How to Enable GUI in Windows Server 2016?

Some people would feel frustrating about that after installing Windows server 2016 successfully, the user interface has changed. There is no a graphic user interface, so all the operation would be executed by typing some professional commands. That is not easy for some users who are not familiar with Windows server, especially for the people who is the freshman for Windows server. Then people may ask whether there is a way to enable the GUI in Windows server 2016. Here I would show you how to enable the GUI in Windows server 2016.

Here I would show the detailed steps from scratch.

When we begin installing the new Windows server 2016, there are many options for us.

You can see many option are list on the above picture. The options without Desktop Experience are the core editions. They would not offer GUI after installation. And the ones with Desktop Experience would offer full GUI features. If you clear about which is your favor, you would find the problem and has no need to read the under passage. But if you just wrong installed the core edition of Windows server 2016 and you regretted it when finding that all the operations have to be implemented by typing commands. Then you should follow the under steps.

Step 1: Open PowerShell console and type Get-WindowsFeature -Name *GUI* into it.

You would find that all the install state of the GUI features listed are shown as removed. And now you should try to install the removed GUI features. Before that, you should make sure that your server has access to internet.

Step 2: Just type Install-WindowsFeature -Name Server-Gui-Shell, Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra into PowerShell console and press Enter to execute it.

Typically, when the above operation is completed and you should just type Restart-Computer into the PowerShell console to restart your server. Then you would see windows server 2016 with the full graphic user interface(GUI).

Note: If your server has no access to the internet, you would probably see a large number of error message with red color. Then you have to use your installation media to successfully install server GUI features. Before you can do that, you need to identify appropriate index of Windows server 2016 edition from which you want to install features. The GUI features are only default built in the editions labelled with desktop experience, so you should skip indexes for core editions in the list.

So here i would show you installing the GUI features from a installation media.

Step 1: If you have store the windows server installation media in this system before, just navigate to the path of it. Type the command Get-WindowsImage -ImagePath XXX\XX\X into the console.

Attention : The GUI features information are stored in install.win file located on D:\sources in my system drive, so you should just adapt it to your condition.

Here the GUI features related file’s path is D:\sources\install.wim. Then i just type Get-WindowsImage -ImagePath D:\sources\install.wim into the console to find the system imageindex.

From the first picture in this passage, we know that the imageindex of core edition without GUI is 1 and 3. Then you should just choose the right imageindex between 2 and 4. Here i would choose the imageindex as 2.

Step 2: Type Install-WindowsFeature -Name Server-Gui-Shell, Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra -Source wim:D:\sources\install.wim:2 into PowerShell console. And press Enter to execute it.

Note: To install feature from non-default location, you should follow the appropriate syntax like below.

InstallationProvider : WIMFileLocation : ImageIndex

So if you want to install the GUI features from a installation media, you should follow the syntax.

Step 3: After the above operation is finished, you should be prompted with the information that you must restart this server to finish the installation process. Just type Restart-Computer into the PowerShell console and execute it.

Then you would find that the full GUI features has been enabled in your Windows server 2016.

Windows server gui mgmt infra server 2016

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Answered by:

Question

I need to Install Exchange 2016 Evaluation on a Windows Server 2016 Machine. The Problem is, that the only available Evaluation for Exchange is the initial release version.

This release is only installable on Server 2012.

On Server 2016 you cannot meet the system requirements, because Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra ist not available in Server 2016.

Server 2016 is only supported from Exchange 2016 CU3 or 4 and later.

Any idea, how i can get a running Exch2016 Evaluation on my 2016 Server? Maybe «hacking» the PreReq checker?

I need this setup for a PoC

• Edited by L_Herzog Wednesday, July 19, 2017 10:07 AM
• Moved by Edward van Biljon MVP Wednesday, July 19, 2017 11:10 AM Moved to correct Forum

Answers

You can download the latest CU (CU6) and install this, it is a full version of Exchange which you can use to test with.

Hope this helps. Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

All replies

You can download the latest CU (CU6) and install this, it is a full version of Exchange which you can use to test with.

Hope this helps. Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Which version did you want to install? There is not a really version named “Evaluation Edition”, each version has a 120 days trial period. No loss of functionality will occur when the Evaluation Edition expires, so you can maintain lab, demo, training, and other non-production environments beyond 120 days without having to reinstall the Evaluation Edition of Exchange 2016.

Windows server gui mgmt infra server 2016

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Asked by:

Question

I searched the entire internet and found a number of solutions with various commands, but none of them helped.

I am trying to instal Exchange 2016, but I get this error:

Apparently this feature has been removed from the latest version of Windows Server 2016.

I am unable to do anything as I get errors during installation:

Any ideas would be much appreciated.

All replies

You are missing a component. I suggest you post in Exchange forum for Exchange installation help as your issue is not a scripting issue. It is an installation issue.

You are missing the GUI component of the server. On server core you must option the Exchange install correctly for a GUI-less installation.

Was your issue resolved?

If you resolved it using our solution, please «mark it as answer» to help other community members find the helpful reply quickly.

If you resolve it using your own solution, please share your experience and solution here. It will be very beneficial for other community members who have similar questions.

If no, please reply and tell us the current situation in order to provide further help.

Windows server gui mgmt infra server 2016

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Asked by:

Question

Good day;

My name is Marius — I’ve bought 2 x MS products:

1. *MS SERVER 2016 Standard
2. *MS EXCHANGE 2016 (Desktop Experience)

I have successfully installed MS Server 2016. Setup Active Directory, updates and drivers.

When I install Exchange 2016 it gives me the following error:

«The Windows component Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra isn’t installed on this computer and needs to be installed before Exchange Setup can begin.»

I’ve done proper research regarding this issue but no luck. I’ve also tried the following:

Reinstall MS Server 2016 Standard — without desktop exp. to manually enable the GUI through PowerShell

also gives me errors.

Tried the installation again with the Desktop exp — same issue.

I’ve also tried to call Microsoft about 22 times and they could not help me. CAN ANY ONE PLEASE ASSIST ME PLEASE.

please contact me: debruin@coolest.co.za

All replies

My name is Marius — I’ve bought 2 x MS products:

1. *MS SERVER 2016 Standard
2. *MS EXCHANGE 2016 (Desktop Experience)

I have successfully installed MS Server 2016. Setup Active Directory, updates and drivers.

When I install Exchange 2016 it gives me the following error:

«The Windows component Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra isn’t installed on this computer and needs to be installed before Exchange Setup can begin.»

I’ve done proper research regarding this issue but no luck. I’ve also tried the following:

Reinstall MS Server 2016 Standard — without desktop exp. to manually enable the GUI through PowerShell

also gives me errors.

Tried the installation again with the Desktop exp — same issue.

I’ve also tried to call Microsoft about 22 times and they could not help me. CAN ANY ONE PLEASE ASSIST ME PLEASE.

please contact me: debruin@coolest.co.za

Are you using the latest CU installer for Exchange 2016?

Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread

Windows server gui mgmt infra server 2016

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Answered by:

Question

I get below error message while trying to install Exchange 2013 on Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 5:

Error:
The Windows component Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra isn’t installed on this computer and needs to be installed before Exchange Setup can begin.
For more information, visit: http://technet.microsoft.com/library(EXCHG.150)/ms.exch.setupreadiness.ServerGuiMgmtInfraNotInstalled.aspx

I tried to install this feature through PowerShell but getting following error

Install-WindowsFeature Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra, Server-Gui-Shell -Restart

Install-WindowsFeature : ArgumentNotValid: The role, role service, or feature name is not valid:
‘Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra,Server-Gui-Shell’. The name was not found.
At line:1 char:1
+ Install-WindowsFeature Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra, Server-Gui-Shell -Resta .
+

+ CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra,Server-Gui-Shell:String) [Install-WindowsFeature
], Exception
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : NameDoesNotExist,Microsoft.Windows.ServerManager.Commands.AddWindowsFeatureCommand

Success Restart Needed Exit Code Feature Result
——- ————— ——— —————
False No InvalidArgs <>