Now that we’ve released the Public Preview of SharePoint 2019 to the world, the internet will be flooded with information regarding the next version of Microsoft’s Office server product. This article is meant to be a central point for all information regarding this new release. Please understand that this article is based on pre-release bits (Public Preview) and some aspects of it may change before the software hits General Availability later in the fall of 2018.
What is New in SharePoint 2019
This section describes the new features and components that were introduced with the SharePoint 2019 on-premises release.
| Feature Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Communication Sites | Communication sites have been available for quite some time in Office 365, but are now making their big entrance in the on-premises world with the SharePoint 2019 release. |
| Fast Site Creation for Team and Communication Sites | SharePoint 2016 did introduce the concept of Fast Site creation for personal sites very quietly. With the 2019 version, you can now use Fast Site creation to create new sites based on the Team Site and Communication Site templates within only a few seconds. For more information on Fast Site Creation, please refer to my SharePoint 2016 Fast Site Creation article. |
| Modern Experience | SharePoint 2019 includes the new modern lists and libraries that have been available for well over a year in Office 365. |
| Personal Site OneDrive Sync | Just like you can do in Office 365, you can now use the Next Generation OneDrive Sync client to synchronize offline files from your OneDrive personal site and use the Windows 10 Files on Demand feature to browse them offline. |
| SharePoint Home | Users can now create a SharePoint Home page to aggregate information that is pertinent to them from across all data sources in the farm. This feature has been available for quite some time in Office 365. |
| SharePoint Workflow Engine | In 2013, we introduced a new workflow engine called the Microsoft Workflow Manager which was essentially a version of an old Azure component made to work on-premises. The new SharePoint Workflow Manager (SWM) replaces the Microsoft Workflow Manager and allows users to run SharePoint 2013 workflows on-premises. Note that SharePoint 2010 workflows which run directly within the SharePoint processes are still supported in SharePoint 2019. |
What’s Deprecated
This section describes all components SharePoint that have been deprecated in the 2019 release, compared to its previous 2016 version
| Feature Name | Description | Potential Alternative |
|---|---|---|
| Access Services 2010 & 2013 | Both services have been deprecated in Office 365 for a while now. These services are now also being deprecated in the on-premises version. | PowerApps & Flow |
| Newsfeed on MySite | Deprecated in favor of other Newsfeed | Yammer Newsfeed, Team News or Communication Sites |
| Custom Help | Deprecated in favor of new Help Engine that synchronizes content with the cloud to ensure latest help information is available | Cloud Help Engine from Office365 |
| Groove Sync Client | Deprecated in favor of the Next Generation OneDrive Sync Client. | Next Generation Sync Client for OneDrive |
| InfoPath Services | This doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone, it has been announced in early 2014 that InfoPath is now deprecated, it makes sense for the associated servers components to be marked as deprecated as well. | PowerApps |
| List Web Services | Some endpoints that were previously used by the old OneDrive Sync Client are now deprecated. | N/A |
| Machine Translation | The Machine Translation Service Application and its associated automated variation processes are deprecated. | N/A |
| PerformancePoint Services | Due to a significant dependency on Silverlight, and given that that technology’s support stops at the end of 2021, the current PerformancePoint Services are now deprecated. | PowerBI |
| Site Mailbox | It was announced a while back that this feature was deprecated in SharePoint Online. It is now also deprecated in the on-premises version. | Shared Mailboxes |
| Site Manager | Site manager is this old interface we’ve been carrying over since the SharePoint 2003 days and which allows you to move and copy sites around. The main features of the old Site Manager (site move, etc.) are now available in the Modern File Move. | Modern File Move |
What’s Removed
This section describes all components SharePoint that have been completely removed from the 2019 release, but used to be available in its previous 2016 version
| Feature Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Sandbox Solutions with Code | Those have been removed for almost two years in SharePoint Online. The no-code restriction is now also enforced on-premises. SharePoint 2019 still supports you creating declarative sandboxed solutions, but the moment they contain code, they’ll be blocked. Basically, if you rename your .wsp sandboxed solution to .cab, open it and see any .dll files in there, it will be blocked. |
| Newsfeed on MySite | Deprecated in favor of other Newsfeed |
| Digest Authentication | The Windows Server team announced a while back that Digest Authentication for IIS has now been deprecated. It was not widely adopted for SharePoint, and in 2019, the prerequisite installer will not be activating this feature when ran. Instead clients should use SAML of Kerberos authentication. |
| Automatic Mode for Incoming Emails | Here as well, the Windows Server team announced that IIS 6 compatibility features, which he automatic mode of incoming emails relies on, has been deprecated. Clients should use the advanced mode when configuring incoming emails instead. |
| Multi-Tenancy | The option to configure SharePoint on-premises as a multi-tenant platform has now been removed from SharePoint 2019. Clients should look at moving to Office 365, or sticking with SharePoint 2016 if SharePoint on-premises multi-tenancy is still a requirement for them. |
| PowerPivot Gallery | Due to a major shift in the Business Intelligence strategy within the Office product since the first release of the PowerPivot Gallery almost a decade ago, Microsoft has removed the feature from the product. Instead clients are recommended to use PowerBI. |
| Silverlight Rendering in Visio Services | This feature was marked as deprecated in SharePoint 2016 and has now been completely removed from the product in favor of PNG based rendering. |
Software Requirements
Supported SQL Server versions
- SQL Server 2016
- SQL Server 2017 (Windows distribution)
Supported WindowsServer versions
- Windows Server 2016
- Windows Server 2019
Prerequisites
Several new prerequisites have made their apparition in SharePoint 2019. For more information of what prerequisites have changed in the new version of the on-premises product, please refer to my Install SharePoint 2019 Offline article.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Will there be a new version of SharePoint Designer?
A. No. SharePoint Designer 2013 continues to be the only editor supported to edit SharePoint 2019 sites and pages. There are no current plans to release a new version of the designer tool.
