Windows Server

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.

Windows Server and Active Directory is very robust and stable, it has been a staple in every IT environment I have worked in during my career. Junior to Intermediate admins can learn Windows Server easily, the user interfaces make administration tasks very easy as well as the documentation available through a vast amount of resources. There are other Operating Systems available with no GUI which has a smaller attack surface, faster update installation and reboot time. Windows Server does have the ability to remove the desktop experience, however it is not something I have had experience with and I believe most administrators choose not to remove it.

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.

Anytime I need a server for something, whether to test a new platform or app, devote a server to hosting something, etc., Windows Server is my go-to choice. Recently I needed a new server to host a web server and web application, so I spun up a Windows Server 2025 VM and was up and running in no time at all.

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.

HyperV is a competitive virtualization platform that is easy to use as is RDS for remote access by multiple users. Windows Server is a well rounded platform that can handle multiple needs, but I would tend towards linux if I had a more 'single purpose' need in mind.

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.

If you have a company with a mid amount of people, and you need to manage the users accounts , share folders having the control to who access what and so on.
I would not reccomend it if you have very few people since it's pretty expensive and you could use local accounts and a NAS for file share , that will be much cheaper.

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.

Windows is well-suited for environments where caretakers are not as technical as they are in larger environments. It is also well-suited for small environments where a small number of server instances can provide a complete enterprise management solution, including directory services (AD), networking services (DHCP, DNS), file server services, printing, and hosting of applications that the enterprise relies on. It is also fairly good at providing hybrid-cloud support (most especially with Azure).

I have been Windows Server over 12 years, most of the problem is server will be hung state when the performance hits high and we need a reboot always

I recommend the Windows Server always

Almost all of our production systems run on Windows Server platforms. We tend to separate each server out as one role to host a single application or set of applications. All servers we run are virtualised and we utilise data centre licensing on our hosts. Most off-the-shelf applications require Windows Server, and we prefer centralised management of a single platform so it's really the only choice for us (apart from some virtual appliances).

In most cases you don't have a choice, many commercial applications are built on the Windows server base. However the domains and active directory are good when you have large numbers of servers to manage en-masse.

Suited for people extremely versed in Server. [In my experience,] not suited for anyone that isn't already versed in Server.

Windows Server is being used for many applications across the organization. It is used as the operating system for all virtual machines. As we are using Windows Server for all systems, we also use most of the services that Windows Server offers. Including but not limited to; Active Directory, DHCP, DNS, Print Services, and more.

You really don't have much of a choice when it comes to enterprise class operating systems, particularly in the public sector. Fortunately, Windows Server gets the job done and it get it done well. Running it as the core of your environment or even for hosting a small application is always feasible, especially if you opt for datacenter licensing.

We manage Windows Server for a few of our clients who need it for computer lab deployments or data sharing among office staff. In a Windows environment, it's the only way to go to get good control over devices and easily provide access to shared resources like drives and printers over the network.

If you run a Windows or mixed environment and want to share resources, Windows Server is the way to do it. It can do quite a bit, but because of that, it is a very complex set of tools, so be prepared to invest a lot in getting it set up and maintaining things.