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 Windows OS Hub / Windows Server 2019 / How to Downgrade Windows Server Edition or License

June 19, 2023 Windows Server 2016Windows Server 2019Windows Server 2022

How to Downgrade Windows Server Edition or License

When we analyzed the server licenses in use, we found that one of the servers had a much more expensive edition of Windows Server Datacenter installed than the tasks running on the server required (no Hyper-V virtualization, S2D, Azure Stack, Storage Replica, etc.). It was considered to change (downgrade) the edition of the installed Windows Server 2019 Datacenter to Standard to save on more expensive licenses. We did not consider a clean reinstall of Windows Server because the server already has a number of roles configured and additional software installed that is strictly licensed to the operating system and hardware.

Contents:
  • Check Windows Server Edition
  • How to Downgrade Windows Server Datacenter to Windows Server Standard
  • Downgrade Rights: Windows Server 2022 to 2019/2016

Check Windows Server Edition

You can use the Control Panel to check which edition of Windows Server is installed on the host. Navigate to Control Panel –> System and Security -> System (or run the command: control /name Microsoft.System).

windows server 2019 datacenter edition

In this example, Windows Server 2019 Datacenter is installed on the host.

You can also view the version and edition of Windows from the command line:

systeminfo | findstr /B /C:"OS Name" /B /C:"OS Version"

or

wmic os get Caption, Version, BuildNumber, OSArchitecture

cmd: check windows server edition

Or with PowerShell:

Get-WindowsEdition –Online

get-windowsedition powershell

Get-ComputerInfo | select WindowsProductName, WindowsVersion, OsHardwareAbstractionLayer

The ServerDatacenter edition is installed on the host in this example.

You can use the Get-ADComputers cmdlet to get the edition of all the Windows Server hosts in an Active Directory domain:

Get-ADComputer -Filter {(Enabled -eq $True) -and (OperatingSystem -Like '*Windows Server*')} -Property * | Select-Object Name,OperatingSystem,OperatingSystemVersion

list windows server versions and edition in active directory

Learn how to get a list of Windows versions and builds in a domain.

How to Downgrade Windows Server Datacenter to Windows Server Standard

Previously, we discussed upgrading a Windows Server edition from lower to higher using DISM (see the post How to convert Windows Server Evaluation to Full). You can also do the reverse procedure by downgrading from Datacenter edition to Standard, keeping all your current settings, installed roles, and applications.

Important! Downgrading Windows Server from a higher edition to a lower one is not officially supported by Microsoft. The officially recommended method is to perform a clean re-install of the operating system. However, downgrading as described in this article works, although this is not officially supported.

Before performing a downgrade, we strongly recommend that you create a full image backup of your operating system (at least using Windows Server Backup).

You should also be careful if you are downgrading a Windows server with the ADDS domain controller role installed. It is recommended that you transfer FSMO roles from the Windows Server host (it is assumed that you have at least one additional domain controller) and demote it to a domain member server before downgrading. Back up your Domain Controller so that you can restore the DC from a backup in the event of a problem.

  1. On a host running Windows Server 2019 Datacenter, start Registry Editor and navigate to the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion;
  2. Check the values of the following REG_SZ parameters: EditionID = ServerDatacenter, ProductName = Windows Server 2019 Datacenter, CompositionEditionID=ServerDatacenter;
    The CompositionEditionID setting is present in the registry for Windows Server 2019 and Windows Server 2022. This registry parameter is missing in Windows Server 2016 and doesn’t need to be created manually.
      ServerDatacenter: view current edition registry registry
  3. Change the values as follows: EditionID and CompositionEditionIDto ServerStandard, ProductName to Windows Server 2019 Standard;
    It should be noted that there is a fairly rare edition of Windows Server Essentials available. To downgrade to Essential Edition, you must specify EditionID = ServerSolution.
    ; downgrade windows server edition via registry
  4. Close the Registry Editor;
    Do not restart the server after changing the values of the specified registry keys, otherwise, they will automatically revert to the previous values and you will get an error when trying to perform a downgrade in the next step “Your Files and Settings cannot be kept because you try to install an other version as the currently used“.
  5. Mount the Windows Server 2019 installation ISO image and run the setup wizard (setup.exe); run windows server 2016 setup wizard
  6. When you select the installation options in the Windows Server Setup window, select Upgrade and Windows Server 2019 Standard (Desktop Experience); downgrade to windows server standard
  7. Check the option Keep personal files and apps. If this option isn’t available and you get the message “You can’t keep Windows settings, personal files, and apps because your current version of Windows might be installed in a unsupported directory”, check the values of the ProgramFilesPath, ProgramFilesDir(x86), and ProgramW6432Dir registry parameters under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion registry key); update windows server edition - option Keep personal files and apps
  8. Click the Confirm button for each item found. In my case, the first item said that a Windows Server upgrade is not recommended, and it was better to clean install the OS, and the second one said that PnP and RemoteFX USB device redirection was disabled by default in this Windows version; windows server upgrade is not recommended
  9. Start the Windows Server offline upgrade process. Wait for it to finish, and after a few restarts, check that Windows 2019 Standard Edition is now running on the host.downgrade windows server 2019 datacenter to standard

This downgrade method works for all supported versions of Windows Server (2012R2/2016/2019/2022).

For desktop operating system versions (Windows 10, 11, etc.), you can also change editions without reinstalling.

Downgrade Rights: Windows Server 2022 to 2019/2016

Microsoft license agreements allow you to use earlier versions of Windows Server if you have a license for a newer version of the product (downgrade rights). For example, if you have the required commercial licenses for Windows Server 2022, you can run Windows Server 2019 and 2016.

To activate a previous version of Windows Server through a downgrade, you need to get a valid product key from your Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC) account. If you do not have such a key, you can contact Microsoft support to generate a product key under the downgrade right.

If you have deployed a KMS service to activate Windows Server, you can install Windows Server with a public GVLK key and then activate your host on KMS. In this case, you do not need to contact Microsoft Support (see the Key Management Service/KMS Activation FAQ).

It is not possible to perform an in-place downgrade of an already installed Windows operating system version. This means that if you have Windows Server 2022 installed but need Windows Server 2016 for legacy compatibility, you will not be able to downgrade your deployed operating system version. You will need to perform a fresh installation of Windows Server 2016 and activate it with the appropriate product key.

You must also downgrade your RDS CALs when you downgrade the Windows Server version if you have Remote Desktop Services deployed.

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