Windows Server 2025: Complete Setup & Administration

Outline identity and access management to ensure right users access the right resources. Use administration, authentication, authorization, and auditing to enforce least privilege with Microsoft Active Directory.

Compare workgroup (peer-to-peer) and domain (client-server) networks, highlighting local credentials on each computer and centralized access control via domain services and Active Directory.

Install Windows Server and the Active Directory domain services role to create a domain controller that authenticates users. Replicate the AD database across controllers to ensure scalability and high availability.

Discover the Active Directory structure, including domains, trees, forests, and organizational units, and how domain controllers replicate databases to enable cross-domain access.

Explore how domain and forest functional levels determine Active Directory features and minimum domain controller versions, and how raising the DFL or FFL affects compatibility and feature availability.

Active Directory uses the global catalog server to speed cross-domain searches and authentication by indexing basic object information across the forest, enabling forest-wide login and resource discovery.

Set up a practical lab by creating two VirtualBox VMs—Windows Server 2025 and a Windows 11 client—and configure a virtual network from ISO downloads.

Install and configure VirtualBox virtualization software, then create two virtual machines—the client and the server—by following the wizard to set names, storage, memory, CPUs, and ISO images.

Install Windows Server 2025 and Windows 11 on virtual machines, choose between standard and datacenter editions and desktop experience or server core, then set admin credentials and complete the setup.

Configure connectivity between the VM and the host by selecting bridge, NAT, or host-only modes. Assign static IPs such as 192.168.1.100 and DNS 8.8.8.8, then test with ipconfig and ping.

Master Windows Server environment management with Server Manager for local and remote servers and file and storage services, and monitor events and performance with built-in tools.

Set up a domain controller from scratch by configuring an IP address and DNS, installing Active Directory Domain Services, and promoting server to a domain controller on Windows Server 2025.

Learn to join a Windows computer to a domain by configuring the domain controller DNS, resolving the domain name, and completing the join via system settings.

Learn to add a new domain controller to an existing domain for fault tolerance, with Active Directory replication, domain joining, promotion to a DC, and DNS considerations.

Learn how Active Directory replication synchronizes data across domain controllers using Active Directory Sites and Services, intra-site and inter-site replication, bridgehead servers, and differential replication to optimize bandwidth.

Discover Active Directory trust types, including transitive and non-transitive, one-way and two-way, across forests and within. Learn six trusts: parent-child, tree root, forest, shortcut, realm, external.

Explore how five fsmo roles—schema master, domain naming master, RID master, PDC emulator, and infrastructure master—coordinate schema changes, domain naming, RID distribution, time synchronization, and cross-domain references.

Demote a domain controller by ensuring another server handles the role, transferring FSMO roles, and confirming a global catalog and DNS server are available.

Install and configure a read only domain controller (RODC) to provide secure authentication for remote sites, with controlled password replication and optional DNS and global catalog settings.

Explore Active Directory containers and organizational units, including built-in, computer, and user containers, and learn how OUs organize objects and support group policy.

Delegate control in Active Directory to distribute administrative tasks by assigning specific permissions to users or groups, such as creating, deleting, and managing user accounts within an organizational unit.

Enable Advanced Features to reveal OUs, then uncheck the Protect object from Accidental Deletion box to delete the organizational unit and contained objects or move them elsewhere to preserve contents.

Export a list of objects from a specific organizational unit in Active Directory for reporting, auditing, or documentation, saving as txt or CSV; for detailed attributes, use PowerShell.

Create a new Active Directory user account with the new user wizard, configuring login name or UPN suffix and enforcing a strong password.

Delegate password reset rights in Active Directory, reset user passwords, unlock accounts, require password changes at next login, and configure options such as password never expires.

Learn how to enable, disable, and unlock Windows Server user accounts, preserve data by disabling instead of deleting, set expiration dates, and manage lockouts via group policy.

Configure logon hours in Active Directory to control when users access the network. Use log on to restrict access to designated computers.

Map a user’s home folder to a centralized network location, configure explicit NTFS and share permissions in Active Directory, and map a drive so each user securely accesses personal files.

Set up roaming user profiles on Windows Server 2025 by creating a central network share, configuring permissions, and syncing profile data from server on login and back on logout.

Learn how to create and customize a template user account in Active Directory to quickly instantiate new users with shared settings, including account attributes, security options, and group memberships.

Learn how computer accounts in Active Directory uniquely identify domain computers, simplify authentication, and configure delegation using Kerberos for remote resources.

Pre-staging creates and configures a computer account in Active Directory before a device joins the domain, enabling specific permissions, group memberships, and security policies to be applied in advance.

Reset the computer account password in Active Directory to repair the trust with domain controllers after synchronization issues or long disconnection. The computer must rejoin the domain to regain access.

Delete the computer's Active Directory account to permanently remove it and its data, or disable it to block logins before manually removing the computer from the domain.

Discover how Active Directory groups simplify permissions management by organizing users and computers into domain local, global, and universal groups, enabling centralized access to resources and mail distribution.

Create and manage nested groups to form a parent-child hierarchy, enabling child groups to inherit parent permissions and streamline privilege administration, reducing manual updates across departments.

Explore default Active Directory groups and their roles, including built-in and domain groups like domain admins and schema admins. Learn how scope, permissions, and replication shape domain operations.

Explain the difference between an organizational unit and a group, and how shadow groups bridge OU membership to group permissions for file shares and group policy.

Discover how group policy centralizes settings for computers and users in Windows Server, using GPOs, linking to OUs, and applying WMI filters and starter templates for consistent policy management.

Explain the difference between computer configuration and user configuration in group policy, and show when to apply settings at startup or user logon, with Windows updates and USB ports control.

Create and link a new GPO to enforce a desktop wallpaper for sales department users by configuring a UNC image path in the Group Policy Management Editor.

Explore how group policy inheritance flows from local to site to domain to OU, how enforcement and blocking inheritance affect outcomes, and how link order determines which GPO wins.

Refresh and verify group policy settings using gpupdate and gpresult, applying updates with the force option and narrowing results by user or computer scope.

Explore common group policy settings to secure and organize a Windows environment, including password policies, account lockout, removable storage controls, and update and user interface restrictions.

Explore dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) and its automatic IP assignment, including the discover, offer, request, and acknowledge steps, plus subnet mask, default gateway, DNS server addresses, and lease concepts.

Learn how the domain name system translates domain names into IP addresses, how recursive resolvers query root, TLD, and authoritative servers, and how host file and DNS cache speed lookups.