Forum Discussion
Installed Windows Server 2016, now I can't access my desktop
It looks like you installed Windows Server 2016 Core. The default installation of Windows Server 2016 is without any Desktop. You configure and use it via command line, PowerShell, or in a real production environment remotely with management tools from a workstation.
Without more information about how you installed the operating system (did you install to a separate partition or did you wipe your current Harddisk and installed it over your previous operating system,...) I can't tell you what your best course of action is to restore your Notebook to "normal".
If you wiped your Harddisk and did a fresh install of Server 2016, without any backup beforehand, your chances of getting back your data are slim.
If you just want to get a normal client operating system backup onto the device, you should download a current Windows 10 installation media from Microsoft (for the version of Windows 10 you own a license for of course). Then boot with this media from USB or DVD, delete all current partitions in the setup dialog and let Windows setup do it's job.
If you want to learn Windows Server you should really do so in a virtualized environment instead of a physical machine. You could, for example, install Hyper-V on your Windows 10 Client and run a Windows Server instance inside of Hyper-V. With this you can experiment all you want without damaging your Host-System. Also to make it easier for looking around Windows Server make sure you choose the "Windows Server 2016 with Desktop Experience" installation option when installing it. This way you have an almost familiar Desktop environment.
It looks like you installed Windows Server 2016 Core. The default installation of Windows Server 2016 is without any Desktop. You configure and use it via command line, PowerShell, or in a real production environment remotely with management tools from a workstation.
Without more information about how you installed the operating system (did you install to a separate partition or did you wipe your current Harddisk and installed it over your previous operating system,...) I can't tell you what your best course of action is to restore your Notebook to "normal".
If you wiped your Harddisk and did a fresh install of Server 2016, without any backup beforehand, your chances of getting back your data are slim.
If you just want to get a normal client operating system backup onto the device, you should download a current Windows 10 installation media from Microsoft (for the version of Windows 10 you own a license for of course). Then boot with this media from USB or DVD, delete all current partitions in the setup dialog and let Windows setup do it's job.
If you want to learn Windows Server you should really do so in a virtualized environment instead of a physical machine. You could, for example, install Hyper-V on your Windows 10 Client and run a Windows Server instance inside of Hyper-V. With this you can experiment all you want without damaging your Host-System. Also to make it easier for looking around Windows Server make sure you choose the "Windows Server 2016 with Desktop Experience" installation option when installing it. This way you have an almost familiar Desktop environment.
- I have same issue as well
- Thank you dretzer. I did install it on my harddisk thinking it was just any other application. Thankfully I was able to reinstall Windows and it saved all my files to a dedicated "old" folder. My PC is up and running again.
what steps did you take to get past C:\users\administrator
to the point where you had windows installed again. Thank you, Melissa
- Know this is a long time ago, but if you remember how you solved this. Would appreciate
- Please be aware that when you install any operating system (OS) on a machine, whether it is a virtual machine or a physical machine, you need to make full backup of anything you want to keep, in case you end up wiping everything because you want to get back to Windows 10.
The best result you can hope for, after you make a full backup (ISO or mirror drive or copy the VM to a different VM, before continuing) is that a new installation with the GUI version of the server may move the old stuff to a folder called C:\Windows.old\ after the installation is finished. Note: There is no guarantee, but that is what should happen (in theory), as long as the OS main version is the same.
If you don't know how to make a backup before you proceed, the result might be that your drive gets wiped.
- Hello,I think I just made the same mistake you made ,how were you able to sort this out,I need my PC back!!
Femi-Peters To me, it looks like user you replied to has yet to comment whether they found any easy way to restore their previous Windows OS. I find it unlikely, though. Note that your situation is a support scenario where you should create a full backup of your current drive contents before reinstalling your original OS, depending on computer brand, installation media, and so on.
