Microsoft announces the new “Honolulu” and renamed it to Windows Admin Center. In this blog post I am going to give you a short review of the new tool which will – by all means – simplify the administration of Windows Server environments. Let’s dive in.
Prerequisites and Download
Make sure your servers are running Windows Server 2012 or Windows Server 2016. Note, that you have to install WMF 5.1 on your Windows Servers 2012 before you can use Windows Admin Center.
For testing, I recommend to install Windows Admin Center on one of your member servers. (best Windows Server 2016)
First, you have to download it here (if you have already installed the previous Honolulu, there’s no need to uninstall the older version):
Next, run the setup which is really self-explanatory.
Windows Admin Center
You’ll find the new Admin Center right on your desktop. Start it with Chrome, Edge or Mozilla. IE did not work in my environment. I got a blank page.
Here it is, opened with Mozilla Firefox:
Let’s connect to my Domain Controller azdc01.
Everything works fine, even my Active Directory Domain Services Section Tool.
For all those think “What the heck is this tool?”. It’s not a built-in tool, it’s an advanced function. It’s my function ;-). The screen shows the new version (section 20 and 21 are in beta). For all who know the tool: The latest version will be released in May with further features.
You can download the latest version here:
AD Overview Graphical Tool: Active Directory Domain Services Section
All the other sections of Windows Admin Center are working fine, too. I’m impatiently waiting for some Server Roles tools, like Active Directory Users and Computer and more … but I am sure the Windows Admin Center is currently working on it …
More screens …
Awesome … Remote Desktop Connection …
See you next time with PowerShell again!
Categories: Windows Server
My name is Patrick Gruenauer. From Austria.
SID-500.COM 
Hello Patrick, I have a problems with Windows Admin Center. I have Windows Server 2012 R2 Memeber Server. I downloaded WMF 5.1 for Serve 2012, and when I run I get error This update is not applicable to your computer. Does you explain and help me. I downloaded file from microsoft download server. Does I can run windows admin center from Windows client OS.
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Yes, but only in stand-alone mode.
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Patrick excuse me I do not understand you. Waht you mean when You say in stand-alone mode.
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See the official Microsoft document that describes the installation options for Admin Center
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So true, Patrick, however… I am trying to use the new WAC on a Server. According to Microsoft:
***Microsoft Edge requirements and language support https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/itpro/microsoft-edge/hardware-and-software-requirements
“The Long-Term Servicing Branch (LTSB) versions of Windows, including Windows Server 2016, don’t include Microsoft Edge or many other Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps. These apps and their services are frequently updated with new functionality, and can’t be supported on systems running the LTSB operating systems.”***
They don’t mention the AWC doesn’t work in IE, so a server guy doesn’t even know it won’t work with the browser Microsoft includes with the O/S. That’s outrageous!
Dave
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I installed the finally release Windows Admin Center. Wouldn’t work. All I got was blank page.
I googled and binged to find what was wrong. Yours was the ONLY post I could find that mentioned the blank page on IE. So here I am on Edge, at it works.
Why is this so? What’s going on with IE 11 that the page won’t load or issue an error?
Microsoft needs to explain this.
Dave Franklyn, MVP
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Hi Dave,
I’m happy that my blog post could help you. I guess that Microsoft is going to focus on Edge only. It seems that IE is such as deprecated. Edge is the future. But I’m with you its a little bit incomprehensible that it works with Chrome and Firefox, but not on IE.
All the best,
P
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