Announcing Windows Server 2019 Insider Preview Build 17744

Hello Windows Insiders!

Today we are pleased to release a new build of the Windows Server vNext Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) release that contains both the Desktop Experience and Server Core, as well as a new build of the next Windows Server Semi-Annual Channel release and Microsoft Hyper-V Server.

What’s New

To see the full list of new functionality introduced in earlier builds of Windows Server,  see aka.ms/ServerInsider-WhatsNew.

Microsoft Hyper-V Server: Improvements

For Windows Server 2019, Microsoft Hyper-V Server provides a robust, optimized enterprise-class virtualization platform that enables improved server utilization and reduced costs. This preview release of Microsoft Hyper-V Server includes various updates and fixes including:

• Installation no longer prompts for a product key. Microsoft Hyper-V Server is an enterprise hypervisor that is provided at no additional cost.
• Administrators are now properly prompted to change their passwords when initially signing in.
• Updated installation branding.

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2019 also includes additional features such as:

• Failover Clustering hardening. Failover Clustering no longer requires the use of NTLM.
• Server Message Block (SMB) hardening. SMB 1.0 is disabled by default.
• Windows Subsystem for Linux is built in.
• Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection is built in.
• .NET Framework 4.7 is built-in. (Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2016 included .NET Framework 4.6).

Finally, Microsoft Hyper-V Server can be fully managed by Windows Admin Center to provide a modern, remote management solution that integrates with Azure Backup, disaster recovery, and more.

Available Content

• Windows Server 2019 Preview is available in ISO format in 18 languages, and in VHDX format in English only. This build and all future pre-release builds will require use of activation keys during setup. The following keys allow for unlimited activations:

Datacenter Edition	6XBNX-4JQGW-QX6QG-74P76-72V67
Standard Edition	MFY9F-XBN2F-TYFMP-CCV49-RMYVH

• Windows Server vNext Semi-Annual Preview – The Server Core Edition is available in English only, in ISO or VHDX format. The images are pre-keyed – no need to enter a key during setup.
• Microsoft Hyper-V Server
• Server Core App Compatibility FoD Preview

• Windows Admin Center Preview 1808 – see http://aka.ms/WACPreview1808-InsiderBlog for full details.

Symbols are available on the public symbol server – see Update on Microsoft’s Symbol Server blog post and Using the Microsoft Symbol Server. Matching Windows Server container images will be available via Docker Hub. For more information about Windows Server containers and Insider builds, click here.

This build will expire December 14th, 2018.

How to Download 

To obtain the Insider software downloads, registered Insiders may navigate to the Windows Server Insider Preview download page.  If you have not yet registered as an Insider, see GETTING STARTED WITH SERVER on the Windows Insiders for Business portal.

We value your feedback!

Use your registered Windows 10 Insider device and use the Feedback Hub application. In the app, choose the Windows Server category and then the appropriate subcategory for your feedback. In the title of the Feedback, please indicate the build number you are providing feedback on in this format:

[Server #####] Title of my feedback

We also encourage you to visit the Windows Server Insiders space on the Microsoft Tech Communities forum to collaborate, share and learn from experts.

Known Issues

• [NEW] After a system running Server Core is transitioned (transmogrified) to Server Datacenter–for example, by running the command dism /online /setedition:ServerDatacenterCor /ProductKey:product-key/AcceptEula–the operating system is not licensed. On an affected system, the administrator is not instructed to restart the system, and the operating system indicates that it is a retail channel version rather than a Generic Volume License Key (GVLK) version, even when the product key is a GVLK key. To make an affected system licensed, run the following command: cscript c:WindowsSystem32slmgr.vbs /ipkproduct-key.
• [NEW] The Italian language (it-IT) text of the End-User License Agreement (EULA) for Hyper-V Server is formatted incorrectly.
• The operating system has an unnecessary utility account for Windows Defender Application Guard.
• Authentication that uses Public Key Cryptography User-to-User (PKU2U) to access an SMB volume can result in an error, STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE, due to an invalid private key in the certificate for a cluster-created user account (CSUSR) on each cluster node. This issue can cause cross-cluster migration in cluster sets to fail, as well as possibly cause global namespace mappings to fail, leading to virtual machines being unable to access storage.
• The Base Filtering Engine service may consume an inordinate amount of memory after starting and stopping thousands of containers.
• The Virtual Hard Disk Miniport Driver (Vhdmp.sys) may experience a bug check, SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED (7e).
• When a Windows Defender Application Guard container crashes, the resulting type of dump may be unexpected.
• On recent preview builds, database applications might not be able to initialize a database and fail with a stack overflow or insufficient privileges when the database is located on an SMB volume.
• Shielded VMs running Linux do not boot. The loader (LSVMLoad) waits for a passphrase for the boot partition.
• Creating or modifying environment variables by using setx fails on a system running in a Nano Container (that is, Nano Server as a container image). On an affected system, setx requires a specific path in the registry, HKCUEnvironment, to exist by default. You can work around this issue by changing where the variable is stored in the registry, or you can add the expected registry path before executing setx commands. To specify that the variable be set for system-wide use in HKLM rather than in HKCU, the default, add the /M switch to a setx command. To instead add the expected registry path, run reg add HKCUEnvironment before executing setx commands.

 Terms of Use

This is pre-release software – it is provided for use “as-is” and is not supported in production environments. Users are responsible for installing any updates made available from Windows Update.   All pre-release software made available to you via the Windows Server Insider program are governed by the Insider Terms of Use.

No downtime for Hustle-As-A-Service,
Dona <3

Source: Announcing Windows Server 2019 Insider Preview Build 17744