[edit | edit source]
Beta[edit | edit source]
Release Candidate[edit | edit source]
Pre-RTM[edit | edit source]
RTM[edit | edit source]
Service Pack 2 Update[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
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