It has been a while since Microsoft released their latest Windows Server operating system, but later this year Microsoft plans to release Windows Server 2016.
If you are interested in testing the upcoming version you can do that already now. Microsoft has made what they call a Technical Preview of the upcoming OS available for download. It is completely free to download and test until July this year, but registration (LiveID), is required to get access to the download. The final release of Windows Server 2016, is expected to be in Q3 2016. In this article I will give you a little teaser to, what is new, in the upcoming release. The current technical release you can download and test yourself is called Technical Preview 5.
New features in Windows Server 2016
- PowerShell 5.0
- Virtual TPM
- Nano server
- IIS 10 (Support for HTTP/2)
- Windows Defender
PowerShell 5.0
Windows server 2016 will come with PowerShell 5.0 built in. New cmdlets and debugging features available.
Virtual TPM
Virtual Trusted Platform Module (TPM) will be available in Hyper-V, just like in Windows 10, making you able to secure your Virtual Machines with TPM.
Nano Server
Sometimes a Windows Server just makes too big a footprint for small and simple tasks. In Windows Server 2016 Microsoft delivers Nano Server. Nano Server is an improvement to Server Core that was released in earlier versions of Windows Server. Nano Server is just smaller and requires far fewer updates and restarts than the classic Windows Server installation.
IIS 10 (Internet Information Services)
Windows Server 2016 comes with a new and improved versions of Internet Information Services, that now supports HTTP/2.
Requirements for Windows Server 2016 TP5
- CPU – 1.4 GHz 64-bit processor
- RAM – 512 MB
- Hard drive – 32 GB free disk space (Computers with more than 16 GB of RAM will require more disk space for paging, hibernation, and dump files.)
Download Windows Server 2016 TP5
You can download Windows server 2016 TP5 here and test it yourself. For more information about the new features of the upcoming server OS from Microsoft, check this official TechNet post.
