Release Documentation for Windows Server 2012 Essentials

 

Updated: October 4, 2012

Applies To: Windows Server 2012 Essentials, Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials

Welcome to the Release Documentation for the Windows Server 2012 Essentials server software. This topic contains information about issues that you may encounter when you install and run the Windows Server 2012 Essentials server software. You should review this topic before you install and run Windows Server 2012 Essentials in your network.

Note

For information about issues that apply to the Windows Server 2012 operating system, see Release Notes: Important Issues in Windows Server 2012.

Server installation and deployment

Time needs to be synchronized in Hyper-V environments

If you host Windows Server 2012 Essentials in a Hyper-V environment, you should disable time synchronization with the virtual machine host, or configure Windows Server 2012 Essentials to use the same time zone as the virtual machine host.

For more information, see “Deployment Considerations for Virtualized Domain Controllers” in Running Domain Controllers in Hyper-V.

Some add-ins cannot be installed after upgrading from Windows Server 2012 Essentials to Windows Server 2012 Standard

Some add-ins that are specifically designed to run on the Windows Server 2012 Essentials server software cannot be installed after the upgrade to Windows Server 2012 Standard. Add-ins of this type that were installed before the upgrade are not affected.

To work around this issue, install all necessary add-ins before you upgrade Windows Server 2012 Essentials to Windows Server 2012 Standard.

The product development team is investigating this issue.

Client computers

Install all available Critical and Security updates from Windows Update

Before you connect a client computer to the server, make sure that you open Windows Update on the client computer and install all available Critical and Security updates.

Client computer restore may not succeed after migration to Windows 8

After updating a client computer from Windows 7 to Windows 8, client computer restore may not function correctly.

To resolve this issue, see Install the Connector software.

Media

Media will not automatically stream to devices that do not support Silverlight

You can use HTTP progressive download to stream media to devices that do not support Silverlight. To do so, configure port forwarding for TCP port 80 on your router.

A playlist in Remote Web Access is empty

A playlist that was created in Remote Web Access does not contain any songs, even though songs were added to the list.

The product development team is investigating this issue.

Online Backup

Online Backup might cause the Dashboard to stop functioning

If you integrate Microsoft Azure Backup with a non-English Release Candidate version of Windows Server 2012 Essentials, the Dashboard might stop functioning when you close a wizard that you accessed from the Online Backup section.

If you encounter this issue, you might be able to resolve the problem by restarting the Windows Server 2012 Essentials Dashboard.

The product development team is investigating this issue.