System administrators have recently reported a troubling incident involving Windows Server 2022 systems unexpectedly upgrading to Windows Server 2025 without consent. Reddit user Fatboy40 shared that their client’s servers had either been upgraded or were on the cusp of upgrading, with no feasible rollback option available.
At face value, this upgrade might seem beneficial for general users, but for IT departments, such automatic transitions lead to compatibility issues with vital business software that must be validated against any new operating system updates.
According to accounts, Microsoft erroneously categorized the Windows Server 2025 upgrade as both an optional and a security update for Windows Server 2022, complicating the situation. Heimdal, a third-party update service, noted that the update’s GUID did not correspond to the usual entries found in Microsoft’s Knowledge Base, suggesting this mix-up originated internally at Microsoft.
The crux of this problem lies in Windows Server 2025 being classified as a new version—requiring a new license—rather than an ordinary update. This classification leaves system administrators with limited remedies, as standard downgrade procedures do not apply here. Users without third-party restoration solutions find themselves facing a difficult predicament, lacking official pathways to revert to Windows Server 2022.