Windows Server 2022 will only get 10 years of Long Term Servicing support

In the future, Microsoft will only support Windows Server 2022 through a Long Term Servicing channel for a period of ten years. Semi-annual channel support will disappear, but will persist under Azure Stack HCI for older versions.

Microsoft writes on a release page about the changes to Windows Server 2022. The server software package has always had two types of support, both an LTS channel for long-term support and a Semi-Annual channel or SAC with new features introduced regularly. The latter offered support for 18 months after release. That last version disappears. “As of Windows Server 2022, only one release channel will be available, the Long Term Servicing channel,” Microsoft writes.

This means that from the future version of Server, users will receive standard five years of support, with five years of ‘extended’ support added. Such releases, according to Microsoft, only have security features and bug fixes. New versions of the software are released every two to three years.

Windows Server 20H2 is the last Server version that can still use SAC. That will change. The function will then integrate with Azure Stack HCI.

Update: changed that the extended updates are not paid, but free.