We had a
customer in the store the other day asking if he could run Windows Server 2016
at home. He got a free copy from someone he worked with and wanted to use it on
his home computer. It was a legit copy and cheaper than buying a Windows 10
license. So can he use it?
The short
answer is yes if the license is legit. The longer answer is that you will go
without certain quality of life features in Windows 10 if you do. We tried it
here at Dave’s Computers in New Jersey when Windows 10 first came out and got
most things working but it did take a lot of configuring to do it.
If you want
to run Windows Server 2016 and are fortunate enough to have a license, it
installs the same as Windows 10, looks very similar and will have a similar
feel too. There the similarities end. Windows Server 2016 is designed for use
as a server and not a desktop. You will need to load the Server Desktop version
and learn now to use server roles.
You will
also need to enable things like WiFi if you have it and some audio and graphics
features. Server Manager within Windows Server 2016 can help with this.
As drivers
have matured, most will now work with Windows Server 2016. That means your
graphics driver, audio driver, network card driver, motherboard driver and so
on should work. If they have Windows 10 versions, those same versions should
work with Server.
However,
some programs and many games will not work, or will not work flawlessly on Windows
Server 2016. Some programs will not work with the server OS while others won’t
work properly. Not all games will correctly recognize Windows Server 2016 and
not work either.
If you’re
not a gamer and use basic programs, you should be fine. As long as you familiarize
yourself with Server Manager and server roles, you could be up and running in a
short space of time. Windows Server 2016 uses less disk space and fewer
resources than Windows 10 but doesn’t have the bells and whistles of the
latter. If you can live without those, you should be fine!
One final
thing about running Windows Server 2016 at home. You may be used to automatic
updates, apps that update themselves, Cortana and easy downloads and updates.
All these things will be slightly more difficult with Windows Server 2016. It
is regularly updated but not as often as Windows 10. It needs to be configured
for automatic updates too. There is no Cortana, although that might be a good
thing and you have to authorize and manually enable the ability to download
from the internet.
If you can
live with those too, you can use Windows Server 2016 at home.