How to upgrade Windows Server Essentials to Standard edition

Posted on by Glenn

Time for another quick tip.  In case you hadn’t guessed already, I really like Essentials.  You get quite a few features for a much better price than Standard edition.  There are some limitations though with Essentials.  The good news is that the server can later be upgraded to Standard and the process only takes a few minutes.  On the flip side, a standard license has to be purchased.

Let’s walk through the upgrade process.

  1. Purchase a Windows Server Standard license
  2. Open an administrative PowerShell command
  3. Run the following command to verify the target edition:
    dism /online /Get-TargetEditions
    You should see Target Edition : ServerStandard or something similar
  4. Run the following command to complete the upgrade:
    dism /online /Set-Edition:ServerStandard /ProductKey:XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX /AcceptEula
    Change the edition and product key to match the ones you have.

You should see output similar to below.  Reboot when prompted.  (I have updated this picture.  It is 2019 Essentials.)

2019 Essentials upgrade to Standard

I hope you found this informative.  If you have any comments or suggestions, please leave them below.

54 thoughts on “How to upgrade Windows Server Essentials to Standard edition”

  1. Pingback: Windows Server 2016 Essentials and Remote Desktop Services, the untold story | Glennopedia

  3. great help … thanks! I’ve never done this type of license conversion … will all the shares, data and security settings remain in tact upon completion to server 2016 standard?

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  4. Hi thanks for this very simple explanation.
    But what happens to the old License for Windows Server Essentials. Can I just use it on an other Server without a problem?

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    1. That’s a great question. If the Essentials license is not OEM then you should have no problem using it on another machine. However once an OEM license is used on a server it is attached to the hardware and cannot be moved.

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    1. When upgrading from Essentials to Standard no CALs are included. You will need to purchase the correct number of per user or per device CALs for Standard edition.

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  8. Hi! One question:

    Can you use this method with no problems with an WS2016 Essentials Domain Controller server in order to Upgrade to WS2016 Standard?

    I read in other site that you can’t do this with a DC.

    Thanks!

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    1. Yes you can use this process on any 2012 and higher Essentials edition server. All it does is remove the Essentials restrictions package from Windows.

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    2. Did you try it Jorge and was it successful? I’m in the same boat seeing a lot about evaluation edition upgrade but nothing about essentials.

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  9. I have 365 integration on essentials, will this break when upgrading to standard ? if so what needs to be done to fix ?

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    1. No, upgrading to Standard edition will not break the features of Essentials.

      After the transition, the Windows Server Essentials features remain on the server and are supported for up to 75 users and 75 devices. If you exceed either of these limits, you should use the Windows Server native tools to manage user accounts and devices.

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    1. Assuming you have a valid 2016 Standard product key, you can upgrade it to Standard edition and maintain all of the Essentials features.

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    1. This process can take 20-30 minutes in my experience. I have also seen it hang once indefinitely and not work. Unfortunately we were not able to figure that one out. If you are still having trouble though, I would review the CBS and DISM logs from the time you tried the upgrade. These logs can be found in the C:\windows\logs folder.

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      1. I confirm this works with a 2016ESS as a DC. Make sure the Windows Volume License is running. I believe dism.exe is failing to trigger the service to start, thus halting the process. Simply starting this service, while dism.exe was stuck at 10%, resolved the issue.
        Also, make sure that you don’t Pause the Powershell process, if the PS header bar is shown “select PowerShell”, you may have halted the process execution. Hit ESC so it shows ‘Windows PowerShell’

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  12. I have added an additional Domain Controller to the Essentials Domain. I plan to transfer the FSMO roles from the Essentials to [this] Windows Server 2019 Standard, then demote the essentials back to a member server, then remove it from the domain. Any reason it would not be a Windows Server 2019 Standard Active Directory domain after these steps? (I want to keep the domain, and lose the WS2012 Essentials server.) [Not happy about loss of Essentials ROLE from WS19 either, but that’s another story.]

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    1. This is a good plan to migrate away from Essentials. Just don’t take too long after moving the FSMO roles. The Essentials server will start shutting down shortly after removing them. Also, make sure that SYSVOL is upgraded to DFSR. NTFRS is not available in 2019.

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      2. So after upgrading to Standard edition, you no longer need silsvc (Software Infrastructure Licensing service). I would leave it stopped and you should be fine.

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  13. Maybe I’m not reading this correctly. Do you need to run the upgrade from Essentials to Standard, or will this license upgrade automatically put you on Standard without the need to run anything else?

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    1. To upgrade the edition from Essentials to Standard, you just run the dism set-edition command. Following the steps above is all you need to do to upgrade and remove the restrictions, but not the features, of Essentials.

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  14. so in this process right now.. any clue how long this takes to do the upgrade? In powershell seeing Finished Installing product key and has been blinking there for a long time. Task Manager shows high cpu usage for the windows installer module so i’m assuming it’s doing something

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    1. The process should not take more than an hour in my experience. If it is taking longer there may be a problem. I would check the C:\windows\logs\cbs\cbs.log file first.

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    2. I had a few issues upgrading to standard. Got MS involved and after a lot of investigation, found that some of the updates were corrupt. Removed the updates that hadn’t installed correctly and any superceeded, ensured all other updates were installed and the upgrade then went smoothly.

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  15. Hi there. We have a customer who has a DC (host) with Server essentials 2016 and a VM with Server 2016 Standard. Their VM is showing as not activated and is using KMS. We are looking to activate the VM with a retail license key.

    If we upgrade the host to Standard will any features currently in use be lost? Can the license still cover up to 2 VMs?

    After upgrading and activating the host what are the steps to activate the VM?

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    1. To answer the first question. No features will be lost by upgrading the host. Just keep in mind Essentials features are only designed for a max of 75 users.
      Activating the VM should be fairly straightforward. Just run these two commands: slmgr /upk followed by slmgr /ipk

      I must add there are a couple of problems that should be addressed with the environment. First, you should never run the ADDS and Hyper-V role on the same host OS install. Second, when running any roles or applications other than Hyper-V on the host, you only get one VM license. The reason for this is that the Standard license only permits running 2 instances of the OS for workloads, not 3. Lastly, if you upgrade Essentials edition to Standard, make sure and purchase some CALs as the included 25 CALs with Essentials do not upgrade to Standard CALs.

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  17. Hi I have just done an in-place upgrade of Server 2012 R2 Essential to Server 2012 R2 Standard. Aim is to eventually migrate the domain controller to Server 2019 Standard.

    Now I want to remove the Essential Features but the TurnOffFeaturesWizard tool is missing both through the Dash Board and in Bin folder. Are you able to help with resolution of this? Any help will be appreciated.

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    1. Good day. To remove the essentials features, use the remove roles wizard in Server Manager or Remove-WindowsFeature Powershell cmdlet and remove Essentials role.

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  18. Will following this process cause any applications that users are accessing to be unavailable during the upgrade?

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  19. Does this still work with Server 2019 Essentials? Concerned that it won’t work since 2019 Standard is a CPU and Core based licensed model.

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  20. Hello, is it possible to switch from Windows StandartEval server to Windows essential server .. I installed the standartEval version download on the net then I bought the essential license but when I upgrade I am told that it is impossible to migrate … and if I reinstall the machine with the essential Windows server while keeping the same domain name is that it will be reflected on the old users which was supported by the first StandartEval server

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    1. Unfortunately, downgrades are not possible with dism. You cannot go from ServerStandard or ServerStandardEval to ServerSolution. The only way you will be able to keep your existing active directory is to perform what is a called a “swing migration.” This is effectively two migrations. First you stand up a temporary ServerStandardEval server. This could be a virtual machine, or even a workstation system. You then add the temporary server to your existing active directory as a domain controller. Once all is replicated and you have migrated all roles in active directory over to the temporary server, you can demote the existing server. Next reinstall the operating system on the existing server. Once reinstalled, you will make a domain controller with the temporary server. Lastly, move all roles from the temporary server to the reinstalled server and demote the temporary server.
      There are quite a few steps to make all this happen, but it is the only way to save your existing active directory.

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  23. I purchased a new license for 2019 Standard and receive the following error. Any tips?:
    Error: 87
    The specified product key could not be validated.
    Check that the specified product key is valid and that it matches the target edition.

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    1. I am wondering if you purchased a volume license key for Standard. If so, the error you are getting is normal. I did some checking though and found a workaround. If you upgrade using a retail or KMS key, you can then install a volume license key.
      Dism /online /Set-Edition:ServerStandard /AcceptEula /ProductKey:N69G4-B89J2-4G8F4-WWYCC-J464C
      reboot
      slmgr /upk
      slmgr /ipk

      Here is the forum post I found this workaround:
      https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/security/en-US/debc3002-3846-4876-a401-fbf2a2a71519/upgrade-server-2019-essentials-to-standard-specified-product-key-could-not-be-validated?forum=winserversetup

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  26. I have a server 2016 standard I just built (PDC). I would like to downgrade it to essentials (bought a license key) so I do not have to deal with CALS. I have only 23 pc in enterprise, 2 printers, only 3 users. I only use it as a file server to house files.

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