WSE WorkFolders
Posted by Mike 
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Last updated: January 15, 2024 1
I would like to introduce everyone to a new product recently released for use with Windows Server 2016, 2019, 2022, or 2025 (with the Windows Server Essentials Experience server role). The product is called WSE WorkFolders and it’s a Windows Server Solutions add-in that allows you to use the Work Folders server role with your Windows Server Essentials (WSE) server.
More specifically, WSE WorkFolders allows your users to securely sync their work files to your Windows Server Essentials server, and makes their work files available to them from all of the PCs and devices they use, even when they are offline. It’s a lot like OneDrive and DropBox, but instead of your user’s work files getting synced to the cloud (i.e. to someone else’s computer), they get synced to your very own on-premise Essentials server instead (using HTTPS encryption while in transit and Selective Wipe / EFS encryption while at rest).
Windows Sever Essentials makes a great server for hosting Work Folders due to its secure Remote Web Access website functionality (which allows your users secure access to their files from anywhere they happen to be). However, since Work Folders is in-and-of-itself a web server (that uses the exact same standard HTTP and HTTPS ports as the Essentials server’s default IIS website), it conflicts with Windows Server Essentials and cannot be installed without disrupting the built-in Anywhere Access/Remote Web Access functionality of the server.
WSE WorkFolders comes to the rescue here, taking care of everything behind-the-scenes, and allowing you to use Work Folders with your Essentials server without fear of conflict. It even allows you to configure file storage quotas (which determine how much Work Folders storage space your users will have available on the server for syncing their files), file screens (which determine the types of files that your users will NOT be allowed to sync with the server), and revoke access to work files on compromised computers. Everything is controlled effortlessly from the comfort and familiarity of the Windows Server Essentials Dashboard, just as you’d expect it to be.
WSE WorkFolders requires Windows Server 2016, 2019, 2022, or 2025 (with the Windows Server Essentials Experience server role). WSE WorkFolders also requires that the built-in Remote Web Access feature of the Essentials server be turned on and properly configured with a domain name and a trusted SSL certificate (all of which is easily handled for you by the Anywhere Access Set Up wizard that’s included with the Essentials server). In addition, Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10/11, Android, and iOS PCs and devices are all supported as Work Folders clients (either through the native Work Folders applet that is located in the Control Panel, or through the Work Folders app that is downloaded from the app store and installed on the device).
With all of the technical jargon out of the way, let’s go ahead and dig in to the new add-in…
Enable Work Folders
WSE WorkFolders is installed just as any other Essentials add-in would be… You simply download, and then run its .EXE setup file from any of your connected Essentials client PCs (which, in turn, runs its .WSSX server add-in package file after verifying your installation environment). Or, you can download and run it directly from the Essentials server itself. Once installed, you can then start the server Dashboard application and enable Work Folders on your server as follows:
Click on the new “WORK FOLDERS” item in the server Dashboard’s navigation pane.
Click on the “Enable Work Folders” task.
NOTE: If Anywhere Access / Remote Web Access has not yet been configured on your server, then you will be prompted to do so before proceeding. For help with configuring Remote Web Access on your server see: Manage Remote Web Access in Windows Server Essentials
If Anywhere Access / Remote Web Access has been properly configured on your server, then you will be prompted to go ahead and enable Work Folders.
WSE WorkFolders suggests a file storage location to be used for storing your user’s work files on the server. The suggested drive will be the one with the greatest amount of free space, that is NTFS formatted, and is local to the server (note that it will fall back to using the system drive if a more suitable drive cannot be found on the server). If you would like to change the storage drive and/or folder, then you may do so by clicking on the “File storage location” item. Note that the file storage location CANNOT be changed once it has been created on the server, so choose your file storage location wisely (actually, it can be changed, but you’ll need to go here for the specifics on how to do so).
Click the “Administrator email address” item in order to specify an administrative email address where your users can report issues and request help from within their Work Folders client apps.
Since the Essentials server’s built-in Remote Web Access website uses the standard HTTPS (443) port, you must specify an alternative HTTPS port number to be used by Work Folders on the server. The recommended port number is 8443, but you can change it by clicking the “Work Folders URL port” item if there happens to be a conflict with that particular port number on your server.
If you have a UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) capable router on your network, then WSE WorkFolders will do its best to enable UPnP port forwarding on your router. However, if you have disabled UPnP port forwarding in your router, if your router doesn’t support UPnP port forwarding, or if you plan to manually forward port 8443 to the IP address of your server from within your router, then you can go ahead and uncheck the “Enable UPnP port forwarding” checkbox.
Click “Yes“, and then sit back and watch while WSE WorkFolders takes care of all the hard work of setting up Work Folders on your Essentials server for you.
NOTE: If WSE WorkFolders detects that the Work Folders URL isn’t accessible, then it will prompt you to address the issue from within your network router.
Once everything has been properly configured, you will be prompted with information on how to allow your users access to Work Folders, and how they can download and set up Work Folders on all of their various client PCs and devices.
Set Up Work Folders
To allow your users access to Work Folders, select a user in the “Unallowed Users” list, and then click the “Allow access to Work Folders” task. Repeat the process for each user you want to be able to access Work Folders. Alternatively, you can use the “Allow User Access” task to ‘allow‘ (and/or ‘disallow‘) multiple users access to Work Folders in one fell swoop.
After you have allowed your users access to Work Folders, you can then go ahead and set up Work Folders on each of the allowed user’s client PCs and devices. Here is a link to an excellent tutorial that will walk you through the entire Work Folders client set up process:
How to Set Up and Use Work Folders
Work Folders can be set up on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 or greater client PCs and devices by providing the Work Folders URL to the native Work Folders applet that is located within the Control Panel.
NOTE: WSE WorkFolders does not support the use of an email address when setting up Work Folders on client PCs and devices. Instead, you MUST click the “Enter a Work Folders URL instead” link, and then type in the Work Folders URL in order to set up Work Folders on the client. For domain-joined client PCs, you will NOT be prompted to enter anything seeing as the Work Folders URL is automatically supplied to the Work Folders client via Group Policy.
NOTE: To set up Work Folders on Windows 7, you must download and install the Work Folders for Windows 7 package on the client PC, and the client PC MUST be joined to your organization’s domain. Whereas, Windows 8.1 or greater includes native (built-in) support for Work Folders that works with BOTH domain-joined AND non domain-joined client PCs.
Work Folders can be set up on Android and iOS client devices by providing the Work Folders URL to the Work Folders app that has been downloaded from the app store and installed on the device.
💡 TIP: If you are using a client PC that is running Windows 10 Version 1803 (OS Build 17063) (i.e. the “April 2018 Update“) or greater, then you can take advantage of the new Work Folders on-demand file access feature in the native Work Folders client that allows you to save storage space on the client PC by controlling which of your work files are available offline. The rest of your work files are always visible and don’t take up and space on your client PC, but you’ll need an Internet connection to access them. For more information on the new on-demand file access feature (including how to enable it) see:
Windows Work Folders On-Demand file access feature
❗ INFO: As of this writing (5/5/2020), if you are using a client PC that is running Windows 10 Version 1903 (OS Build 18362) (i.e. the “May 2019 Update“) or Windows 10 Version 1909 (OS Build 18363) (i.e. the “November 2019 Update“), then there is a really nasty bug in the native Work Folders client that will not allow any newly set up Work Folders connections to work when client-side encryption (i.e. at rest encryption) is being enforced by the Work Folders sync share server. It appears that Microsoft has finally fixed the bug in Windows 10 Version 2004 (OS Build 19041) (i.e. the “May 2020 Update“). Therefore, if you want to use the native Work Folders client (with at rest encryption) under Windows 10, then you’ll need to install the “May 2020 Update” (or greater) via Windows Update in order to do so. For more information see:
Sync Stopped. Can’t Encrypt Files
Configure Quota
After you have Work Folders set up on your user’s client PCs and devices, you can then go ahead and configure a quota on the server by clicking the “Configure Quota” task in the server Dashboard. If this is the first time you are configuring a quota, then you will be prompted to install the File Server Resource Manager server role on your server.
Select a user and click the “Change quota size limit” task in the server Dashboard to define a custom quota size limit.
Over on your user’s client PCs and devices, they will see the newly configured quota in effect.
Configure File Screening
Similarly, you can configure file screening on the server by clicking on the “Configure File Screening” task in the server Dashboard.
Select a user and click the “Edit file screening blocked file groups” task in the server Dashboard to edit the blocked file types.
Over on your user’s client PCs and devices, they will see the newly configured file screening in effect if they attempt to sync a blocked file type.
Conclusion
That sums up the new WSE WorkFolders add-in. I hope that everyone likes what they see! I look forward to hearing your feedback on WSE WorkFolders (and as always, both positive and negative feedback is more than welcome).
— MIKE (The Office Maven)