Advanced Feature Support
Windows Media Services delivers advanced streaming functionality, such as multicast streaming, when it is installed on the following Windows Server operating systems:
Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition
Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition
Windows Server 2008 Enterprise
Windows Server 2008 Datacenter
Windows Media Services delivers basic streaming functionality, such as unicast streaming and server-side playlists, when it is installed on the following Windows Server operating systems:
Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition
Windows Server 2008 Standard
Windows Web Server 2008
Some features that support advanced streaming functionality are not available when Windows Media Services is used with the Standard editions of either Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008, or Windows Web Server 2008. These features either will not be enabled or will fail to install when Windows Media Services is running on one of these operating systems. In addition, unsupported features will not appear on the user interface, with the exception of custom plug-ins, which appear on the user interface but cannot be enabled.
To learn more about which version and edition of Windows Server will best meet your needs, see Decide which version of Windows Server is right for you.