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In December 2023, the Windows Admin Center modernized gateway was released to public preview through the Windows Server Insider program. This release is in addition to the latest generally available release of Windows Admin Center, version 2311.
The modernized gateway is a significant backend upgrade of the Windows Admin Center product. The Windows Admin Center backend hosts the authorization structure, PowerShell services, and gateway plug-ins and plays a critical role in every Windows Admin Center experience.
The biggest upgrade in this release is the backend upgrade from .NET framework 4.6.2 to .NET Core. This upgrade brings enhanced performance, security, and improved cryptography. It also includes support for HTTP/2, reducing latency and enhancing the responsiveness of Windows Admin Center.
While modernizing our gateway, we also made the installer more flexible by providing increased customization options including network access settings, selecting trusted hosts, providing a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) for your gateway machine, and more. For more details about the installer, read on to the Installing the modernized gateway section.
The modernized gateway also uses microservice architecture. Prior to this upgrade, Windows Admin Center performed all tasks in a single process. With this new model, we start one process for Windows Admin Center on application startup that serves as a process manager. As you use Windows Admin Center, more subprocesses are spun up to perform specific tasks.
Additionally, gateway plug-ins that are compatible with the modernized gateway will also run their own collection of subprocesses under the Windows Admin Center service manager to perform their functions.
Changing from a monolithic service to a microservice model helps the modernized gateway be more flexible, scalable, and resilient.
Previously, Windows Admin Center utilized Katana components, including a web server, on the backend. With the modernized gateway, we’ve shifted to an ASP.NET Core Kestrel web server.
Kestrel is the recommended web server for ASP.NET Core applications. Additionally, Kestrel supports the HTTP/2 web protocol, where previously we had only supported HTTP1.1 with the Katana components. The upgrade from HTTP1.1 to HTTP/2 brings reduced latency to our application and increased responsiveness through enhanced features like multiplexing and server push.
Gateway plug-in extensions are most impacted by the changes to our modernized gateway. Windows Admin Center gateway plug-ins enable API communication from the UI of your tool or solution to a target node. Windows Admin Center hosts a gateway service that relays commands and scripts from gateway plug-ins to be executed on target nodes. The gateway service can be extended to include custom gateway plug-ins that support protocols other than the default ones (PowerShell and WMI).
Because gateway plug-ins communicate with Windows Admin Center’s backend to enable API communication, gateway plug-in code can include components written with the .NET framework version 4.6.2, which won't function with .NET Core. This code needs to be updated to use the .NET Core framework.
Additionally, we've modified the way plug-ins work with our modernized gateway. Instead of developing a C# class that implements the IPlugIn
interface from the Microsoft.ManagementExperience.FeatureInterfaces
namespace to extend the gateway plug-in, extensions will now be written in the form of ASP.NET MVC controllers. These controllers have increased flexibility compared to the simple C# class and extensive documentation.
View our developer documentation to learn more about gateway plug-in development in Windows Admin Center.
With our modernized gateway, we’ve made changes to our installer to offer more flexibility to the user.
When running the installer, you're presented with three different installation modes: express localhost setup, express remote setup, and custom setup.
If you would like to configuration options for internal and external network ports, endpoint FQDN, WinRM over HTTPS, and more, continue to the Custom setup section. If you're okay with the defaults, continue to the Express setup options section.
Two of the three installation modes for the modernized gateway are express modes—express localhost setup and express remote setup. Express localhost setup can also be referred to as local client setup. For all other installation types, use express remote setup. Both express setup options don't allow for the configuration of the following features:
If you would like to configure any of these features, use the Custom setup option instead.
If you select the express localhost setup option, WAC will be accessible through port 6600 and will use internal ports 6601-6610.
If you select the express remote setup option, WAC will be accessible through port 443 and will use internal ports 6601-6610.
Selecting custom setup allows you to configure all Windows Admin Center setup options, including:
If your installation failed, or Windows Admin Center fails to open after install, try uninstalling and reinstalling. This issue can also happen if you have an older version of a modernized gateway build installed, and you're trying to update to a newer version. To uninstall, follow the instructions in the Uninstalling the modernized gateway section.
The extension feed for the modernized gateway isn't configured. Extensions not included in the Windows Admin Center installer, including external partner extensions, aren't available unless you add an extension feed.
The following extensions are available upon install of the modernized gateway build:
There are some extensions that won't function even when they're added as part of a new extension feed. For more information, see Known issues.
If you have to uninstall the Windows Admin Center modernized gateway, perform one of the following actions:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Windows Admin Center (v2)
) and select Uninstall Windows Admin Center (v2)C:\Program Files\WindowsAdminCenter\unins000.exe
Running the installer again doesn't provide an uninstall option at this time. To ensure your installation was removed successfully, check if a WindowsAdminCenter folder exists in C:\ProgramData
or C:\Program Files
. If it doesn't exist in either location, your application is successfully uninstalled.
During the uninstallation process, everything put on the machine during installation is removed, apart from the Windows Admin Center modernized gateway .exe installer file. If you have another build of Windows Admin Center also installed at the time of your modernized gateway uninstallation, no files or properties of the other build are touched during the uninstallation process. There are no interdependencies between the two installations.
There are the following known issues in the modernized gateway build of Windows Admin Center.
If you encounter an issue not described on this page, let us know. To help us address the issue, specify that the issue was occurring in the modernized gateway build.
The account for the PowerShell session in this tool always defaults to the user signed into the Windows Admin Center gateway, even if different management credentials were specified when remoting to a connection.
Even with an added extension feed, the following extensions currently don't work with the modernized gateway:
Find answers to the frequently asked questions about using the Windows Admin Center modernized gateway.
Yes, you can install a modernized gateway build of Windows Admin Center side-by-side with a legacy gateway build as long as you don't choose the same ports for both installations.
Yes, In the Program Files for Windows Admin Center, we’ve included a PowerShell module called Microsoft.WindowsAdminCenter.Configuration.psm1
. This module allows you to modify your WAC configuration after installation and can be found in the PowerShellModules folder of your installation (C:\Program Files\WindowsAdminCenter\PowerShellModules\
by default).
To change the ports your Windows Admin Center instance is using, run the following command:
Set-WACHttpsPort -Wacport <port> -ServicePortRangeStart <port> -ServicePortRangeEnd <port>
Yes, you can use the PowerShell module Microsoft.WindowsAdminCenter.Configuration.psm1
to change your configuration settings. It can be found in the PowerShellModules folder of your installation.
To ensure the best quality experience, we require customer and developer feedback before these changes are made generally available.
Yes. Read more about the 2311 release of Windows Admin Center.
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Get Started with Windows Admin Center
Get started with Windows Admin Center after you download and install it on a Windows PC.
Windows Admin Center release history
A summary of the history of Windows Admin Center releases, including links to download them.
What type of installation is right for you
This topic describes the different installation options for Windows Admin Center, including installing on a Windows 10 PC or a Windows server for use by multiple admins.