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Install Server Core App Compatibility Feature on Demand

The Server Core App Compatibility Feature on Demand (FOD) is an optional feature package designed to enhance the compatibility of Server Core installations in Windows Server. Starting with Windows Server 2019, you can install this feature at any time to improve app compatibility and provide extra tools for daily tasks. This article explains the benefits of App Compatibility, outlines its installation process, and provides instructions for adding it to a server or a custom Windows image.

For more information on other Features on Demand, see Features On Demand.

Why install App Compatibility

App Compatibility for Server Core improves app compatibility by including a subset of binaries and packages from the Server with Desktop Experience installation option. This optional package is available from Windows Update or on a separate ISO, but it can only be added to Server Core installations and images.

The two primary benefits App Compatibility provides are:

  • Increased compatibility of Server Core for server applications.

  • Adding OS components not normally included with Server Core that can help with administration tasks and compatibility for software tools used in acute troubleshooting and debugging scenarios.

The operating system components that are available as part of the App Compatibility include:

Component Filename First available
Device Manager devmgmt.msc Windows Server 2019
Disk Management diskmgmt.msc Windows Server 2019
Event Viewer eventvwr.msc Windows Server 2019
Failover Cluster Manager cluadmin.msc Windows Server 2019
File Explorer explorer.exe Windows Server 2019
Hyper-V Manager virtmgmt.msc Windows Server 2022
Microsoft Management Console mmc.exe Windows Server 2019
Performance Monitor perfmon.exe Windows Server 2019
Resource Monitor resmon.exe Windows Server 2019
Task Scheduler taskschd.msc Windows Server 2022
Windows PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE) powershell_ise.exe Windows Server 2019

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure that you meet the following prerequisites:

  • App Compatibility can only be installed on Server Core installations of Windows Server. Don't attempt to add App Compatibility to the Server with Desktop Experience installation option.

  • You need to be signed in with an administrator account on the Server Core computer that you want to add the App Compatibility FOD to.

  • The following Windows Server features require extra configuration:

    • Failover Cluster Manager (cluadmin.msc) requires the Failover Clustering Windows Server feature to be installed first.
    • IIS Management Console (Web-Mgmt-Console) relies on App Compatibility to be installed, as it requires the Microsoft Management Console (mmc.exe) to run.

  • If you want to add App Compatibility to a custom Windows image (WIM), you need the ISO image file for the version of Windows Server you want to create a custom image for.

Install App Compatibility on Server Core

Installing the App Compatibility Feature on Demand involves adding a specialized package to your Server Core installation that provides extra tools and compatibility features normally found in Server with Desktop Experience.

The installation process depends on whether you want to install App Compatibility from Windows Update or an ISO image. You can install the feature directly from Windows Update by running a PowerShell command. For an ISO image, you need to download the relevant Windows Server Languages and Optional Features ISO, mount it locally, and install the feature from that source.

After you install App Compatibility and restart of the server, the command console window frame color changes to a different shade of blue.

Select the relevant tab for your preferred installation method.

To install App Compatibility on a Server Core installation of Windows Server from Windows Update:

  1. Sign in to the server with an administrator account.

  2. In SConfig, use option 15 to exit SConfig to PowerShell.

  3. Install the App Compatibility Feature on Demand by running the following command. The command takes several minutes to complete.

    Add-WindowsCapability -Online -Name "ServerCore.AppCompatibility~~~~0.0.1.0"

    The output is similar to the following example:

    Path          :
Online        : True
RestartNeeded : True

  4. Once the command completes, restart the server to apply the changes, then install the latest operating system updates.

Important

If you do an in-place upgrade of Windows Server to a newer version, App Compatibility doesn't remain in place. You need to install it again after the upgrade. Alternatively, you can add App Compatibility to a custom Windows image (WIM) that you use to install Windows Server. Adding App Compatibility to a custom image ensures that it's present after the upgrade completes. For more information, see Add App Compatibility to a custom WIM image section.

Add App Compatibility to a custom WIM image

If you add App Compatibility to a custom Windows image (WIM) and use that image to install Windows Server, App Compatibility is automatically installed during the installation process. It remains in place after an in-place upgrade of Windows Server to a newer version.

To add App Compatibility to a custom WIM image, follow these steps. Be sure to change <values> with your own.

  1. Download the ISO image file that contains Features on Demand for the version of Windows Server you want to create a custom image. Save the ISO image to a folder to the same folder where you have the Windows Server ISO image file. The ISO image is available for the following versions of Windows Server:

  2. Mount both the Languages and Optional Features ISO and the Windows Server ISO by running the following commands in an elevated PowerShell session:

    $isoFolder = "<ISO folder path>"
$fodIsoFilename = "<FOD_ISO_filename.iso>"
$wsIsoFilename = "<Windows_Server_ISO_filename.iso>"

$fodIso = Mount-DiskImage -ImagePath "$isoFolder\$fodIsoFilename"
$wsIso = Mount-DiskImage -ImagePath "$isoFolder\$wsIsoFilename"

  3. Run the following command to get the drive letters that the FOD ISO and Windows Server ISO are mounted to:

    $fodDriveLetter = ($fodIso | Get-Volume).DriveLetter
$wsDriveLetter = ($wsIso | Get-Volume).DriveLetter

  4. Copy the contents of the Windows Server ISO image to a local folder, for example, C:\SetupFiles\WindowsServer\Files, by running the following commands. The copy operation might take some time.

    $wsFiles = "<Windows Server files path>"
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $wsFiles

Copy-Item -Path ${wsDriveLetter}:\* -Destination $wsFiles -Recurse

  5. Get the image name you want to modify within the install.wim file by running the following command. The install.wim file is located inside the sources folder of the Windows Server ISO image. The names of the images available in this install.wim file are in the output.

    $installWimPath = "<Windows Server Files Path>\sources\install.wim"

Get-WindowsImage -ImagePath $installWimPath

  6. Mount the install.wim file in a new folder by running the following command:

    • $wimImageName - Enter the name of the image you want to mount from the output of the previous command. The example here uses Windows Server 2022 Datacenter.
    • $wimMountFolder - Specify an empty folder to use when accessing the contents of the install.wim file.
    $wimImageName = "<Image name, for example Windows Server 2022 Datacenter>"
$wimMountFolder = "<WIM folder path>"

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $wimMountFolder
Set-ItemProperty -Path $installWimPath -Name IsReadOnly -Value $false
Mount-WindowsImage -ImagePath $installWimPath -Name $wimImageName -Path $wimMountFolder

  7. Add the capabilities and packages you want to the mounted install.wim image by running the following commands (depending on the version), replacing the sample variable values with your own.

    • For Windows Server 2022 and later:

      $capabilityName = "ServerCore.AppCompatibility~~~~0.0.1.0"

Add-WindowsCapability -Path $wimMountFolder -Name $capabilityName -Source "${fodDriveLetter}:\LanguagesAndOptionalFeatures" -LimitAccess

    • For previous versions of Windows Server:

      $capabilityName = "ServerCore.AppCompatibility~~~~0.0.1.0"

Add-WindowsCapability -Path $wimMountFolder -Name $capabilityName -Source "${fodDriveLetter}:\" -LimitAccess

  8. Dismount and commit changes to the install.wim file by running the following command:

    Dismount-WindowsImage -Path $wimMountFolder -Save

You can now install Windows Server using the custom WIM image that has the App Compatibility feature included and it remains in place after an in-place upgrade of Windows Server to a newer version.

Install Internet Explorer 11 on Server Core

You can install Internet Explorer 11 on a Server Core installation of Windows Server 2022 and previous versions. Internet Explorer requires App Compatibility to be installed first. If you haven't already installed App Compatibility, see the Install App Compatibility on Server Core section. You don't need to install Internet Explorer to add App Compatibility.

Tip

In Windows Server 2022, although you can add Internet Explorer 11 to Server Core installations of Windows Server, Microsoft Edge should be used instead. Microsoft Edge has Internet Explorer mode (IE mode) built in, so you can access legacy Internet Explorer-based websites and applications straight from Microsoft Edge. For more information on the product lifecycle for Internet Explorer, see Lifecycle FAQ - Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge.

Select the relevant tab for your preferred installation method.

To install Internet Explorer 11 on a Server Core installation of Windows Server from Windows Update:

  1. Make sure you installed App Compatibility on the Server Core installation of Windows Server.

  2. Once again follow the steps in the section Install App Compatibility on a Server Core installation, but for step 3, run the following command instead:

    Add-WindowsCapability -Online -Name "Browser.InternetExplorer~~~~0.0.11.0"

    The output is similar to the following example:

    Path          :
Online        : True
RestartNeeded : True

  3. Once the command completes, restart the server to apply the changes, then install the latest operating system updates.

  4. After the server restarts, you can access Internet Explorer 11 by going back to a PowerShell prompt from SConfig, then running the following command:

    & "$env:ProgramFiles\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe"

Important

Double-clicking to open locally saved .htm files isn't supported. However, you can right-click and choose Open with Internet Explorer, or you can open it directly from Internet Explorer by selecting File, then Open and browsing to the file.