Windows Server 2008
version of the Windows Server line of server operating systems, based on Windows Vista and released in 2008
Windows Server 2008, codenamed "Longhorn Server" is the seventh major version of the Windows NT operating system produced by Microsoft to be released under the Windows Server brand name. It was released to manufacturing on February 4, 2008, and generally to retail on February 27, 2008. Derived from Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 is the successor to Windows Server 2003 R2 and the predecessor to Windows Server 2008 R2. It removed support for computers without ACPI, and is the first version that includes Hyper-V.
It is the last version of Windows Server that supports 32-bit processors (IA-32).
As of July 2019, 60% of Windows Servers were running Windows Server 2008.
History
Microsoft had released Windows Vista to mixed reception, and their last Windows Server release was based on Windows XP. The operating system's working title was Windows Server Codename "Longhorn", but was later changed to Windows Server 2008 when Microsoft chairman Bill Gates announced it during his keynote address at WinHEC on May 16, 2007.
Beta 1 was released on July 27, 2005; Beta 2 was announced and released on May 23, 2006, at WinHEC 2006 and Beta 3 was released publicly on April 25, 2007. Release Candidate 0 was released to the general public on September 24, 2007 and Release Candidate 1 was released to the general public on December 5, 2007. Windows Server 2008 was released to manufacturing on February 4, 2008, and officially launched on the 27th of that month.
Features
Windows Server 2008 is built from the same codebase as Windows Vista and thus it shares much of the same architecture and functionality.
The public source identifies “Windows Server 2008” as version of the Windows Server line of server operating systems, based on Windows Vista and released in 2008. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Windows, Server and version.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q11233. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2008, 2003, 2019 and 2007.
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This entry incorporates text from “Windows Server 2008” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.