All Answers

In order to do that, you will need to enable COM port redirection within the user’s WSE RemoteApp sessions as follows:

1. Sign in to the server’s built-in Remote Web Access (RWA) website, and click on the “Connect to other RemoteApps” link that’s located at the top of the WSE RemoteApp gadget. Or, you can go directly to WSE RemoteApp’s RWA homepage via:

https://remote.YourDomainPrefix.com/Remote/WSERemoteApp

2. Click on the “Remote Desktop Options” link that’s located at the top of the WSE RemoteApp homepage.

3. Check the “Enable RemoteApp programs to access COM (serial) ports on the local device” checkbox, and then click on the “Save” button.

After doing that, any time the signed in user connects to WSE RemoteApp from the server’s built-in RWA website, the COM ports of the local computer will get redirected over to the WSE RemoteApp session.

NOTE: This is a “per-user setting”, and so each user that wants to use the COM port redirection feature will need to enable it for themselves.

SEE ALSO: Enable Access To Local Computer’s Drives

Alas, I’m afraid not. We used to offer such pricing, but found that it was simply being abused, and so it was discontinued years ago.

I’m sorry that I don’t have a better answer for you on this one.

Open the server Dashboard, go to the “WSE REMOTEAPP” page, click on the “RemoteApp Programs” subtab, click on the “RemoteApp programs client settings” task, uncheck the “Add RemoteApp programs to Desktop” checkbox (under the “Shortcuts” section), and then click on the “Save” button.

Doing that will stop the “RemoteApp Programs” shortcut from being automatically recreated on the Desktop.

NOTE: The “WSE RemoteApp Launcher” and “WSE RemoteApp Web Access” shortcuts will be recreated every time you install an update for the add-in. In that case, you can just manually delete them again.

Your understanding is indeed correct. Basically, you set up a storage location on your Essentials server where all of the user’s work files are to be stored. Then, you install a Work Folders client on each of the user’s devices (i.e. the native “Work Folders” client that’s located in the Control Panel on Windows devices, or one of the Microsoft-provided “Work Folders” apps that are available for Android and iOS). The users can then access their work files directly from their client devices, and the files are kept in sync with the server. For further details see:

WSE WorkFolders 2016 / 2012 R2

Lastly, please do note that Work Folders is Microsoft tech. It has nothing to do with Windows Server Essentials per see. The WSE WorkFolders add-in simply allows you to be able to use Microsoft’s Work Folders server role on Windows Server Essentials (since you normally cannot), and nicely integrates it into the familiar Essentials server Dashboard for ease of use, etc. Your client PCs do not need to be joined to the domain (as long as they are Windows 8 or greater), and the Windows Server Essentials connector software (i.e. the Launchpad, etc.) doesn’t need to be installed on the clients (since they will be using the native “Work Folders” client instead). However, if you’d like to take advantage of WSE WorkFolders’ selective wipe feature (for blocking access to any compromised client PCs), then you would need to have the connector software installed on your client PCs as is mentioned here:

Revoke Access to Work Files on Compromised Computers

That doesn’t sound like an issue with WSE RemoteApp, but more of an issue with Essentials itself (and/or with your particular server configuration), and I don’t “officially” provide technical support for Essentials.

That being said… How exactly do you know that it’s the Microsoft Cloud Services integration stuff that’s causing the hang? Also, when you make the change to a user, how exactly are you doing that (e.g. from the “USERS” tab of the server Dashboard, etc.)? Lastly, have you ever physically gone in and enabled any of the Microsoft Cloud Services on your server (and if so, which ones)?

As for turning off the Microsoft Cloud Services integration stuff in Essentials… You can do that by opening the server Dashboard, clicking on the “Settings” link (which is located in the top right-hand corner of the Dashboard window), clicking on the “Safe Mode” tab, and then right-clicking on any of the Microsoft Cloud Services add-ins (e.g. Azure Backup, Azure Recovery, Azure VNET, Exchange Server Integration, Hosted Email Integration, Mobile Devices, and/or OFFICE 365), selecting “Disable” from the context menu that appears, clicking on the “OK” button to save your changes, and then restarting the server Dashboard.

Sorry, but I’m not quite following what you’re asking (or wanting to know) here.

By Microsoft’s design, Windows Server Essentials is a web server. It utilizes port 443 to implement its Anywhere Access/Remote Web Access functionality. Microsoft’s Work Folders server role is also implemented as a web server that utilizes port 443, and so it cannot be used under Windows Server Essentials unless you bind it to a different (non-conflicting) port.

Since the Windows Server Essentials Anywhere Access/Remote Web Access functionality sets up a secure website on your server (e.g. https://YourHostName.remotewebaccess.com, etc.), we simply piggyback the Work Folders server role on that existing functionality by binding it to a different port (e.g. https://YourHostName.remotewebaccess.com:8443, etc.). All of that is handled for you by the WSE WorkFolders add-in. You simply tell it which port you want it to use (with the default port being 8443), and it takes care of implementing everything for you. If you don’t want to use port 8443, then you can simply inform it to use another one instead.

The only things you need to do in order to get Work Folders to work on your Windows Server Essentials server is to make sure that Anywhere Access/Remote Web Access is properly configured on your server (and set up with a valid SSL certificate), install the WSE Work Folders add-in on the server, and then run the add-in’s “Enable Work Folders” task and follow the prompts. After that, you can connect your Work Folders clients to the server using the Work Folders URL you’re provided with by the add-in (e.g. https://YourHostName.remotewebaccess.com:8443, etc.). All of the details can be found here:

WSE WorkFolders 2016 / 2012 R2

First off, a couple of things you should note…

– Our WSEE Installer will NOT work with (the abomination that is) the Windows Server 2019 SKU. It will only work with Windows Server 2019/2022 Standard or Datacenter. For further details read through the main article.

– You should NOT enable any of the Remote Desktop Services (RDS) server roles on a server that is running WSEE seeing as doing so will corrupt the WSEE installation. This is exactly why our WSE RemoteApp add-in was written (i.e. it provides much of the functionality of RDS on an Essentials server without you needing to use RDS). If you’re planning on running a completely separate terminal server, then there is no reason for you to use the WSE RemoteApp add-in.

As for your questions…

1) I’m not a Microsoft licensing specialist, but if you want my opinion about (silly) CALs, then see here.

2) The WSE RemoteApp add-in has a local access only (i.e. “Launchpad”) mode where it can be accessed over the local network only (via the Launchpad of your connected client computers). This is the default access mode for the add-in. Basically, if you don’t want specific users accessing the add-in over the Internet, then you simply don’t allow those users access to the Anywhere Access/Remote Web Access features of the Essentials server (or, if you don’t want any of your users doing that, then you simply don’t configure the Anywhere Access/Remote Web Access feature of the Essentials server).

First off, the “Work Folders URL” that you would use within the iOS Work Folders app wouldn’t be supplied by Microsoft, but rather it would be the one that is supplied/specified by the “Enable Work Folders” task as shown in this screen capture. Basically, it should looks something like: https://yourhostname.remotewebaccess.com:8443

Where 8443 is the port number that you choose to use when you first enabled Work Folders (with 8443 being the default/suggested port number). And that port number needs to be properly forwarded to the (static) IP address of your server within your network router (assuming that you’re not using UPnP port forwarding).

Lastly, the User Name that you provide to the iOS Work Folders app most likely doesn’t (i.e. shouldn’t) need to include the domain name. For example, try using just eaddy instead of rhylinimages\eaddy.

As far as I know, there isn’t any problem with connecting from the iOS Work Folders app, but I can’t say for sure since I don’t use iOS, and so I have no way to test it out here. However, I can say for certain that the Android Work Folders app works just fine, and so I would have to assume that the iOS one does as well (that and no one else is reporting an issue with it at this time).

Good luck!

Alas, I’m afraid it won’t work…

The Windows Server 2019 Essentials SKU does not have the Remote Desktop Gateway server role, and so there’s no way to use WSE RemoteApp to remotely (and securely) connect to the server while offsite. The latest release of WSE RemoteApp 2016 (i.e. Version 1.255.1895.0 or greater) will now work under the Windows Server 2019 Essentials SKU (with WSEE installed via our WSEE Installer), but ONLY for LOCAL connections (i.e. only from your client computers that have the Windows Server Essentials Connector software installed on them, and only when they are locally connected to your network).

While I haven’t tested it, the only way I can even see this working for you is if you configure the (SSTP) VPN feature on the Windows Server 2019 Essentials SKU (which “I believe” will still work since the VPN feature of Essentials doesn’t use the RD Gateway), and then have your clients connect to the Essentials server over VPN and run WSE RemoteApp (locally) from there. Again though, I haven’t tested any of that, and so I have no idea if it’ll actually work or not.

All of this is exactly the reason that I refer to the Windows Server 2019 Essentials SKU as an abomination. IMHO, you’re MUCH better off just transitioning the Essentials SKU over to Standard and proceeding from there.

EDIT (2/1/2021): Alternatively, instead of using FileZilla via WSE RemoteApp 2016, you could use our WSE WorkFolders 2016 add-in to allow your users access to their work files that are stored on the Essentials server. The latest release of WSE WorkFolders 2016 (i.e. Version 1.0.311.0 or greater) now works wonderfully with the Windows Server 2019 Essentials SKU. For more info about WSE WorkFolders see:

WSE WorkFolders 2016 / 2012 R2

Since Microsoft has now completely abandoned the Windows Server Essentials Experience (WSEE) server role (with Windows Server 2016 being the last “official” version of Windows Server to have the server role available), there will be no more “new” versions of the WSE RemoteApp add-in going forward (i.e. there will never be a “WSE RemoteApp 2019” or “WSE RemoteApp 2022“). However, since the WSEE server role can quite readily be extracted from Windows Server 2016 and installed on Windows Server 2019 and/or Windows Server 2022, I have adapted WSE RemoteApp 2016 to work under those newer versions of Windows Server (with WSEE taken from Windows Server 2016 and installed on 2019 or 2022 via our WSEE Installer). As such, a purchased license of WSE RemoteApp 2016 can indeed be used under Windows Server 2016, 2019 OR 2022.

However, as per our Policy page, your purchased license is valid for use on a single server only. While you are free to move the license to a new/different server once in a 21-day period, you cannot randomly move it between the three different server versions for “testing” purposes (unless you wait at least 21-days between moving the license that is). The only way for you to do that would be to run a 21-day “evaluation” of the add-in on each of the different server versions in order for you to decide which one you’d like to use. Unfortunately, not all of the add-in’s features are available while it is running in evaluation mode though (and the only way to get around that would be to purchase three completely separate licenses I’m afraid).

That being said… Since the core WSEE is taken from 2016, your “Essentials” experience would be nearly identical under each different version of the OS.