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Windows Server

Score8.5 out of 10

854 Reviews and Ratings

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What is Windows Server?

Categories & Use Cases

Key Features

Learn about the best (and worst!) features Windows Server has to offer, as determined by TrustRadius' reviewers.
Based on 854 ratings of Windows Server's features
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Top Performing Features

  • File Management

    The system's method of storing, organizing, retrieving, and securing data in files and directories on storage devices.

    Category average: 8.2

  • Software Application Management

    The handling of software applications by the OS, including their installation, execution, resource use, and termination.

    Category average: 8.5

  • Operating System Security

    The measures and features within the OS that protect data and resources from unauthorized access, threats, and vulnerabilities.

    Category average: 8.8

Areas for Improvement

  • System Update Frequency

    How often the operating system receives patches or upgrades to improve functionality, fix bugs, and enhance security.

    Category average: 8.2

Reviews

What users are saying about Windows Server.
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Windows Server - Reliable Predictable Fully Featured and Easy To Use.

Incentivized
Bob Bennett
Infrastructure Architect in Information Technology at Advisor360 (501-1000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Windows Server for everything from hosting back-office infrastructure such as file servers, printer management solutions and operation of third party solutions and services, managing and maintaining identity namespace data and IAM solutions, hosting Microsoft SQL Server database instances and full cycle development environments (Dev, Test, QA, Performance Testing, Pre-Prod) as well as operation of many solutions in the customer facing Production environment.

Pros

  • File Sharing.
  • Identity and directory services.
  • Centralized management (Group Policy).
  • Application hosting (SQL Server, IIS, .Net).

Cons

  • Patching is disruptive requiring reboots/maintenance windows.
  • Resource requirements are higher than competing options.
  • System stability - memory leaks and other hangs require reboot.
  • Large attack surface for bad actors to exploit.

Return on Investment

  • Support for a wide range of applications (compatibility) This is especially valuable.
  • The cost of licensing is significantly higher than that of many competing solutions, which means the justification has to be more complete.
  • The initial environment setup with full organization management provides a complete solution set to get started.
  • Patching/Frequent updates disruptive nature must be accepted.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

CentOS Linux, Rocky Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

Other Software Used

Hitachi Content Platform (HCP), Dynatrace, Slack, Augment Code, Google Meet, Dell PowerStore, Dell PowerEdge, Delinea Secret Server, Atlassian Confluence, Atlassian Jira

Windows Server the backbone of commercial IT Environment

Incentivized
Verified User
Technician in Information Technology (501-1000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Microsoft Windows Server is the foundation of any IT environment I have worked in. Starting with Active Directory domain controllers, scaling out with additional Windows Server with roles for File Services, Web, SQL, and Application servers. Windows has always been the dominant Server OS and more administrator friendly OS to work with.

Pros

  • Interfaces and much easier to work with vs CMD line
  • Security Updates released monthly and zero day patches when required
  • Easy to install and maintain

Cons

  • I regret when a Windows prompt overrides the input of an admin, a Window appearing from an OS prompt should not interfere with an active dialog box that an admin is working in
  • There are a lot of security updates required, often times these take a long time to apply (pre and post reboot)
  • Windows updates sometimes fail and continuously try to apply in a loop. This can be difficult to resolve at times, sometimes requiring input from a Microsoft technical resource

Return on Investment

  • Active Directory is the pillar of our IT environment. Windows Server hosts this service flawlessly with minimal maintenance required.
  • Windows Server host Web Services (IIS) on many Servers in our environment. It is proven to be very reliable, stable, and user friendly service.
  • Microsoft Technical support can be a challenge. When opening support cases, the first tier of support, log collection, and triage of the incident can be time consuming. I've also experienced long wait times for log analysis and waiting for next steps to troubleshoot. This has occurred many times over the years. The support is most times outsourced to third party company.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft IIS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Omnissa Horizon, Omnissa Dynamic Environment Manager, Cisco Duo, BlackBerry UEM, SolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM), SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM), ManageEngine Device Control Plus and ManageEngine OpManager

Other Software Used

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), VMware ESXi, Cisco Duo

Reliable and Familiar

Incentivized
Verified User
Administrator in Information Technology (201-500 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Windows Server for almost all aspects of our infrastructure. Active Directory,, mail servers, file and print servers. With just a few exceptions where it made more sense to use ESXi and Linux on a few hosts, everything else is Windows Server. We've been using it since NT 4.0 and have used every version along the way up to 2025.

Pros

  • Runs on almost any hardware
  • Runs great in a VM
  • Well suited to almost any role

Cons

  • Update/patch installation

Return on Investment

  • It's almost become an afterthought b/c it "just does what it should"

Usability

Alternatives Considered

VMware ESXi, CentOS Linux and Ubuntu

Other Software Used

Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft 365, Omnissa Horizon

Stable platform for Virtualization and RDS

Incentivized
Verified User
Technician in Information Technology (11-50 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Windows Server's RDS as our platform for cloud application deployment to our customers. We also use HyperV virtualization to host additional Windows Servers as well as linux servers.

Pros

  • RDS
  • HyperV
  • SMB file shares

Cons

  • Better unity between hyperV management tools
  • licensing is sometimes hard to understand

Return on Investment

  • Licensing for our needs has been reasonable compared to other commercial hypervisor vendors and has saved us quite a bit in our particular use case anyhow.
  • Uptime has been good, reducing support costs

Usability

Other Software Used

Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS), Sage 100, ConnectWise Asio

Windows Server pros and cons

Incentivized
Verified User
Technician (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Windows Server for pretty much everyting. We use it as active directory domain , dns , dhcp , microsoft SQL and so on.
It helps to manage users, shares , folder permissions , authentication, and to manage users.
It is pretty straightforward and you have good documentation online for pretty much everything you want to acomplish.

Pros

  • User management
  • File shares
  • Ease of use
  • Have a lot of functionality

Cons

  • Updates that break things
  • Price
  • Be more robust

Return on Investment

  • Improve setup time on new employees PC
  • High pricing as negative
  • Give control over your files

Usability

Alternatives Considered

CentOS Linux, Debian OS and Ubuntu

Other Software Used

Ubuntu, Debian OS, Wazuh, ESET PROTECT, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Power BI, Suricata IDS