DIY: Server 2022 to workstation post install settings

Discussion in 'Windows Server' started by damianfox, Nov 15, 2021.

  1. hoak

    hoak MDL Senior Member

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    #261 hoak, Jun 25, 2023
    Last edited: Jun 25, 2023
    Then I have ten years on you, and none of the hubris, pettiness, and I certainly do not believe, as you clearly do that if I don't know about something -- it doesn't exist.

    So generous of you from your position of high authority to grant me that freedom.

    Your hubris, arrogance, petty insults, non-sequiturs, and obtuseness. You are in fact the one, that replied to someone asking politely a few pages back for help that they should make the mental effort themselves. Considering how painfully wrong you are here, and stubborn about that; a constructive discussion is unlikely; if you're actually in the business as you say you are, you need to make more of an effort to know what you don't know.

    No, I did not make that statement, or imply it at all -- the assumption here is all yours; I take it English is not your first language.
     
  2. acer-5100

    acer-5100 MDL Guru

    Dec 8, 2018
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    We are already OT, I ended wasting my intelligence trying to explain something to someone that has no intention to listen.

    Have a nice day.
     
  3. acer-5100

    acer-5100 MDL Guru

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    #263 acer-5100, Aug 20, 2023
    Last edited: Aug 20, 2023
    Updated my SKUwitch method to work with 252xx and 259xx builds.
     
  4. zbigniew59

    zbigniew59 MDL Senior Member

    May 14, 2016
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    What is this compilation 29xxx builds?
     
  5. acer-5100

    acer-5100 MDL Guru

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    They are hard blocked on older CPU/Chipsets, core duos, turions and alike...

    No matter what you do (ATM no idea if the lock is just on winload.exe or if they are compiled with features that are missing on older CPU. the result is the same.

    So suddenly SKUwitch became more important than already was, otherwise you cant use the older builds because they are expiring on 15/09/2023, and you can't use the newer ones because don't boot at all.
     
  6. zbigniew59

    zbigniew59 MDL Senior Member

    May 14, 2016
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    29xxx builds or 259xx?
     
  7. acer-5100

    acer-5100 MDL Guru

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    Yeah, typo...
     
  8. Joni

    Joni MDL Junior Member

    May 28, 2009
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    I had about 10 different devices without drivers post install with Taichi x570 and 5950x. I was able to manually install everything but two devices. XBOX receiver and Microsoft WMC remote. Every device that wasn't installed I manually picked the driver in device manager and it said that driver might not work or something like that but you are still able to continue and install the drivers.

    For these two devices there is something different. I point to the driver files in device manager but it doesn't even recognize that the drivers are for these devices so it just says could not find drivers for the device or something like that. I tried to copy Win10 drivers but it's the same. These do work in Win11 also OOTB.

    Does anyone have any idea why these wont work on Server? While I was googling and trying to get this working I noticed that this seems to be a issue with many game controllers and such devices.

    XBOX One Controller USB receiver

    XBOX ACC
    USB\VID_045E&PID_02FE&REV_0100

    Microsoft Media Center Remote

    eHome Infrared Transceiver
    USB\VID_0471&PID_0815&REV_0000
     
  9. lopwss

    lopwss MDL Novice

    Oct 6, 2018
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    so i installed windows server 2022 on a laptop and managed to install the amd drivers, but i noticed something
    is there no "pci bus" device or driver driver on windows server?
     
  10. acer-5100

    acer-5100 MDL Guru

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    I'm on server 2020 and a relatively old machine, it's called "PCI Express Root Complex", and it's called the same on Win 10
     
  11. miroxp

    miroxp MDL Novice

    Oct 21, 2017
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    The best explanation for you - Ukraine would be Windows 10 Home and Russia would be Windows Server Datacenter 23H2.
     
  12. whitestar_999

    whitestar_999 MDL Addicted

    Dec 9, 2011
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    Have you tried this sku switch method?
    https://forums.mydigitallife.net/th...st-install-settings.84501/page-7#post-1714633
     
  13. Ace2

    Ace2 MDL Expert

    Oct 10, 2014
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  14. hhc0os3y

    hhc0os3y MDL Novice

    Dec 22, 2023
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    Thanks. Copied the branding folder from 11 Pro and now settings shows 11 Pro. But Dism /Online /Get-TargetEditions reports "The Windows edition was not detected". And sfc /scannow would restore the old branding files.

    Is there any ill effects in leaving the installation in this state? Or should I only switch to Pro temporarily to install blocked software but otherwise use my system on Server Standard/DataCenter/AzureHCI?
     
  15. Ace2

    Ace2 MDL Expert

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    #276 Ace2, Dec 23, 2023
    Last edited: Dec 23, 2023
    "The Windows edition was not detected" this is because
    Code:
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Component Based Servicing\Packages\Microsoft-Windows-ProfessionalEdition~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~10.0.20348.1]
    settings are missing in regedit.

    And because
    Code:
    Microsoft-Windows-ProfessionalEdition~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~10.0.20348.1.cat
    Microsoft-Windows-ProfessionalEdition~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~10.0.20348.1.mum
    are missing from C:\Windows\servicing\Packages

    sfc /scannow would restore the old branding files, this is normal when adding files that don't belong to the OS System.

    The main reason you have these errors is because you don't know the right edition switch method to use.
     
  16. Ace2

    Ace2 MDL Expert

    Oct 10, 2014
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    It's up to you.

    Maybe this would be a better option for you.
    Convert Windows Server to Workstation (Offline)
    Code:
    forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/convert-windows-server-to-workstation-offline.84632/
     
  17. acer-5100

    acer-5100 MDL Guru

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    My SKUwitch is a quick and dirty way to switch, it works in seconds and does it's job.

    Obviously there are more proper ways to have a 100% converted SKU but they comes with a bunch of cons (time wasted, difficult to go back and forth in case you need just a temporary switch and so on.

    Replacing the branding folder by hand (obviusly) will be detected by by the scan commands, but that's not a problem for 99.99% of scenarios.

    The only problem you may face is in case a third party SW does an extensive check on windows components, like the virtualbox hardening checks that *MAY* lead to a not working VBox installation in some original/current SKUs combinations.

    VBox is the only SW I'm aware of doing such kind of nitpicking checks but I cant exclude there is something else.

    For everything else just use slmgr /dlv to get the current SKU instead of the pointless get-current edition
     
  18. hhc0os3y

    hhc0os3y MDL Novice

    Dec 22, 2023
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    Thanks for highlighting the cons of this switch method, so I have a fuller understanding of what it actually does.

    So basically it just fools the Windows installation that it is a client SKU although the kernel is from a branch (20348) that never had a valid client SKU.

    I'm sure different people do things for different reasons. My own reasons is that I want a stable kernel version that gets security updates only, but otherwise allows client SKU licensing (I have a valid Pro license). So I believe this would work for me as a "permanently" converted Pro SKU with branding folder copy.
     
  19. acer-5100

    acer-5100 MDL Guru

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    #280 acer-5100, Jan 12, 2024
    Last edited: Jan 12, 2024

    No, "fools" is a very wrong word in this context.

    "Set" is a better option. There is no crack / patch / replaced system file here, there is just the right key / certificates pair that set the features of the product.

    Just like any commercial SW that changes personality depending the serial you use.


    There isn't a server kernel or a client kernel, there is one kernel that changes behavior depending the SKU (which depends on certificates/serial pair)

    Some other features depends on specific registry entries (many of them are known and easy to set if needed).

    Define stable...

    I think that NT3.51 in '94 or so was already pretty solid, what makes a modern Windows System unstable is faulty/immature HW, and/or faulty/immature drivers for it.

    That said if you are the kind of early adopter (aka masochist) used to buy HW the day after it's released, *maaaaaaybe* a very recent kernel can bring some (hidden) optimizations, that may help in corner cases.
    Think to AMD's Treadrippers/Epycs with a huge number of cores, or the sad Intel newest CPUs that mixes Atoms and Normal cores complicating the life of the scheduler.
    Think to nested virtualization that was stupidly blocked on AMD CPUs for the whole W10 life