Windows Server images for April 2026

Important

New offers of Windows Server 2022 image (windowsserver2022) are available. These new images no longer include .NET packages that have reached end of support, helping organizations stay current and aligned with industry standards. With .NET 6 reaching end of support in November 2024 (for details, see Download .NET 6.0 (Linux, macOS, and Windows), users have been advised to migrate and remove .NET 6 from their virtual machines. The refreshed images use the latest Windows Server 2022 SKU and automatically exclude .NET packages that are end of support, simplifying the deployment process.

To benefit from these improvements, we recommend using the new images for all new virtual machine (VM) deployments. If your organization relies on older images for auto-patching, updating now will help ensure your infrastructure remains secure and up to date. If you are customizing your image using the marketplace image impacted, you should switch to the new images too. To maintain secure by default Windows media, older images will begin deprecation in 2026.

Important

The standalone servicing stack update (SSU), KB5005112, for Windows Server 2019 Datacenter edition does not show as installed on the latest Azure Marketplace images. This is by design. Because of this, WSUS and Configuration Manager admins can deploy this SSU on devices that do not have the latest SSU that Unified packages require.