Various features were added or improved over Windows Server 2008 R2 (with many placing an emphasis on cloud computing), such as an updated version of Hyper-V, an IP address management role, a new version of Windows Task Manager, and ReFS, a new file system. Unlike its predecessor, Windows Server 2012 has no support for Itanium-based computers, and has four editions. Microsoft ended mainstream support for Windows Server 2012 on October 9, 2018, and extended support will end on October 10, 2023. A successor was released on October 18, 2013, entitled Windows Server 2012 R2. The software was generally available to customers starting on September 4, 2012, by Microsoft. Two pre-release versions, a developer preview and a beta version, were released during development.
It is the server version of Windows based on Windows 8 and succeeds Windows Server 2008 R2, which is derived from the Windows 7 codebase, released nearly three years earlier. Windows Server 2012 is the sixth version of the Windows Server operating system by Microsoft, as part of the Windows NT family of operating systems.
