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Windows Server 2025 DC Won't Install / Uninstall MSI packages, NIC Domain Category issue.
In the last week I have set up a Win 2025 Server Std Hyper-V host with 2 VMs, one being a domain controller. I have discovered that once the machine is promoted to a DC I can no longer install any .msi packages. .exe packages seem to work fine. My scenario:
After setting up the VM (before promotion to DC), I installed my RMM package (.msi - NinjaRMM) and all was fine at that point. I can see and access the VM in my RMM console. After promoting the machine to a DC, I noticed later that the status in my RMM was offline or disconnected. I soon discovered this problem with installing / uninstalling packages. Somehow I was able to uninstall the NinjaRMM, but could not re-install it. Also when Ninja installs the agent it also installs Splashtop. At this point I cannot uninstall Splashtop. Using something simple like the Putty 64bit .msi for testing. Can't install that neither. Any .msi I have tried just hangs for about 30 minutes then times out. Main error code in the .msi log is 1603, which is supposed to be closely related to permissions, but I have found no issues with permissions. Check GPO and have found nothing there either. I have Win 2022 DCs in the same domain and have no issues installing / uninstalling these packages. Internet search has found similar issues, but no answers.
Secondly, when rebooting the 2025 DC, the NIC initially gets assigned the Public network category. Disabling / Re-Enabling the adapter the Domain category is immediately assigned. Secondly, I attempted to create a PS script to restart the adapter at startup (task manager...set to run as SYSTEM), and while the tasks starts, it never runs the script. After working with ChatGPT it was suggested to change the script to have a simple one line command 'Exit 0' statment. That doesn't run either. Seems that this problem has relations to being run as SYSTEM, which I believe is also related to the install issue.
Internet searches found others stating they have encountered similar issues, but no resolutions. For the install issue, some have stated that if they demote the DC to a member server, .msi installs run successfullly (which seemed to be my case before I promted it a DC). I haven't tried demoting it to a member server, but I did spin up a second Win 2025 Server VM, joined it to the domain and at that point I have no issues installing / uninstalling anything...including .msi packages (oops, I did state this in an earlier paragraph).
Tried contacting MS. Seems with no support plan they won't talk with me. That's awesome, you pay for a product, and they won't provide support for it. Such a joy.
Hoping that someone might have seen these issues as well.
LThibx
Replying to my own post as I have a resolution to the issue. Actually have to give credit to Ninja support. They provided a reference to a Reddit post that had the solution. Being that Ninja also installs Splashtop, the issue reported in other posts, although related to Syncro & Atera applies to Ninja as well as they all use Splashtop (although Ninja has their own Remote app that is awesome, haven't used Splashtop since starting using their remote app)...but I digress.
Setting the Splashtop Remote Service to either Disabled or Automatic (Delayed) and rebooting the machine resolves the issue. .MSI packages will now install / uninstall normally. Also, while the issue with the machine's NIC network category automatically being set to Public upon reboot still remains, running the script mentioned before now executes correctly in Task Scheduler. So the Splashtop issue also affected the scheduled task.References:
Primary post that helped resolved the issue: https://www.reddit.com/r/syncro/comments/1j26412/splashtop_appears_to_break_windows_server_2025/Others:
https://www.reddit.com/r/WindowsServer/comments/1j261uc/splashtop_win_server_2025_dc/
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/2191037/agents-not-communication-after-promoting-a-server?forum=windowserver-all&referrer=answers&page=1#answers
https://www.reddit.com/r/WindowsServer/comments/1iq9b4f/applications_wont_install_2025/
In a similar vein, I also have a server2025 system. i used remotepc as the remote access app; i had Megaraid storage manager (deprecated management interface for dell PERC controllers) and Macrium reflect for backup and disaster recover. When i promoted to a DC; everything went south. The remote control app came up but the service wasn't running normally; I could not access the system remotely (except for remote desktop) i couldn't uninstall, etc, etc. In the end; i had to set all 3 services for all 3 products to delayed start for everything to work. just to experiment; i set remotePC and MSM to delayed start; set Macrium (the last thing i added) to "automatic" and remotePC stopped working. Its only reliable for me if all 3 (of the products i use) are set to delayed start. I'm sure they have some dependency on some microsoft service the wedges the system. Its odd (to me) that when macrium is set to automatic; that remotePC stops functioning.
Yea, though it is a different mix of products, seems that the commonality is the Delayed start setting. Hope MS is monitoring these types of threads and acknowledges that there is a problem.
Eleanor_LittleMicrosoft
Hello! Thank you for reporting these issues. It would be great if you could file these on feedback hub as well, it makes it easier for the owning dev teams to investigate and look into these issues.
Replying to my own post as I have a resolution to the issue. Actually have to give credit to Ninja support. They provided a reference to a Reddit post that had the solution. Being that Ninja also installs Splashtop, the issue reported in other posts, although related to Syncro & Atera applies to Ninja as well as they all use Splashtop (although Ninja has their own Remote app that is awesome, haven't used Splashtop since starting using their remote app)...but I digress.
Setting the Splashtop Remote Service to either Disabled or Automatic (Delayed) and rebooting the machine resolves the issue. .MSI packages will now install / uninstall normally. Also, while the issue with the machine's NIC network category automatically being set to Public upon reboot still remains, running the script mentioned before now executes correctly in Task Scheduler. So the Splashtop issue also affected the scheduled task.References:
Primary post that helped resolved the issue: https://www.reddit.com/r/syncro/comments/1j26412/splashtop_appears_to_break_windows_server_2025/Others:
https://www.reddit.com/r/WindowsServer/comments/1j261uc/splashtop_win_server_2025_dc/
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/2191037/agents-not-communication-after-promoting-a-server?forum=windowserver-all&referrer=answers&page=1#answers
https://www.reddit.com/r/WindowsServer/comments/1iq9b4f/applications_wont_install_2025/
