Windows Server 2025 receives initial hotpatch public preview

With the upcoming launch of Windows 11 24H2, Microsoft is also set to unveil its Windows Server 2025 operating system this fall. Recently, Microsoft announced the public preview of a highly anticipated new feature for the evaluation version of Windows Server 2025: hotpatching support.

According to a blog post from Microsoft, both the Standard and Datacenter editions of Windows Server 2025 will benefit from hotpatching capabilities. Previously, this feature was exclusive to Windows Server 2022 Datacenter: Azure Edition and required the use of an Azure virtual machine or Azure Stack HCI. However, Windows Server 2025 will make hotpatching accessible in both editions through Azure Arc. Microsoft states:

Simply enroll through the built-in Azure Arc agent setup included in Windows Server 2025 evaluation, enable the hotpatch preview, and you’re ready to go.

In simple terms, integrating hotpatch support in Windows Server 2025 allows essential security updates to be installed without the disruptive reboot process. Microsoft detailed the benefits of this feature as follows:

• Reduced workload impact with fewer reboots. Instead of the current 12 mandatory reboots per year during “Patch Tuesday” , updates will now only require quarterly reboots, with a rare chance of needing reboots in certain Hotpatch months.
• Fewer binaries lead to faster updates that consume less disk space and CPU resources.
• Simplified patch orchestration and change control.
• Integration with the optional Azure Update Manager.

Furthermore, Microsoft indicated that this new feature allows administrators to configure hotpatching for physical Windows Server 2025 servers or virtual machines. For virtual machines, hotpatching is supported while running in Hyper-V, VMware, or any platform that adheres to the Virtualization Based Security standard.

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