Description

Organizations planning to upgrade to Windows Server 2025 will benefit from enhanced security updates through a hotpatching feature allowing the implementation of OS security updates without requiring a system reboot. This functionality, previously available only in Windows Server 2022 Azure Edition, will be accessible for physical servers and virtual machines across various environments, including on-premises and cloud setups. Hari Pulapaka, Microsoft’s Director of Product for Windows Server, highlighted that Windows Server 2025 will enable hotpatching on systems running Hyper-V, VMware, and other platforms compliant with Microsoft’s Virtualization Based Security standard. This innovation will reduce the workload for server administrators by minimizing reboots, which, in turn, conserves disk and CPU resources and simplifies patch orchestration and change control. While hotpatching has proven effective it’s important to note that it may not be applicable in all situations; traditional patching and reboots will still be necessary. For the Standard and Datacenter editions of Windows Server 2025, hotpatching will be facilitated through Azure Arc, allowing the Windows Server internal licensing service for Hotpatch to deliver updates efficiently. Windows Server 2025, currently in Preview is set to be released by the end of 2024 and will introduce several new security features.