When Windows Server 2008 R2 was released in 2009, TLS 1.0 was still the dominant protocol. Microsoft disabled TLS 1.1 and 1.2 by default primarily for backward compatibility reasons. Enterprise environments often relied on legacy applications that weren't yet updated to support newer TLS versions.

While TLS 1.1/1.2 offer significant security improvements over TLS 1.0 (including protection against BEAST attacks and better cipher suites), their initial implementation in Server 2008 R2 had some limitations:

• Incomplete support for newer cryptographic algorithms
• Potential compatibility issues with certain hardware security modules
• Lack of proper cipher suite prioritization in early implementations

Here's the PowerShell script to properly enable TLS 1.1 and 1.2:

# Enable TLS 1.1 and 1.2 through registry
New-Item -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.1\Server" -Force
New-Item -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Server" -Force

Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.1\Server" -Name "Enabled" -Type "DWORD" -Value 1
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.1\Server" -Name "DisabledByDefault" -Type "DWORD" -Value 0

Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Server" -Name "Enabled" -Type "DWORD" -Value 1
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Server" -Name "DisabledByDefault" -Type "DWORD" -Value 0

Even after enabling the protocols at OS level, .NET applications might need additional configuration. For ASP.NET apps, add this to web.config:

<system.web>
  <httpRuntime targetFramework="4.6.1"/>
</system.web>
<system.webServer>
  <aspNetCore processPath="%LAUNCHER_PATH%" 
              arguments="%LAUNCHER_ARGS%"
              stdoutLogEnabled="false"
              stdoutLogFile=".\logs\stdout"
              forwardWindowsAuthToken="false">
    <environmentVariables>
      <environmentVariable name="ASPNETCORE_HTTPS_PORT" value="443"/>
    </environmentVariables>
  </aspNetCore>
</system.webServer>

When enabling TLS 1.2 on Server 2008 R2, consider these additional measures:

• Install all available security updates (KB4019276 is critical)
• Disable weak cipher suites using Group Policy
• Test all business-critical applications after changes
• Consider implementing a phased rollout in production

To verify successful TLS 1.1/1.2 implementation:

# Using PowerShell to check enabled protocols
[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = 
    [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls11 -bor [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12

# Testing with OpenSSL
openssl s_client -connect yourserver:443 -tls1_2

When Windows Server 2008 R2 was released in 2009, TLS 1.0 was still the industry standard. The newer TLS 1.1 (RFC 4346) and 1.2 (RFC 5246) specifications were relatively recent at the time, having been published in 2006 and 2008 respectively. Microsoft adopted a conservative approach by disabling these protocols by default for three key reasons:

1. Backward Compatibility: Many legacy applications were still written with TLS 1.0 in mind
2. Cipher Suite Support: Early implementations had limited cipher suite options
3. Adoption Curve: Enterprise environments needed time to validate the newer protocols

To inspect and modify the TLS protocol settings, you'll need to work with Windows Registry. Here's a PowerShell snippet to check current TLS protocol status:

# Check enabled TLS protocols
Get-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols' -Name * -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | 
Where-Object { $_.PSObject.Properties.Value -eq 0 } | 
Select-Object PSChildName

For production systems, I recommend this careful enablement approach:

1. First create a system restore point:

Checkpoint-Computer -Description "Pre-TLS modification" -RestorePointType MODIFY_SETTINGS

2. Then enable TLS 1.1 and 1.2 through registry keys:

# TLS 1.1 Client
New-Item -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.1\Client' -Force
New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.1\Client' -Name 'Enabled' -Value 1 -PropertyType DWORD
New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.1\Client' -Name 'DisabledByDefault' -Value 0 -PropertyType DWORD

# TLS 1.2 Server 
New-Item -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Server' -Force
New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Server' -Name 'Enabled' -Value 1 -PropertyType DWORD
New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Server' -Name 'DisabledByDefault' -Value 0 -PropertyType DWORD

In my experience consulting for enterprise clients, we often encounter these specific issues when enabling newer TLS versions:

While enabling TLS 1.2 improves security, proper cipher suite configuration is equally important. Here's my recommended cipher suite ordering for 2008 R2 after enabling TLS 1.2:

# Set prioritized cipher suites
$cipherOrder = @(
    "TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384",
    "TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256",
    "TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384",
    "TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256",
    "TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA",
    "TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA",
    "TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384",
    "TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256"
)
$cipherString = [string]::Join(",", $cipherOrder)
New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Cryptography\Configuration\SSL\00010002' -Name 'Functions' -Value $cipherString -PropertyType String

Remember to restart the server after making these changes for them to take effect.