14 thoughts on “An error occurred while configuring Windows Server Essentials. Please try again.

  1. Pingback: Fun with NUC servers | Jeremy Davis

  2. Chris Wigley

    Instead of re-installing the OS, you can simply use the Remove Server Roles dialogs to remove the Server Essentials, then reboot

    Reply
  3. Merlin Halteman Post author

    Hello Chris, You are correct if you are using Windows Server 2012/R2. However, with the standalone Windows Server Essentials R2 software your only option is to reinstall the operating system.

    Reply
  4. CM

    Regarding doing this with the standalone Windows Server Essentials R2 software you can run an elevated powershell prompt and type in: Uninstall-WindowsFeature ServerEssentialsRole – I had to run this twice with a reboot in between and then I started and completed the wizard from scratch (with a new username). It should be noted on my first attempt to use the wizard with the offending username I only got as far as the first automatic reboot which as far as I could tell just renamed the computer and did nothing else before presenting me with the error.

    Reply
    1. raul

      Agreed, no need to reinstall. In 2016 Essentials start PowerShell and type:
      Remove-WssConfigurationData
      Uninstall-WindowsFeature ServerEssentialsRole
      then reboot. Configure Windows Server Essentials wizard will now start from scratch. Remember not to use “admin” word in network administrator username this time 😉

      Reply
  5. brentb

    Was trying to set up Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials on my Intel NUC (model NUC5i7RYH) and was getting the same repeated error message/screen shown above. I tried debugging using a lot of other references I found online but was stuck with the same error. Came across your post above and gave it a try since my server administrator user name was “ABCDadmin”. I quickly reinstalled the OS and changed it to something without *admin* in it. It worked like a champ the first time!

    Just to confirm, I tried it again on an identical set up of hardware with the original “ABCDadmin” in the name and it failed there as well. Repeating the process with the non-“admin” characters in the user name worked again.

    Thanks VERY MUCH for posting this bit of advice! I confirm your solution!

    Reply
    1. Merlin Halteman Post author

      Thanks for taking the time to share your experience with me! It helps me as well as other readers.

      Reply
  6. Richard Bowmaker

    Incredibly, this is still a problem in Windows Server 2016 Essentials.

    If you enter a server administrator username containing “Admin”, the Essentials configuration fails with that vague error message, and no way to fix it but to reinstall from scratch.

    Reply
  7. James

    I stuck at 95%, after doing everything I found that regional zone was misconfigured. I set up the righ one, retried and worked!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Reply
  8. RustyCaliTech

    WSE2016. Endlessly stuck at 16%. It was failing at user creation (creating the “network administrator” account) (don’t have the log files handy to paste details here). The name did NOT have admin in it, etc. The problem was SPECIAL CHARS IN THE PASSWORD. So keeping the password alphanumeric worked, then changed it later.

    Reply
  9. David Allison

    I have just managed to fix this issue without reinstalling the OS:

    1. Cancel the Wizard when it appears
    2. Stop the Windows Server Essentials Management Service (no need to Disable)
    3. Run the Wizard again manually by going to Run and entering:

    C:\Windows\explorer.exe “C:\Windows\System32\EssentialsRoleConfigWizard.exe”

    4. The Wizard will fail again – start the Windows Server Essentials Management Service
    5. Now click Retry and the Wizard should complete

    I have only tried this once and I had actually manually installed Active Directory roles by this point, so not sure if this is a pre-requisite, but (somewhat unbelievably!) it worked and the Wizard completed successfully.

    Reply
  10. Don kaye

    Thank you guys very much. the powershell commands posted by Raul as well as not using admin in the network admin name and keeping the password to Alpha Numeric solved my issue.

    Thanks again.

    Reply
  11. Sagar

    Thank you for above post. Changing the name to exclude keyword “admin” helped to resolve the issue of configuration.

    Reply

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