Exchange 2019 CU12 and Exchange 2016 CU23

Cumulative Update 12 for Exchange 2019 is now available as well as Cumulative Update 23 for Exchange 2016.

With these releases there major changes to the release model of future CUs.

First of all, the is the last CU for Exchange 2016 as it has reached its Extended Support phase. This means that from now on, it will only received Security Updates.

Second, Exchange 2019 CU releases have shifted to a cadence of 2 times per year. These are targeted for March and September but as they are quality driven, their actual release could be off by a month if needed.

Exchange 2019 CU12 also includes the following major changes;

  • Exchange Management Tools Update
    When you’ve only installed Exchange on-premises to manage all your Exchange Online mailboxes for your Synced Active Directory users, you can now install the updated Management Tools on a domain-joined workstation, shutdown your last Exchange server, and manage your recipients via PowerShell.
  • Hybrid Experience Updates
    • Licensing has been updated to add a product key for Exchange 2019 hybrid servers at no additional charge.
    • Support has been added for using MFA-enabled admin credentials with Hybrid Agent cmdlets. The Hybrid Management PowerShell module now works with MFA-enabled admin accounts.
  • Support for Windows Server 2022
    CU12 also introduces support for running Exchange Server 2019 on Windows Server 2022 and in environments that use Windows Server 2022 Active Directory servers. For more information see the Exchange Server supportability matrix.

Additionally, for both Exchange 2016 and Exchange 2019, parameters that take UNC paths as inputs will no longer be usable in Exchange Server PowerShell cmdlets or the Exchange Admin Center. For more info and the newly supported methods see; Changes in Exchange Server PowerShell cmdlets and Exchange Admin Center for UNC path inputs (KB5014278).

This release does not include new updates to the Active Directory Schema for Exchange 2019 nor Exchange 2016.

As mentioned before, the next planned Cumulative Update for Exchange 2019 is in September 2022. Exchange 2016 is not expected to receive any new CUs anymore.

Exchange 2019: CU12 KB5011156Download
Exchange 2016: CU23 KB5011155DownloadUM Language Packs
View: Blog post of the Exchange Team about CU12 for Exchange Server 2019 and CU 23 for Exchange 2016.