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Snippet from Wikipedia: Windows Server 2012

Windows Server 2012, codenamed "Windows Server 8", is the ninth version of the Windows Server operating system by Microsoft, as part of the Windows NT family of operating systems. It is the server version of Windows based on Windows 8 and succeeds Windows Server 2008 R2, which is derived from the Windows 7 codebase, released nearly three years earlier. Two pre-release versions, a developer preview and a beta version, were released during development. The software was officially launched on September 4, 2012, which was the month before the release of Windows 8. It was succeeded by Windows Server 2012 R2 in 2013. Mainstream support for Windows Server 2012 ended on October 9, 2018, and extended support ended on October 10, 2023. Windows Server 2012 is eligible for the paid Extended Security Updates (ESU) program, which offers continued security updates until October 13, 2026.

Windows Server 2012 removed support for Itanium and processors without PAE, SSE2 and NX. Four editions were released. Various features were added or improved over Windows Server 2008 R2 (with many placing an emphasis on cloud computing), such as an updated version of Hyper-V, an IP address management role, a new version of Windows Task Manager, and ReFS, a new file system. Windows Server 2012 received generally good reviews in spite of having included the same controversial Metro-based user interface seen in Windows 8, which includes the Charms Bar for quick access to settings in the desktop environment.

Windows Server 2012 is the final version of Windows Server that supports processors without CMPXCHG16b, PrefetchW, LAHF and SAHF. Its successor, Windows Server 2012 R2, requires a processor with CMPXCHG16b, PrefetchW, LAHF and SAHF in any supported architecture.

As of April 2017, 35% of servers were running Windows Server 2012, surpassing usage share of Windows Server 2008.

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Preceded by Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2003