Windows 2008
| A version of the Windows NT operating system | |
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Screenshot of Windows Server 2008
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| Developer | Microsoft |
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| Source model | Closed source / Shared source |
| Released to manufacturing |
February 4, 2008 |
| General availability |
February 27, 2008 |
| Latest release | 6.0 (Build 6002: Service Pack 2) / July 22, 2009 |
| Update method | Windows Update, Windows Server Update Services, SCCM |
| Platforms | IA-32, x86-64, Itanium |
| Kernel type | Hybrid |
| License | Proprietary commercial software |
| Preceded by | Windows Server 2003 R2 (2005) |
| Succeeded by | Windows Server 2008 R2 (2009) |
| Official website | microsoft |
| Support status | |
| Mainstream support ended on 13 January 2015. Extended support ends on 14 January 2020 (For Service Pack 2). |
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| Articles in the series | |
Windows Server 2008 is the second major release of the Windows Server family of operating systems for server computers. Developed by Microsoft, it was released to manufacturing on February 4, 2008, and reached general availability on February 27, 2008. It is the successor of Windows Server 2003, released nearly five years earlier.
Originally known as Windows Server Codename "Longhorn", Microsoft chairman Bill Gates announced its official title (Windows Server 2008) during his keynote address at WinHEC 16 May 2007.
Beta 1 was released on 27 July 2005, Beta 2 was announced and released on 23 May 2006 at WinHEC 2006 and Beta 3 was released publicly on 25 April 2007. Release Candidate 0 was released to the general public on 24 September 2007 and Release Candidate 1 was released to the general public on 5 December 2007. Windows Server 2008 was released to manufacturing on 4 February 2008 and officially launched on 27 February 2008.
Windows Server 2008 is built from the same code base as Windows Vista; therefore, it shares much of the same architecture and functionality. Since the code base is common, it automatically comes with most of the technical, security, management and administrative features new to Windows Vista such as the rewritten networking stack (native IPv6, native wireless, speed and security improvements); improved image-based installation, deployment and recovery; improved diagnostics, monitoring, event logging and reporting tools; new security features such as BitLocker and ASLR (address space layout randomization); improved Windows Firewall with secure default configuration; .NET Framework 3.0 technologies, specifically Windows Communication Foundation, Microsoft Message Queuing and Windows Workflow Foundation; and the core kernel, memory and file system improvements. Processors and memory devices are modeled as Plug and Play devices, to allow hot-plugging of these devices. This allows the system resources to be partitioned dynamically using Dynamic Hardware Partitioning; each partition has its own memory, processor and I/O host bridge devices independent of other partitions.
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