Windows Admin Center Blog

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Windows Admin Center version 2511 is now generally available!

Microsoft

Dec 11, 2025

Today we’re announcing the general availability of Windows Admin Center version 2511! A special thank you to our customers, partners, and fans. Your continued support of Windows Admin Center has been critical to its continued success.  

Version 2511 marks a milestone. We’ve brought back high availability deployments compatible with our modernized gateway (known colloquially as “v2”), enhanced silent installation, and provided enterprise-ready logging. We also improved several of our core tools, including VM management enhancements and updates to Remote Deskop’s international keyboard layouts.

We’ve been working behind the scenes to ensure that Windows Admin Center is up-to-date, secure, and reliable. Read on to learn about the new features and updates! 

Windows Admin Center: Virtualization Mode is now in preview!

At Microsoft Ignite last month, we announced Windows Admin Center: Virtualization Mode (vMode), a purpose-built experience to help you easily manage on-premises Windows Server Hyper-V virtualization at scale – across multiple hosts and clusters – while effortlessly bridging your environment with Azure Arc for a true hybrid cloud experience.

Windows Admin Center: Virtualization Mode and Windows Admin Center 2511 are distinct installations. This post refers specifically to Windows Admin Center 2511. To read more about Virtualization Mode, check out the announcement and public documentation.

What’s new in Windows Admin Center 2511

Platform updates 

Installer

The Windows Admin Center installer in version 2410 had some gaps. We’ve heard ample feedback about the installer experience and have worked to address several of these in 2511.

Silent install commands

In Windows Admin Center version 2410, we did not include many command line install operations. We know that many of you install Windows Admin Center through the command line because you’re using Server Core or would like to automate your Windows Admin Center deployments. With this release, we’ve restored command line silent installation support and added a few extra arguments as well. The following arguments can now be used:

/Silent
/VerySilent
/HTTPSPortNumber
/CertificateThumbprint

Here’s an example of how you’d run the installer from the command line:

.\WindowsAdminCenterSetup.exe /HTTPSPortNumber=1234 /CertificateThumbprint=“1234abcd4567efgh”

In addition to the command line installation, your Windows Admin Center configuration can always be modified with the PowerShell Configuration script module, which can be found at the following file path:
%Program Files%\WindowsAdminCenter\PowerShellModules\Microsoft.WindowsAdminCenter.Configuration

Cert troubleshooting

The management of software certificates is a necessary component to product lifecycle management, but it isn’t always easy. When we upgraded the Windows Admin Center backend with version 2410, we also changed the way certificates are handled by Windows Admin Center. We’ve created new documentation that can assist in the process of updating your Windows Admin Center certificate or troubleshooting certificate issues.

Localization

In this release, we’ve addressed an issue where users upgrading to Windows Admin Center versions 2410 or later were unable to migrate to the new backend successfully. This issue was due to certificates being improperly processed because of a localization error in one of the Windows Admin Center scripts. After updating, users were unable to launch the latest version of Windows Admin Center successfully.

Logging

We have heard your feedback, and the WAC installer now supports enterprise-ready logging by writing installation details to the Windows Event Log. This provides centralized visibility for IT teams, improves compliance, and simplifies troubleshooting.

Other bugfixes

We've fixed an issue where some installations were failing on Windows Server 2022 systems and older, first reported in our public preview release.

High availability

Historically, you could deploy Windows Admin Center in a failover cluster to provide high availability for your Windows Admin Center gateway service. In Windows Admin Center version 2410, this functionality was unavailable.

In this release, we’ve restored the ability to deploy Windows Admin Center with high availability. The solution provided is an active-passive solution, where only one instance of Windows Admin Center is active. If one of the nodes in the cluster fails, Windows Admin Center gracefully fails over to another node, letting you continue managing the servers in your environment seamlessly.

Learn more about highly available Windows Admin Center and download the latest deployment script.

Updates to Extensions

Virtual machine tool

The VM management tool has been updated with improved import/export workflows that polish the destination dialog and file location handling. The host settings have enhanced configuration options and backend validation to prevent user misconfiguration. There is now an improved creation and configuration workflow for virtual switches, along with network controller integration. There’s better rule management, validation for affinity rules to avoid any potential conflicts.

Performance is still top of mind and one of the highest priorities for our team. With that said, the VM list is loading faster, there are now clearer error messages, and the UI is now more responsive.

Virtual machine conversion tool

As organizations update their infrastructure, a growing number are seeking adaptable, Microsoft-supported solutions that address current requirements while laying the path for future cloud and AI adoption. Azure provides an agile, scalable, cost-effective platform for infrastructure and innovation. Whether by modernizing to cloud technologies like Windows or Linux VMs, containers, Azure VMware Solution or PaaS services, Azure offers a world-class cloud experience. However, we recognize that some organizations must retain workloads on-premises due to data compliance, governance, or other regulatory requirements. For customers wanting to adopt Windows Server and Hyper-V for this use case, we are excited to provide a new option within Windows Admin Center, the VM Conversion tool, in public preview as of last month. Read the announcement and explore the documentation.

RDP tool

The Remote Desktop (RDP) tool has long been one of the most relied-upon features in Windows Admin Center, enabling IT professionals to manage servers remotely with ease. In this latest update, we’ve focused on two critical areas: global accessibility and rock-solid reliability.

First, we’ve significantly expanded international keyboard support. Remote management often spans multiple regions and languages, and incorrect keyboard mappings have been a pain point for many users. To solve this, we introduced advanced detection methods that combine timezone and language heuristics with physical keyboard pattern analysis. We also added a new utility method, streamlined language-to-layout mapping, and implemented fallback strategies to ensure accuracy in diverse environments. With these improvements, the RDP tool now supports over thirty international keyboard layouts, including Japanese, German, and French, making it a truly global solution for distributed teams and traveling administrators.

Second, we addressed a critical reliability issue that affected version 4.30.2, where the tool sometimes stalled during loading. This bug has been fully resolved in the latest in-box version, delivering faster startup times and consistent connectivity. Whether you’re managing a single server or an entire cluster, you can now rely on the RDP tool to perform without interruptions.

These enhancements aren’t just technical upgrades. They’re about creating a smoother, more inclusive experience for IT professionals everywhere. By improving keyboard detection and eliminating loading issues, we’re making remote administration more efficient, more reliable, and ready for the demands of modern infrastructure management.

Security tools

Windows Admin Center introduces powerful security tools for Windows Server 2025 to help organizations stay ahead of evolving cyber threats. Key features include Silicon Assisted Security, which consolidates secured-core requirements and hardware recommendations into a streamlined view for configuring protections like VBS, Secure Boot, and TPM 2.0; the Security Baseline tool, enabling enforcement of Microsoft-recommended settings and industry standards such as CIS, DISA STIG, and FIPS through OSConfig and drift control; and Windows LAPS, which automates local administrator password management and integrates with Admin Center for bulk password resets and expiration tracking. Together, these tools simplify security management, strengthen infrastructure resilience, and ensure compliance with best practices. Learn more.

SDN management

In this release, we’ve updated the SDN management extension to add X509 client authentication support for FC NC environments. This is a requirement for some Azure Local configurations. Additionally, we’ve updated SDN deployment to include an option to specify the OU path of the infrastructure VMs.

Partner ecosystem

Windows Admin Center is built to be an extensible platform. Our partners help to provide a comprehensive management experience, and we value their contributions to the Windows Admin Center ecosystem. Since our last release, several extensions have been updated, including those from Dell, Lenovo, and more. Additionally, we have a new extension available from NetApp.

NetApp Shift Toolkit is now available!

NetApp provides unified data storage, integrated data services, and cloud operations solutions to enterprise customers. One of their many products is their Shift Toolkit, a free, GUI-based solution that simplifies VM migration across different hypervisors and converts virtual disk formats. It automates the creation and configuration of destination VMs, reduces virtualization costs through VM portability, and supports disk-level conversions for multi-hypervisor environments.

This extension combines Windows Admin Center’s intuitive UI with the power of NetApp’s Shift Toolkit, making migrations to Hyper-V fast and easy.

Read NetApp’s blog post about their extension here.

The Dell OpenManage Integration extension has been updated!

The Dell OpenManage Integration extension has been updated to version 3.4.0. This version comes with the following improvements since the last Windows Admin Center generally available release:

Added support for 17G PowerEdge servers.
Added support for Azure Stack HCI operating system 24H2.
Updated Azure Local rebranding changes.
Support for BitLocker in Dell AX System for Microsoft Windows Server.
OMIMSWAC is hosted under Windows Admin Center as a separate subprocess. For more information, see Windows Admin Center modernized gateway.
The hardware update operation is now working in the German language.
The use of TLS 1.2 is enabled when TLS 1.3 does not work in a supported system.
Support for Azure Policy Onboarding for HCI and failover clusters when a resource group in Azure Arc has servers which are not part of the cluster.
You can view the inventory information of clusters without providing the 'Manage as' credentials.

The Lenovo XClarity Integrator extension has been updated!

The Lenovo XClarity Integrator extension has been updated to version 5.1.1. This version comes with the following improvements since the last Windows Admin Center generally available release:

New hardware support
- ThinkSystem SR630 V4 (7DG8, 7DG9, 7DGA, 7DGB)
- ThinkSystem SR650 V4 (7DGC, 7DGD, 7DGE, 7DGF)
New functions support
- ThinkAgile MX Best Recipe 2503
- Lenovo XClarity Essentials OneCLI V5.2.0 for system upgrade
- Automatic detection on the enablement status of Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) for the managed servers
- User-friendly download mode for WDAC policy file
- System upgrade on the servers with BitLocker enabled
- Windows Admin Center Gateway V2
- ThinkAgile MX Best Recipe 2410
- Lenovo XClarity Essentials OneCLI V5.0.0 for system upgrade
Software ecosystem support
- Lenovo XClarity Administrator 4.3.x
- Azure Local 24H2
- Windows Server 2025
- Windows Admin Center 2410
- Lenovo XClarity Administrator 4.2

The Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure extension has been updated!

The Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure extension has been updated to version 2.6.5. This version comes with the following improvements since the last Windows Admin Center generally available release:

Switched from NGSSO to Dell Identity Authentication for enabling Dell Support Portal access
Adopted the new Dell-provided Azure Local golden image for cluster expansion and server repair
Adopted Azure Stack HCI rebrand to Azure Local
Blocked node repair on 3-Node switchless cluster

Other extension updates

NEC ESMPRO version 1.1.5 updates the information on monitored devices.
The DataON MUST extension has been updated to version 4.1.10.

Known issues 

This version of Windows Admin Center cannot be registered in Azure Government sovereign cloud.

Download today! 

If you made it this far in the blog post, thank you so much for reading along! We hope you enjoy this new version of Windows Admin Center and the various new functionality and new extensions now available.  

Download now!

As always, thanks for your ongoing support, adoption, and feedback. Your contributions through user feedback continue to be vital and valuable to us, helping us prioritize and sequence our investments. 