Windows Server 2012

Windows Server 2012, codenamed "Windows Server 8", is the ninth major version of the Windows NT operating system produced by Microsoft to be released under the Windows Server brand name. It is the server version of Windows based on Windows 8 and succeeds the Windows 7-based Windows Server 2008 R2, released nearly three years earlier. Three pre-release versions, a developer preview, a beta version and a release candidate, were released during development. The software was officially launched on September 4, 2012, which was the month before the release of Windows 8. It was succeeded by Windows Server 2012 R2. Mainstream support ended on October 9, 2018, and extended support ended on October 10, 2023. It is eligible for the paid Extended Security Updates (ESU) program, which offers continued security updates until October 13, 2026. It removed support for Itanium and processors without PAE, SSE2 and NX. Four editions were released. Various features were added or improved over Windows Server 2008 R2 (with many placing an emphasis on cloud computing), such as an updated version of Hyper-V, an IP address management role, a new version of Windows Task Manager, and ReFS, a new file system. Windows Server 2012 received generally good reviews in spite of having included the same controversial Metro-based user interface seen in Windows 8, which includes the Charms Bar for quick access to settings in the desktop environment. It is the final version of Windows Server that supports processors without CMPXCHG16B (Compare and Exchange 16 Bytes), PrefetchW, LAHF and SAHF. As of April 2017, 35% of servers were running Windows Server 2012, surpassing usage share of Windows Server 2008.