Welcome to part three in my series about Windows Multipoint Server. In this post I’ll be outlining the steps to setup a Windows Multipoint Server (WMS). If you have installed Windows Server before, the process should be fairly straight forward with just a few added steps.

 

WMS comes as a complete Operating System package from Microsoft, so when you obtain it, you’ll get an ISO from which you will install WMS on a bare system or virtual machine. If you have installed Windows Server or any other OS, this should be a very familiar process. WMS 2012 is based on Windows Server 2012.

 

From here, you’ll want to do all the normal configuration things you would do with a server: Windows Updates, Join Domain, etc. For Licensing, you probably already activated the server during the install process, but you’ll also want to add Client Access Licenses in the Multipoint Manager.

 

Next, you’ll want to configure a couple of User Groups. The Administrators group has an additional function in WMS; anyone in this group will have access to the Multipoint Manager console. You will probably just want anyone who will manage the server in this group. The WMS Operators group grants access to the Multipoint Dashboard. I would recommend adding your AD Security group that contains your Teachers (and staff possibly) to this group. If you are in a Workgroup environment, you’ll just want to make sure to add individual users here. Users can also be managed from within the Multipoint Manager if you are in a Workgroup environment.

 

If you are using Network Zero Clients (which I highly recommend), you’ll want to install the manufacturer’s driver. This should add an extra tab in the Multipoint Manager called Network Stations. I’ll cover the Zero Client setup in a separate post.

 

Once you have all the software you want your users to run on the server, you’ll want to do just a couple more things. In the Multipoint manager, configure software update settings. You really just want to set the schedule to make the server reboot every night. Finally, enable Disk Protection and your configuration is locked in. Every night the server will reboot and return to its happy state!

 

Feel free to comment or contact my company if you are running into trouble with the installation process!

 

Michael Richardson – I’m an IT Systems Analyst / Project Manager for Midwest Data Center, a former IT Salesman, and a Youth Pastor at my local church. I live in Maryville, MO and I enjoy learning and implementing new technologies for businesses, solving problems and puzzles, and teaching about my faith.