Windows Server Summit 2026 to celebrate that Windows Server 2025 is now over a year old and after the Windows Server 2025 we now did get insights into today, tomorrow and what’s next. Together with you I want to take a quick look at the 19 sessions and which one you need to watch.

Introduction

A total of 19 session talking about the success and challenges of Windows Server 2025. We also did get an insight in 19 sessions on how challenges will be resolved and what will be coming next to us. We also can get a public view into vNext and our next Windows Server 202x.

The Microsoft product leaders for Windows Server 2025 will share the Recent innovations and updates in Windows Server 2025 and how we will get even better to enable Hybrid and multicloud scenarios using Azure Arc.

For me the best part is always the best practices and real‑world considerations and getting some data about in place upgrade success rates or why we are now seeing Windows Server 2025 in Windows Update.

Warning: The summary for the YouTube videos was AI generated and manually edited by me. Especially for gathering the “minutes:seconds” AI is a significant time saver. If you don’t like that, please skip this content.

Where is the free content available?

Check the full YouTube Playlist here on ITOpsTalk: Windows Server Summit 2026

To get your journey started you can also check the posting with links to all sessions here on the Tech Community from Microsoft.

When i find good summaries from other bloggers I will also share them here. If you are a blogger or content creator and want your content shared, please reach out to me directly.
For a German review I highly recommend the review by Benjamin Krah located here: “Windows Server Summit 2026 – kurz und knackig!” or his english version “Windows Server Summit 2026 – in a nutshell!“

Day 1 – Windows Server Summit 11.05.2026

Windows Server: Today, tomorrow, and what’s next

• 5:20 to 6:20 Hotpatching, vGPU and Hardware being a driver for the design based on the UI of Windows 11 to maintain good customer experience.
• 9:41 Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) introduces structural readiness frameworks engineered to support post-quantum cryptographic algorithms directly within the core PKI engine
• 30:50 Windows Admin Center (WAC) introduces “Virtualization Mode” (V-Mode) in Public Preview 2

Watch the full session Windows Server Summit 2026 on YouTube here and read the details on the Tech Community here.

Summary: I liked this session and getting the insight into the strategy and roadmap, but it was not a deep dive into technology.

Windows Server 2025 in practice: What’s new post-GA

• 1:13 to 2:08 Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) for hybrid environments moves into Windows Server 2025 (currently private preview), bringing cloud-brokered VDI functionality natively on-premises to modernize legacy Remote Desktop Services (RDS) footprints.
• 2:25 to 3:41 Storage architecture introduces native NVMe optimization by refactoring drivers to bypass legacy SCSI primitives, yielding improved IOPS, reduced latencies, and lower CPU utilization per I/O loop (staged via the March update, accessible via registry opt-in).
• 4:59 to 5:58 Windows Admin Center introduces Virtualization Mode (V-Mode) in public preview, incorporating an embedded migration wizard to translate and transition live virtual machine configurations directly from VMware ESXi hosts to Hyper-V hosts.
• 14:03 to 14:50 Core network security components introduce encrypted DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) inside the native DNS client preview, paired with newly introduced Firewall Audit Mode tools to parse and isolate traffic blocked by active filter drivers.
• 38:19 to 39:42 Platform hardening details the deprecation and removal vectors of insecure legacy components, shifting toward PowerShell 7 as the image default while scheduling the complete elimination of SMB1, WINS, and VBScript execution paths in vNext.

Watch the full Windows Server Summit 2026 session on YouTube here and read the details on the Tech Community here.

Summary: This Windows Server Summit 2026 session provided a highly practical engineering update. It clearly outlined real-world post-GA feature rollouts, registry opt-in requirements for core stack modernizations (like NVMe and feature updates), and explicit protocol removal boundaries that architects must plan for immediately.

This is a must watch session to get a summary of everything that changed since the launch. There is more than what I had in the summary list above, because it is too much content. What a journey so far for Windows Server 2025. For me one of the highlights with Elden and Orin presenting it.

The future of Hyper-V: what we’re building and why

• 34:56 to 37:29 Trusted Launch implementation details the deployment of a hardware-rooted chain of trust for generation two virtual machines from initial boot stages, enabling live migrations across hosts with virtual Trusted Platform Modules (vTPMs) active without setting up a separate Host Guardian Service topology.
• 39:41 to 41:40 Key Management Services (KMS) update maps a new requirement for physical Trusted Platform Modules (TPMs) to secure local server licensing activations, coinciding with the complete eradication of legacy PCAT BIOS generation one virtual machine support in vNext.
• 42:08 to 43:26 Core NVMe driver refactoring bypasses historical storage layers entirely, reducing physical read/write latencies by 38 percent while decreasing host processor execution overhead per input/output loop by 65 percent.
• 54:51 to 56:13 Virtual NVMe device controllers are designed to replace standard virtual SCSI controller primitives inside the virtual machine guest presentation layer, driving storage path throughput optimization directly down to physical NVMe-over-Fabrics targets.

Summary: This technical briefing provided excellent engineering depth into the hypervisor stack. The impact on performance is significant. Combining this with the next level of security with TPM controllers and PKI is the improved security layer. If you combine that with the new Windows Admin Center you get a great environment for small to medium enterprise environments. If you are still into VMware or you are in need of an on premise Hypervisor, this is the video to watch.

Watch the full Windows Server Summit 2026 session on YouTube here and read the details on the Tech Community here.

Security baselines, benchmarks, posture, and scale

• 7:15 to 7:45 Machine Configuration Customizable baseline remediation – coming soon

• 12:05 to 16:04 What is coming in v2 – Check the screenshot below

• 16:26 to 17:54 LAPS and Azure Arc

Summary: This is one of my favorite Windows Server Summit 2026 sessions. OS.Config and Baselines are very underated and not used enough by the Microsoft Customers. I recommend reading this for an insight into current and soon available features.

Watch the full Windows Server Summit 2026 session on YouTube here and read the details on the Tech Community here.

Zero-downtime migration, hybrid file services: Azure File Sync

• 1:19 to 2:24 How Azure File shares work

• 2:24 to Azure File Sync – Hybrid File Shares explained and why it is a service you want to use in medium and enterprise organizations to improve your Branch File Server without a time consuming migration project

• 15:25 Azure Arc Integration for Azure files! This is one of the next big things for Azure Arc and Azure Files.

Watch the full Windows Server Summit 2026 session on YouTube here and read the details on the Tech Community here.

Summary: I liked the technical insights in this session.Especially the focus on simplifying the use by the Azure Arc extension and how the new hybrid approach can add backup and DR features without too much extra work (migration project).

Evolving server management: priorities, roadmap, and tooling

• 5:14 to 5:57 Windows Server Management in the Era of Hybrid Compute and the “Control Plane” Approach to Management. This is my personal core message at customers and it is visible in the visualization below.

• 12:22 to 14:25 Extending Azure Management via Azure ARC and how this supports easier management, unified monitoring and a centralized security and Governance.

• 23:24 to 25:52 Evolve your established control stack to the Entra and Azure enabled future. We have been pushing this in our projects and communication and now it is on one slide!

Summary: Watch this session! It visualizes and explains the story all adaptive cloud IT architects have been pushing over the past months. Extend Identity management, your single control plane into your new Control Stack for Windows Server and Active Directory.

Watch the full session on YouTube here and read the details on the Tech Community here.

Summary

These Windows Server Summit 2026 sessions felt like completing my journey after the release of Windows Server 2025. All the stories told about the single control plane and adaptive cloud now come together. I am very excited to see that our on premise world will continue to develop and now gets access to the modern Azure Management stack.

If you have any questions on the topic of Windows Server 2025 and the Adaptive Cloud please don’t hesitate to reach out to me on LinkedIn, Bluesky or check my newly created Adaptive Cloud community on Reddit.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreas-hartig/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hartiga.de
Adaptive Cloud community on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/AdaptiveCloud/

For all German speakers I recommend joining our new “Meetup Azure Infra & Entra ID Süddeutschland” group and the Kickoff Event Tuesday, Jun 16 · 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM MESZ.

Additional Information

If you are interested in trying out the latest on Windows Server 2025 I highly recommend starting with my Windows Server 2025 guide. The guide starts with preparing your homelab here “Windows Server 2025 – Part 1 (Preparation)” and provides guidance from the first steps to building your first automations inside your environment.