The Windows operating system captures a significant share of the operating system’s market share. As such, it can be considered one of the most popular operating systems. It offers an operating system in two main variants, namely
- Windows for desktop
- Windows server
Microsoft Windows Server 2022 is the latest edition of Windows 11 Server. It is important to know that both have different purposes. So let’s try to understand what it is Windows server and how is it different from Windows?
Difference between Windows and Windows Server
Microsoft Windows Server 2022 is the latest edition of Windows 11 Server. It is business-oriented and supports high-end hardware. If you run the same task view button and the same Start menu, it’s hard to find what’s different between the two siblings. But some important differences can help us to define their nature.
- Storage, control and network
- Less accessibility
- Basic support
- Memory support
- Network connections
- Microsoft Store or Edge browser compatibility
- Windows updates
- Price per deployment.
1]Storage, control and network
While Windows Desktop is used for computing and other daily tasks in offices or schools, Windows Server is primarily used to run the services that people use on a given network. It can be considered a series of enterprise-class server operating systems designed to share services with multiple users and have broad administrative control over data storage, applications, and corporate networks.
2]Less accessibility
If you’re on Windows Server, you can’t sign in to your Microsoft account. This severely limits your accessibility, as you can’t use your account to access another computer’s settings and use your Microsoft account to download important files / documents / folders using OneDrive or Office Apps. You can only sign in with a domain account.
3]Support for cores
As for kernels, Windows 10 with 32 bits can only support 32 kernels; However, 64 bits can handle larger sizes (256 cores). On the other hand, Windows Server can support an infinite number of kernels.
4]Memory support
Both support different memory sizes. A Windows 11/10 Enterprise computer has a 4GB memory limit on an x86 and a 2TB limit on an X64. These numbers are multiplied by collectors when you upgrade to the Windows Server version. You can see them. This Microsoft document describes the memory limits for supported versions of Windows and Windows Server.
5]Network connections
If you want a large number of network connections, Windows Desktop will not meet your expectations. It is only limited to 20 connections. Your Windows Server counterpart can offer as many network connections as you want, as long as you have enough hardware capacity.
This is an area where Windows Desktop manages to outperform Windows Server. Features such as the Windows subsystem, progressive web applications, and your phone for Linux are available in the Microsoft Store. Windows Server is not compatible with the Microsoft Store. Similarly, if you want to run Edge on Windows Server, you will be disappointed. Unlike Windows 10, Windows Server uses IE (Internet Explorer) and this cannot be used for web browsing. Also, if you want to try Google Chrome, you need to relax the exceptions for all Google URLs to complete the download.
7]Windows Updates
Another area where Windows for Desktop takes over Windows Server. Windows updates arrive faster on the Windows desktop than on Windows Server. It also includes a timeline, not visible on Windows Server.
8]Deployment price
Finally, a very important factor to consider: price! Windows Server 2016 licenses are relatively expensive. For example, if you have a business, depending on your size and needs, a single license can cost between $ 500 and $ 6,200. For this reason, most buyers opt for a volume license route. Windows Server is designed primarily for business, so it’s priced accordingly. Therefore, it is advisable to choose the system that best suits you and your needs and selected taking into account the need to recover, repair or migrate.
Recent iterations of Windows Server offer more flexibility, as they can be deployed on a cloud platform such as Microsoft Azure or in an organization’s data center hardware. In addition, the addition of new features such as Server Manager and Active Directory makes Windows Server a good alternative. While the former is a utility for managing server roles and making configuration changes to local computers, the latter allows for easy automation of user data management.
