Windows Server Essentials 2022 Licensing

This videos covers some points to note about licensing for Windows Server Essentials 2022. For more information KB Article click here.

This video is about licensing concepts applicable to Windows Server Essentials 2022. Windows Server Essentials is an OEM only option. This means that it cannot be purchased separately. It has to be purchased along with a PowerEdge server. You can purchase Windows Server Essentials only for servers that have a single CPU with 10 cores or less.

When using Windows Server Essentials 2022 you do not need to purchase per user or per device CALs for those users connecting to the server, but there's a maximum of users you can have. 25 users sharing 50 devices, tops. When a server's ordered with Windows Server Essentials 2022 it will arrive with a COA sticker that has a product key to activate the operating system.

You can use this product key in a DISM command that looks like this. Notice that you need to specify the Standard Edition even though the product key is for the Essentials Edition. This is because there's no specialized installation media for Windows Server Essentials. Licensing compliance is enforced by the product key. The server will begin to automatically shut down if it detects that there are more than 25 users or 50 devices.

You can find more information about the Essentials Edition in these articles. I hope you find this useful and I'd like to thank you very much for watching.