Going down the IT rabbit hole

Last week on 13th of March Microsoft announced (RSS) new preview release of Windows Server 2025 (Windows Server Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC), build 26080). This preview build contains both the Desktop Experience and Server Core installation options for Datacenter and Standard editions, Annual Channel for Container Host and Azure Edition (for VM evaluation only):

To download evaluation (build 26080 will expire after September 15, 2024) version of new Windows Server 2025, go to Windows Insider Preview Downloads. To download preview Server versions, you need to be a member of the Windows Insider program. If you are not yet an insider, you can register for free here.

Besides English (US) version, you can also test server in few other languages:

Two of the most interesting changes in this new release are:
– Win32-OpenSSH server component is now installed by default,
– winget in Windows Server with Desktop Experience.

Starting in Windows Server 2025 the Win32-OpenSSH server side component (SSHD) will ship installed by default and if/when needed, it just needs to be enabled/disabled:

By default, when SSH is enabled, it will allow inbound connection on private networks (only) on the default TCP port 22. New local group “OpenSSH Users” can be used to allow remote connectivity for non-admin users.

Enable command that is executed in the background:
Get-Service -Name sshd | Set-Service -StartupType Automatic -PassThru | Start-Service

Disable command that is executed in the bckground:
Get-Service -Name sshd | Set-Service -StartupType Manual -PassThru | Stop-Service -Force

To customize default SSH config, you can edit file “C:\ProgramData\ssh\sshd_config”.

Some of the defaults:
AllowGroups administrators “openssh users”
HostKey PROGRAMDATA/ssh/ssh_host…
AuthorizedKeysFile .ssh/authorized_keys
Match Group administrators
AuthorizedKeysFile PROGRAMDATA/ssh/administrators_authorized_keys

Winget (Windows Package Manager) is command-line tool originally available on Windows 11 and modern versions of Windows 10. It allows admins and users to manage (install, uninstall, upgrade,…) locally installed applications. Winget is designed to help you quickly and easily discover and install custom software packages (by default from two sources: winget and msstore, with support for more).
Until you start managing applications with a solution like AppLocker, you might want to use GPO to disable winget.

If you want to test matching version of Windows Client, you can also download Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26080:

Since Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26052 you can natively run sudo on Windows 11, you just need to enable it:

Unlike winget, for this one I do hope it gets added to Windows Server at some point…

More info:
– Announcing Windows Server Preview Build 26080
– Introducing Sudo for Windows