All Answers

Hi Mike,

understand my in the right way: I don’t mean you should make all your work for “free” available! I only intend to avoid license activation issues for regular customers, even when support ends, or you decide to take the website down.

Best regards and thanks for the great work

Lars

Hi all WSEE users,

the most important point for me is: Will the license check be “reconfigured” in the last package. At the moment I will use the WSEE after the EoS time, perhaps setup a new Server 2025 with it.

It would be very nice, if this will be possible, and no license check or transverse would be necessary.

Many thanks for the great work on WSEE!

Best regards

Lars

Thanks homeserverdude, for your super detailed response.

Due to working fulltime and caring of  a 68 year year old following hip replacement surgery,at night, I haven’t had the chance to get back to the server…or your post.

I hope to get to the server today. Again , thanks so much for your response.

Eoin Remiskeet 🙂

After verifying that there is no data whatsoever in the Server Folders on the system drive, you should be able to just delete them. After that start up the WSEE Dashboard and go to the storage tab. You should see complaints that the server folders are missing. The dashboard wizard should allow you to recreate the folders and point them at their locations on other drives with your existing data in place. You may have to recreate any custom shares that you previously had that aren’t setup by default (anything that’s not Company, File History Backups, Folder Redirection, Client Computer Backups, Users)

This method has worked for me numerous times over the years after doing a fresh install, migrating to another server, etc, but as always YMMV, so be cautious and preferably have a backup of anything important.

Another thing to note, if it’s just a matter of reinstalling WSEE on the same server after removing it without doing a fresh install of Windows itself, then things should (hopefully) be fairly smooth.

If you did a fresh install of the OS and created a new Domain, etc. then you might have to wrestle with NTFS permissions, along with recreating user accounts, etc. The Client Computer Backups should be visible, but they’ll likely show as Archived since you’ll have to remove client PC’s from the old domain, and rejoin them to the new one. There is also a tool from ForensIT I have used several times to in-place migrate user accounts on client pc’s to the new domain without having to create a fresh profile and losing all of the settings.

Not sure what your exact situation is with reinstalling, but I figured I would give some extra info that might be helpful. Maybe Mike can chime in on this too.

Hi Mike

I did a reg backup and then delete the fore mentioned branch. Installer has started.

Thanks so much ! 🙏

Thanks Mike, I’ll give that a try 👍

Hmmm… That is a bit of a pickle now isn’t it. :- O

Try deleting the “89358BF37F6C1FF40940E32865754FBA” registry branch from the server under: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Products

Then try running the latest WSEE Installer again.

Does that help any?

As I said, I tried the full reinstall and nothing.

The only thing I have not tried is to uninstall WSEE as well.

I guess since this is hitting end of life I should be looking for other alternatives any way.

Thanks for your help and products.

Everything is on latest.

I followed the instructions still same issue.

The error is on the WSERA.ServerSetup.log file but it is too big. That is what I had on the onedrive link, not sure why you are not able to open it. I tested it with a private window and it works fine.

Here are the lines that have error:

MSI (s) (3C:28) [22:16:23:394]: PROPERTY CHANGE: Adding WSERARDWebErrorDir property. Its value is ‘C:\Program Files\The Office Maven\WSE RemoteApp\RDWeb\Error\’.

MSI (s) (3C:28) [22:16:23:608]: Dir (target): Key: WSERARDWebErrorDir , Object: C:\Program Files\The Office Maven\WSE RemoteApp\RDWeb\Error\

MSI (s) (3C:D0) [22:16:24:580]: Hello, I’m your 64bit Elevated Non-remapped custom action server.
SchedSecureObjectsRollback: Failed to store ACL rollback information with error 0x80070003 – continuing

MSI (s) (3C!A0) [22:16:24:725]: MSI_LUA : Custom Action ‘ExecSecureObjectsRollback_64’ is running with sufficient privileges.
Action ended 22:16:24: ExecSecureObjectsRollback_64. Return value 1.
SchedSecureObjectsRollback: Failed to store ACL rollback information with error 0x80070002 – continuing

MSI (s) (3C:D8) [22:16:30:345]: Invoking remote custom action. DLL: C:\Windows\Installer\MSI60C8.tmp, Entrypoint: ExecSecureObjects
ExecSecureObjects: Error 0x80070002: failed to get security info for object: CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{F02C1A0D-BE21-4350-88B0-7367FC96EF3C}\ShellFolder
CustomAction ExecSecureObjects_64 returned actual error code 1603 (note this may not be 100% accurate if translation happened inside sandbox)
Action ended 22:16:30: InstallFinalize. Return value 3.

MSI (s) (3C:28) [22:16:34:115]: Error in rollback skipped. Return: 5

MSI (s) (3C:28) [22:16:34:175]: Windows Installer installed the product. Product Name: WSE RemoteApp Windows Server Solutions Add-in. Product Version: 1.255.2103.0. Product Language: 1033. Manufacturer: The Office Maven. Installation success or error status: 1603.

MSI (s) (3C:28) [22:16:34:183]: Deferring clean up of packages/files, if any exist
MSI (s) (3C:28) [22:16:34:187]: MainEngineThread is returning 1603
MSI (s) (3C:20) [22:16:34:195]: RESTART MANAGER: Session closed.
MSI (s) (3C:20) [22:16:34:200]: No System Restore sequence number for this installation.
MSI (s) (3C:20) [22:16:34:210]: User policy value ‘DisableRollback’ is 0
MSI (s) (3C:20) [22:16:34:216]: Machine policy value ‘DisableRollback’ is 0
MSI (s) (3C:20) [22:16:34:221]: Incrementing counter to disable shutdown. Counter after increment: 0
MSI (s) (3C:20) [22:16:34:225]: Note: 1: 1402 2: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\Rollback\Scripts 3: 2
MSI (s) (3C:20) [22:16:34:230]: Note: 1: 1402 2: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\Rollback\Scripts 3: 2
MSI (s) (3C:20) [22:16:34:235]: Decrementing counter to disable shutdown. If counter >= 0, shutdown will be denied. Counter after decrement: -1
MSI (s) (3C:20) [22:16:34:240]: Destroying RemoteAPI object.
MSI (s) (3C:40) [22:16:34:245]: Custom Action Manager thread ending.
MSI (c) (60:20) [22:16:34:251]: Decrementing counter to disable shutdown. If counter >= 0, shutdown will be denied. Counter after decrement: -1
MSI (c) (60:20) [22:16:34:256]: MainEngineThread is returning 1603
=== Verbose logging stopped: 12/07/2026 22:16:34 ===

Nothing in C:\Program Files\The Office Maven\WSE RemoteApp\RDWeb\Error\, `WSE RemoteApp` does not even exist.

I’m not seeing much in that log blurb that you posted, and I can’t access your one drive logs. So…

Are you running the WSE RemoteApp Updater from the server, or from one of your connected client computer? If the later, then try running it directly from the server instead.

Is the WSEE Installer on your Windows Server 2022 up-to-date? If not, then download the latest WSEE Updater from here.

If the latest release of WSE RemoteApp still won’t install, then you might want to try completely removing it from your Essentials server, rebooting, and then installing it again. To do so… Open the server Dashboard, go to the “APPLICATIONS” page, select the WSE RemoteApp add-in, and then click on the “Remove the add-in” task. Reboot the server afterwards, and then reinstall WSE RemoteApp via the latest full installer that can be downloaded from here.

Other than that… Take a look in the server’s “Logs” folder to see if any of the logs in there give any additional information as to why the installation is failing. You can find the server’s Logs folder here:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Server\Logs

If you sort the folder by date modified, then the most recently written to log files will appear up at the top of the folder.

You might also want to take a look in the Windows Logs -> Application log of the Event Viewer to see if anything of interest shows up in there as well.

Some more logs that might be  helpful

https://1drv.ms/u/c/8162175425df9132/IQCKH_tBbmukQLeRnnxjxVRJAYqFCbR9jqZ3h5gJOiJbhZc?e=BeEtRl

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the quick reply. I tried the file deletion then run the latest install and got the same error.

What is interesting is that the files got recreated.

While following your guide I saw a log folder and this is what I see in there after the install:

———————————————————

[44540] 260710.213032.9416: Addins: Parsed command line args for InstallAddin.exe. Path=C:\Users\Administrator.TECHNOBUG\AppData\Local\Temp\n0d5uu0f.wssx,Silent=False,ClientInstall=False

[44540] 260710.213033.1727: General: VerifyPackageResult=OkToInstall

[44540] 260710.213033.1757: General: DoInstall=True

[29272] 260710.213033.2667: Addins: Looking for EULA at: Eula-en-GB.rtf

[29272] 260710.213033.2692: Addins: Looking for EULA at: Eula-en.rtf

[29272] 260710.213033.2692: Addins: Extracting EULA: Eula.rtf

[44540] 260710.213033.5742: General: VerifyPackageResult=OkToInstall

[44540] 260710.213033.5748: General: DoInstall=True

[44540] 260710.213033.7078: InstallAddinWizard: Created wizard with addin of type: Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Console.AddIns.AddinPackages.PackageAddin

[44540] 260710.213052.7363: Addins: Async operation did not complete: Error=Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.AddinInfrastructure.AddInException: InstallError

   at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.AddinInfrastructure.AddInManager.PerformAction[T](ProviderConnector`1 connector, Action`1 action, Boolean waitForCallback)

   at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.AddinInfrastructure.AddInManager.<>c__DisplayClass66_0.<InstallAddInAsync>b__0(Object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)

   at System.ComponentModel.BackgroundWorker.OnDoWork(DoWorkEventArgs e)

   at System.ComponentModel.BackgroundWorker.WorkerThreadStart(Object argument)

[44540] 260710.213052.7403: Exception:

—————————————

An exception of type ‘Type: Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.AddinInfrastructure.AddInException, AddinInfrastructure, Version=10.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35’ has occurred.

Timestamp: 07/10/2026 21:30:52

Message: InstallError

Stack:    at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.AddinInfrastructure.AddInManager.PerformAction[T](ProviderConnector`1 connector, Action`1 action, Boolean waitForCallback)

   at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.AddinInfrastructure.AddInManager.<>c__DisplayClass66_0.<InstallAddInAsync>b__0(Object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)

   at System.ComponentModel.BackgroundWorker.OnDoWork(DoWorkEventArgs e)

   at System.ComponentModel.BackgroundWorker.WorkerThreadStart(Object argument)

[44540] 260710.213057.0268: Addins: Exiting with return code: -1

Under Windows Server 2022 there’s an issue (bug) that causes the user to be automatically opted-out of the “Get updates for other Microsoft products” task whenever a new virus definition set is installed by Windows Update. I’m not sure if the bug still exists in the most recent releases of 2022, and I was under the impression that the bug didn’t exist at all under 2025 (but maybe it does).

So… The WSEE Installer has code in it that checks to see if the task isn’t already opted-in (when running under 2022), and if not, it then goes ahead and forces the opt-in for you (via a call to the native method that does that within the underlying Essentials source code) and then it clears the “Microsoft Update is not enabled” health alert if it happens to exist.

I’ll go ahead and enable that fix for 2025 as well under the next release of the WSEE Installer/Updater (which should be out on July 14 with the next release of Windows Updates). Hopefully that resolves the issue for you (although, that being said, I’m not seeing the issue happen over here on any of our 2025 Essentials servers as all of them have the task enabled just fine via the HOME -> Get Started -> SETUP panel of the server Dashboard).

Lastly, the “Get updates for other Microsoft products” task within TaskStatus.xml has a key value of 8412D35A-13EE-4112-AE0B-F7DBC83EA83D (and mine shows all 9 task status entries). However, you probably shouldn’t manually enable it within that file if it hasn’t truly been enabled (i.e., maybe wait for the fix I release before resorting to doing that).

Mike,

I started reading the microsoft links you provided and it looks like most or all of the restore feature questions I just posed are answered there. Should I have additional questions after re-reading, I’ll circle back.

Chewing on all this. Thanks for the specific answers, Mike.

Apologies for confusing WSEE behaviors with a third-party software. Specific to the WSEE’s restore features, will it allow:

1. restoration of an entire disk image?
2. the ability to choose to restore a particular drive volume?
3. the ability to choose individual files and folders to restore?

Yes, I just found that out as well. Also had to make sure the admin account I was using had all the right permissions and then rebooted before running adprep.

Updated completed and WSEE reinstalled – just now working through any further optimisations I can now make, but all looking good (so far).

Server 2025 did take a good few hours working at 99% of the upgrade, but eventually got there!