We have been running Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials on a WD Sentinel appliance since 2015, and it's generally been very good as a backup appliance.
But back in April of 2021 I had some corruption in the backup database, so I had to delete the Client Backups folder on the server and start over, which meant reinstalling the client connector on all 20+ client machines, which are a mix of Win7/64 Pro and Win10/64 Pro. We got all the clients reconnected except for one, which happens to be my machine :-(
When I download the connector software from the WS2012R2E machine, it fails with the error, "Windows Server Client Deployment Wizard has stopped working"
Info and things that I've tried without success:
I am logged in as a user with Admin privs. In fact I'm a domain admin.
All the target machines belong to a different domain than the WS2012R2E machine, but I've added the "skip domain join" registry entry prior to the installation attempts.
I've uninstalled the Connector software from the Installed Updates section of the Control Panel before starting the installation procedure.
I've attempted the installation procedure both by downloading a fresh copy of the Connector from the server's web page and by re-running the dowloaded installer. Both fail.
If I uninstall the Connector software and re-download it, I can accept the license terms, and then it performs "downloading connector software" for 30-60 seconds before crashing.
If I don't uninstall the Connector software, and I just re-run the downloaded copy, it crashes almost instantly after I accept the license terms.
I've disabled Webroot, my antivirus software
I've run sfc /scannow, which reported no errors
I've run Windows Update and installed all available updates
I've run pcwUpdateRepair, which is a German-language version of the AU Check utility originally written by Microsoft's Gary Bowers
I've tried with IPv6 turned off and then again with it turned back on. No difference.
I've tried with my PC's IPv4 DNS server manually entered as the WS2012R2E machine's address. No difference.
I've rebooted about a million times.
This was working from January 2015 until April 2021, so there's no fundamental platform incompatibility. I have at least 5 other client machines that are running Win7/64 Pro that are successfully connected to the server and backing up on a daily basis. All the Win7/64 Pro clients have all available Windows updates installed, and all are running the same Webroot anti malware, so there's no fundamental incompatibility there, either.
So there's something unique to my machine, but I can't figure out what it is.
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Server\Logs\ClientDeploy.log
contains the following:
[5228] 210708.115345.3153: ClientSetup: Start of ClientDeploy---------------------------------------------------------
[5228] 210708.115346.1030: General: Initializing...C:\Windows\system32\Essentials\ClientDeploy.exe
[5228] 210708.115346.1339: ClientSetup: Create client deployment registry subkey if necessary
[5228] 210708.115346.2266: ClientSetup: !!!FATAL!!! Unhandled Exception: System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'System.Core, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
File name: 'System.Core, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089'
at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.ClientSetup.ClientDeploy.WizData.Load(String[] programArgs)
at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.ClientSetup.ClientDeploy.Program.Main()
WRN: Assembly binding logging is turned OFF.
To enable assembly bind failure logging, set the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog] (DWORD) to 1.
Note: There is some performance penalty associated with assembly bind failure logging.
To turn this feature off, remove the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog].
---------------------------------------------------------
Any suggestions?