Hardware requirements for Windows Server

• Applies to:

  ✅ Windows Server 2025, ✅ Windows Server 2022, ✅ Windows Server 2019, ✅ Windows Server 2016

To install Windows Server correctly, your computer must meet the minimum hardware requirements outlined in this article. If your computer falls short of these requirements, the product might not install properly. Actual requirements vary based on your system configuration, applications, and features that are installed.

Unless otherwise specified, these minimum hardware requirements apply to all installation options (Server Core and Server with Desktop Experience) for both Windows Server Standard and Windows Server Datacenter editions.

Important

The highly diverse scope of potential deployments makes it unrealistic to state recommended hardware requirements that would be generally applicable. Consult documentation for each of the server roles you intend to deploy for more details about the resource needs of particular server roles. For the best results, conduct test deployments to determine appropriate hardware requirements for your particular deployment scenarios.

Components

CPU

Processor performance depends not only on the clock frequency of the processor, but also on the number of processor cores and the size of the processor cache. The following are the processor requirements.

Minimum:

• 1.4 GHz 64-bit processor

• Compatible with x64 instruction set

• Support for NX and DEP

• Support for CMPXCHG16b, LAHF/SAHF, and PrefetchW instructions

• Support for Second Level Address Translation (EPT or NPT)

• Support for the SSE4.2 (Streaming SIMD Extensions 4.2) instruction set

• Support for the POPCNT instruction

You can utilize Coreinfo, which is a tool included in Windows Sysinternals, to verify the capabilities of your CPU.

RAM

The following are the estimated Random Access Memory (RAM) requirements for this product.

Minimum:

• 512 MB for Server Core

• 2 GB for Server with Desktop Experience, 4 GB recommended

• 2 GB for Server with Desktop Experience

• ECC (Error Correcting Code) type or similar technology for physical host deployments

Important

Attempting to install Windows Server in a virtual machine configured with the minimum supported hardware parameters (1 processor core and 512 MB RAM) will result in a failed installation.

To prevent this issue, perform one of the following:

• Allocate more than 800 MB RAM to the virtual machine on which you intend to install this release. Once the setup has completed, you can change the allocation to as little as 512 MB RAM, depending on the actual server configuration. If you've modified the boot image for the setup with addition languages and updates, you may need to allocate more than 800 MB RAM in order to complete the installation.
• Interrupt the boot process of this release on the virtual machine with the keyboard combination SHIFT+F10. In the command prompt that opens, use diskpart.exe to create and format an installation partition. Run wpeutil createpagefile /path=C:\pf.sys (assuming the installation partition you created was C:\). Then close the command prompt and proceed with the installation.

Storage

Computers that run Windows Server must include a storage adapter that is compliant with the PCI Express architecture specification. Servers classified as hard disk drives must not use Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment (PATA) for persistent storage devices. Windows Server also doesn't allow PATA, Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA), Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE), and Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronic (EIDE) for boot, page, or data drives.

The following are the estimated minimum disk space requirements for the system partition.

Minimum:

• 32 GB of space

Note

Be aware that 32 GB should be considered an absolute minimum value for successful installation. This minimum should allow you to install Windows Server 2022 or later using the Server Core installation option with the Web Services (IIS) server role. A server in Server Core mode is ~4 GB smaller than the same server using the Server with Desktop Experience installation option.

The system partition will need extra space for any of the following circumstances:

• If you install the system over a network.
• Computers with more than 16 GB of RAM will require more disk space for paging, hibernation, and dump files.

Network

Network adapters used should include these features.

Minimum:

• An Ethernet adapter that can achieve a throughput of at least 1 gigabit per second

• Compliant with the PCI Express architecture specification

A network adapter that supports network debugging (KDNet) is useful, but not a minimum requirement.

A network adapter that supports the Pre-boot Execution Environment (PXE) is useful, but not a minimum requirement.

Other requirements

There are other hardware requirements to consider depending on your scenario:

• DVD drive (if you intend to install the operating system from DVD media)

The following items are only required for certain features:

• UEFI 2.3.1c-based system and firmware that supports secure boot

• Trusted Platform Module (TPM)

• Graphics device and monitor capable of Super VGA (1024 x 768) or higher-resolution

• Keyboard and Microsoft mouse (or other compatible pointing device)

• Internet access (fees might apply)

Note

A TPM chip is required in order to use certain features such as BitLocker Drive Encryption. If your computer has a TPM, it must meet these requirements:

• Hardware-based TPMs must implement version 2.0 of the TPM specification.
• TPMs that implement version 2.0 must have an EK certificate that is either pre-provisioned to the TPM by the hardware vendor or be capable of being retrieved by the device during the first boot.
• TPMs that implement version 2.0 must ship with SHA-256 PCR banks and implement PCRs 0 through 23 for SHA-256. It is acceptable to ship TPMs with a single switchable PCR bank that can be used for both SHA-1 and SHA-256 measurements.