Windows Server 2025 Memory Changes Are Crashing Apps and SQL Server

Windows Server 2025 application crashes can occur because of recent memory-management changes affecting software that uses Address Windowing Extensions, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft acknowledged the issue in Service Alert WI1466267, warning that affected applications can experience access violations, memory corruption, and unexpected termination.

Windows Server 2025 memory changes affect AWE applications

The problem affects applications that rely on Address Windowing Extensions, or AWE, for memory management.

Microsoft says Windows Server 2025 changed memory-management behavior that some applications relied on in earlier Windows Server releases.

As a result, affected software may encounter access violations, memory corruption, and unexpected termination.

Applications that depend on the older AWE behavior may therefore become unstable after moving to Windows Server 2025.

SQL Server can also crash when LPIM is enabled

Microsoft confirmed that the problem can affect SQL Server systems that use Lock Pages in Memory, or LPIM.

LPIM allows SQL Server to keep allocated memory in physical RAM instead of allowing Windows to page it to disk. Administrators commonly enable it on database servers where predictable memory performance matters.

Affected SQL Server installations may experience:

• Memory corruption errors
• 0xC0000005 access violation exceptions
• Failures during DBCC CHECKDB and other database maintenance operations
• SQL Server crash dumps
• SQL Server services unexpectedly stopping or restarting

Administrators may also see a “Using locked pages in the memory manager” message in the SQL Server error log during startup.

Microsoft recommends disabling LPIM as a workaround

For SQL Server systems, administrators can temporarily disable the LPIM policy for the SQL Server service account. However, Microsoft warns that doing so can change SQL Server memory-management behavior and reduce performance in some environments.

Organizations should test the workaround before applying it broadly to production servers.

For other affected applications, Microsoft recommends determining whether administrators can disable AWE until a permanent solution becomes available.

A permanent Windows Server 2025 fix is coming

Microsoft says it is working on a resolution that will arrive through a future Windows update, but the company has not announced a release date.

The issue adds to recent Windows Server developments. Microsoft recently warned that Windows Server 2022 mainstream support is ending, while Exchange Server SE CU1 has also been delayed.

Via BleepingComputer