Windows Server 2022 Released — What's New for Server Administrators

Windows Server 2022 reaches general availability with the most significant security improvements in a decade — Secured-core server, TLS 1.3 default and SMB compression built in.

Key New Features

• Secured-core Server — hardware-backed security using TPM 2.0 and VBS
• TLS 1.3 by default — older protocols disabled out of the box
• DNS over HTTPS (DoH) — encrypted DNS resolution built into Windows
• SMB compression — automatic file transfer compression
• Azure Arc integration — manage on-premises servers from Azure portal
• Hyper-V improvements — nested virtualisation enhancements

IIS Improvements

# Check IIS version
Get-WebConfiguration system.webServer/version

# Enable TLS 1.3 (enabled by default on Server 2022)
# Verify via PowerShell
Get-TlsCipherSuite | Where-Object {$_.Name -like "*TLS13*"}

Security Hardening Highlights

# Disable legacy protocols (already off by default)
Disable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA"

# Enable Windows Defender Credential Guard
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceGuard" -Name "EnableVirtualizationBasedSecurity" -Value 1

Upgrade Considerations

In-place upgrade from Windows Server 2019 is supported. Always take a full backup and snapshot before upgrading. Test critical applications on a staging environment first.

Conclusion

Windows Server 2022 is a substantial upgrade for security-conscious organisations. Our team provides Windows Server management alongside Linux server support.