Public Preview: Windows Server 2025 on AKS

Organizations running Windows-based workloads on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) face increasing pressure to modernize as support timelines for older Windows Server versions approach retirement. To help customers prepare, AKS now offers preview support for Windows Server 2025, bringing significant improvements over Windows Server 2022.  

 

Windows Server 2025 provides many improvements as compared to Windows Server 2022:  

• Stable ABI: Allows you to run Windows Server 2022 containers on Windows Server 2025 
• New defaults: Generation 2 VM, containerd 2.0, FIPS enablement 
• Improved Nano server flexibility and added functionality: For example, Nano server now contains support for 32-bit apps via a FoD 
• Improved GPU support: CUDA workloads can now run in a container 

With upcoming retirements for Windows Server 2019 on March 1, 2026 and Windows Server 2022 on March 15, 2027, we recommend testing out the new Windows Server version to prepare for your migration. When migrating to Windows Server 2025, you’ll need to recreate your node pools with the new OS and migrate existing workloads. Learn more.