

Microsoft ended mainstream support for Windows Server 2012 on 10-09-2018, and extended support will end on 10-10-2023. A successor was released on 10-18-2013, entitled Windows Server 2012 R2. The software was generally available to customers starting on 09-04-2012, by Microsoft. Two pre-release versions, a developer preview and a beta version, were released during development.

Windows Server 2012 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. Windows Server 2012 is the sixth version of the Windows Server operating system by Microsoft, as part of the Windows NT family of operating systems.
