- Jun 30, 2004
- 15,726
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Imagine me standing at the freeway entrance with a sign which says "Homeless -- need spare change". Here, my sign is -- Windows Server and Win 10 -- NEED HELP!!
Maybe I could sort this out on my own over time, but I don't have time. VirtualLarry will tell you I'm working through a hardware problem on one computer. A pile of my time and energy goes toward taking care of my 97-year-old Moms, who is bed-bound. I'm trying to re-deploy, de-commission or recycle three older computers in a house where there were once three active users, four workstations and my server. My brother died in January, my Moms stopped using her computer daily at end of 2016 as her dementia suddenly became noticeable to us as we tried to figure out what was happening. A few years back, these machines were set up with Windows Media Center and some HDHomeRun tuners. Support for the cable-cards declined from our Tv-internet-and-telephone provider. After that, I was using Moms' computer to give her television through the web-browser, but I finally got some ROKU devices and we're all set up -- especially Moms. So now, there is one computer user, three computers (including a laptop now), and the server.
KNowing that i could get the server to backup my Win 10 systems (three of the others were still under Win 7), I went through the process of deleting three user accounts and those computers with their backups from the Server (Win 2012 Essentials R2). So far, no injury to the server and all is good with that.
The remaining PCs and my laptop were "Devices" in the server's Dashboard list. I decided to delete them as well with their backups so I could add them back in and start fresh. I need to keep the server because it contains a lot of important information, a collection of music/audio files, and nearly a terabyte of movies and TV recordings. Eventually, I will accommodate myself to keeping my data and backups in a simpler way, but I'm not going to work through all that right now. The server STAYS, for now.
Once the cleanup and deletions had been done, I came downstairs to reinstall Windows 2012 Connector software. Here's where I have dirty and terrible things to say to microsoft about their g**D**n "Microsoft Account" requirements, when you already have LAN logins for your server workgroup or domain. On one of my machines -- one currently under repair -- I set it up so the existing local account continued, but it would still login and connect to my MS account online. This other machine which I'm using at the moment (during the repairs) had been a Win 7 until I installed Win 10 on it a few days ago. Somehow, it took a different path and made my MS account the main account. I was still able to access the server and my files in the "Shared Folders". But now -- I can't.
So far, on the first workstation to be reconnected -- the PC reinstalled with Win 10 over the Win 7 configuration -- It seemed that the MS account somehow prevailed, but I had been able to successfully complete the server connector installation because the machine had still been among devices on the server. But after deleting devices and accounts, the Connector software gives me the following error message and fails to install:
"This computer is already connected to another windows server network. Before connecting this computer to the windows server essentials network, you must remove the computer from the current network. To resolve the issue, contact the person responsible for your network."
My first and last name are associated with my e-mail address, which is the MS Account ID on that system. My first and last name are also my primary local workgroup/domain account ID. I suspect this will also be a problem on the two remaining machines, so I want to resolve it for this system before moving on. And as I said, all the "computer names" have been deleted from the Server "Devices" list.
I have been poking around for answers. Here's what I observe so far.
I can "unlink" a machine name from my MS Account online under the web-page "Manage my Account" link.
Just exploring without "executing", the MS account management page says this:
Remove your device
Once you remove your device, you won’t see it here anymore. Here's what else will happen:
Find my device will be turned off
So I would wonder if I might be able to "re-link" the system to the account, once I have this problem with the server resolved.
Another thing I might do is to establish a different account name for my local workgroup/domain server. Generally, if I give myself "administrator" privileges, it will still allow me access to my frequently used folders and data on the server, although some of those folders may have more specific permissions for access that I've taken for granted. This might mean poking around the "Advanced" sharing and permissions folders in Win 2012 to make some changes -- an annoyance and extra work.
Even so, and hopefully -- I might then be able to install the Connector software on my workstations.
I don't have a lot of time, and I don't need to be correcting mistakes after getting into a morass by following this or that possible fix.
Can someone give me some advice about this, and save me some time and trouble? I may actually be playing dumb here, but I'd like some input from some other veterans before proceeding. If I screw something up, it will take more time and energy to fix it. Being the Diaper Handler and Short-Order Cook, House-keeper, Financial Manager, Gardener, Car Repair guy and medical appointment scheduler takes a lot of that energy and time. If you've heard it before and want to tell me "Stop whining!", I think I should be whining even more. Sometimes, I get some sleep. To-DAYYY! -- I took a shower. The last one was about four weeks ago . . .
Maybe I could sort this out on my own over time, but I don't have time. VirtualLarry will tell you I'm working through a hardware problem on one computer. A pile of my time and energy goes toward taking care of my 97-year-old Moms, who is bed-bound. I'm trying to re-deploy, de-commission or recycle three older computers in a house where there were once three active users, four workstations and my server. My brother died in January, my Moms stopped using her computer daily at end of 2016 as her dementia suddenly became noticeable to us as we tried to figure out what was happening. A few years back, these machines were set up with Windows Media Center and some HDHomeRun tuners. Support for the cable-cards declined from our Tv-internet-and-telephone provider. After that, I was using Moms' computer to give her television through the web-browser, but I finally got some ROKU devices and we're all set up -- especially Moms. So now, there is one computer user, three computers (including a laptop now), and the server.
KNowing that i could get the server to backup my Win 10 systems (three of the others were still under Win 7), I went through the process of deleting three user accounts and those computers with their backups from the Server (Win 2012 Essentials R2). So far, no injury to the server and all is good with that.
The remaining PCs and my laptop were "Devices" in the server's Dashboard list. I decided to delete them as well with their backups so I could add them back in and start fresh. I need to keep the server because it contains a lot of important information, a collection of music/audio files, and nearly a terabyte of movies and TV recordings. Eventually, I will accommodate myself to keeping my data and backups in a simpler way, but I'm not going to work through all that right now. The server STAYS, for now.
Once the cleanup and deletions had been done, I came downstairs to reinstall Windows 2012 Connector software. Here's where I have dirty and terrible things to say to microsoft about their g**D**n "Microsoft Account" requirements, when you already have LAN logins for your server workgroup or domain. On one of my machines -- one currently under repair -- I set it up so the existing local account continued, but it would still login and connect to my MS account online. This other machine which I'm using at the moment (during the repairs) had been a Win 7 until I installed Win 10 on it a few days ago. Somehow, it took a different path and made my MS account the main account. I was still able to access the server and my files in the "Shared Folders". But now -- I can't.
So far, on the first workstation to be reconnected -- the PC reinstalled with Win 10 over the Win 7 configuration -- It seemed that the MS account somehow prevailed, but I had been able to successfully complete the server connector installation because the machine had still been among devices on the server. But after deleting devices and accounts, the Connector software gives me the following error message and fails to install:
"This computer is already connected to another windows server network. Before connecting this computer to the windows server essentials network, you must remove the computer from the current network. To resolve the issue, contact the person responsible for your network."
My first and last name are associated with my e-mail address, which is the MS Account ID on that system. My first and last name are also my primary local workgroup/domain account ID. I suspect this will also be a problem on the two remaining machines, so I want to resolve it for this system before moving on. And as I said, all the "computer names" have been deleted from the Server "Devices" list.
I have been poking around for answers. Here's what I observe so far.
I can "unlink" a machine name from my MS Account online under the web-page "Manage my Account" link.
Just exploring without "executing", the MS account management page says this:
Remove your device
Once you remove your device, you won’t see it here anymore. Here's what else will happen:
Find my device will be turned off
So I would wonder if I might be able to "re-link" the system to the account, once I have this problem with the server resolved.
Another thing I might do is to establish a different account name for my local workgroup/domain server. Generally, if I give myself "administrator" privileges, it will still allow me access to my frequently used folders and data on the server, although some of those folders may have more specific permissions for access that I've taken for granted. This might mean poking around the "Advanced" sharing and permissions folders in Win 2012 to make some changes -- an annoyance and extra work.
Even so, and hopefully -- I might then be able to install the Connector software on my workstations.
I don't have a lot of time, and I don't need to be correcting mistakes after getting into a morass by following this or that possible fix.
Can someone give me some advice about this, and save me some time and trouble? I may actually be playing dumb here, but I'd like some input from some other veterans before proceeding. If I screw something up, it will take more time and energy to fix it. Being the Diaper Handler and Short-Order Cook, House-keeper, Financial Manager, Gardener, Car Repair guy and medical appointment scheduler takes a lot of that energy and time. If you've heard it before and want to tell me "Stop whining!", I think I should be whining even more. Sometimes, I get some sleep. To-DAYYY! -- I took a shower. The last one was about four weeks ago . . .