All Answers

Hmm… I’m afraid I’ve never come across that particular issue before. I’ve seen the client computers go missing from the Devices tab of the server Dashboard (which can usually be fixed by simply reconnecting the clients to the server again), but I’ve never seen a case where the primary Essentials server has gone missing from the Devices tab. Thus, I’m not exactly sure what can be done to correct that issue other than a restore from backup or a completely new WSEE install.

More than likely, something has become corrupted in the “DevicesInfo.xml” file that Essentials uses to store the list of Devices (which is located in: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Server\Data). Perhaps you can try restoring that file from one of your recent server backup sets (assuming that you have server backup enabled on your Essentials server that is, which I STRONGLY suggest that EVERYONE does!), or from the existing “DevicesInfo.xlm.bak” file.

Alas, I’m afraid that we don’t sell the WSEE Installer. It is only provided (free of charge) to owners of our software products. For further details please read the article that’s posted over here.

I’m very sorry to hear about your ordeal. That’s quite unfortunate.

I’m more than happy to try and help you relocate your license information for the product that you’ve purchased. Please contact us via our private email support form (since you don’t have your license details, you can just use all zeros for your User Name when asked for it) and let me know the name of the product that you purchased (e.g. WSE RemoteApp 2016, WSE WorkFolders 2016, etc.) and the name and/or email address that was used to place the order (and an approximate timeframe if you can recall it). I’ll then try and look up that information for you.

BTW, just as an FYI, the Windows Server Essentials server backup feature allows you to use multiple external (USB) storage drives for backups, and you can rotate the drives between onsite and offsite storage locations. Doing that would go a long way to keeping you save from future ransomware attacks.

For a bit more info see:

Set up or customize server backup – Backup target drive

How to backup and restore your Windows Server Essentials 2016

Are you wanting to do an in place upgrade or an actual domain migration? Personally, I recommend that you start off with a new/clean install of Windows Server 2019 Standard and just install WSEE on it from scratch using the WSEE Installer.

However, if you’re set on doing a domain migration then see here and here. Otherwise, if you want to do an in place upgrade instead then see here.

If it were me, I’d probably go the in place upgrade route. Either way, make sure that you have a working backup of your 2016 Essentials server before you start (so that you can get back to it if needed).

Good luck!

That particular error message doesn’t indicate that your license is expired, but rather that you are attempting to use it on more than one server at the same time. To resolve the issue, contact us via private email support with the User Name from your existing license and we can reset the license for you.

Yes, I have a solution for this.

When you perform an in place upgrade like that, Microsoft will indeed forcefully remove all of the Windows Server Essentials assemblies, services, etc. (just as they do during the Windows Server 2016 to 2019/2022 in place upgrades) leaving you with an orphaned Windows Server Essentials Experience instance. When you attempt to run the WSEE Installer again, it will refuse to run because another version of the product is already installed. To remedy this, I have built a small “WSEE Zapper” program that you can run in order to remove the orphaned WSEE instance from the server, and thereby allowing you to be able to run the WSEE Installer again.

Hmm… I don’t know if it’s even possible to redirect network shared printers through a standard Remote Desktop connection (let alone a RemoteApp session), as that’s not something that I’ve ever tried doing before. If I had to guess (based upon how finnicky printing over a standard Remote Desktop connection is), I’d say that it’s probably not possible. However, I’d need to do some additional research on that one in order to find out for sure though.

FYI, we’ve pretty much given up on redirecting printers nowadays since it can be such a hassle. Rather we now just use the redirected “Microsoft Print to PDF” printer to print all of our documents out to a PDF file, and then we go ahead and print the resulting PDF files from the local computer’s attached (or shared) printer instead. If you choose the “redirected” version of the above mentioned printer driver, it will automatically create the PDF file within the “Documents” folder of the local computer for you. It works really well for our needs (but, admittedly, your needs may be different).

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

Sorry for the delay in responding (and I believe that we’ve already discussed some of this via a private email support conversation).

I’m afraid that I’m not familiar with that particular drive pool software (nor any of them for that matter), and so I don’t really know the correct answer there. I tend to lean towards installing apps on the server after WSEE has been installed and configured on it, and so that’s probably the route I’d go if possible.

Also, I was under the impression that a lot of the drive pool software packages out there have versions that are specific for use under Windows Server Essentials. If so, then that’s the version I’d use, and I’d contact the software manufacturer to ask them if the software should be installed before or after the WSEE server role has been installed on Windows Server 2016 Standard/Datacenter (as that’s basically what we’re doing here).

Good luck with your configuration.

Can you take a look at this one and see if it resolves the issue for you:

SSL Certificate Error – Mismatched Address

Hmm.. I’ve never come across that one before, but admittedly, I typically don’t domain join any of our client computers when connecting them to the server (rather, I always use Microsoft’s SkipDomainJoin registry fix to stop that from happening).

I don’t believe that this has anything whatsoever to do with installing WSEE onto Windows Server 2019 (using the WSEE Installer), seeing as all of that behavior is being controlled by Microsoft’s code and not anything that I’m doing in the installer script (i.e. it’s part of the built-in Essentials functionality). Therefore, your best bet at getting that one resolved would be to post your question over on Microsoft’s Windows Server Essentials support forum and see if someone over there has a better answer for you.

That being said… I definitely wouldn’t mention the fact that you’ve installed WSEE on 2019 seeing as that simply won’t go over well in the forum (and you’ll just get criticized for doing so). I’m sure the behavior (bug?) that you’re seeing would be exactly the same under WSEE installed on 2016 (which is fully supported by Microsoft).

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