Kayot's questions

First off, I apologize if this is the wrong *fault section for this question.

I'm in a small shop with 13 computers. 12 are running Windows 7 Pro (until they fix roaming profile start menus) and one is running Server 2012r2 (2016 once it comes out). We need 12 copies of Microsoft Office Professional. The average cost per copy is $400 on newegg since we need Access.

I'm trying to understand how volume licencing works. I'm a pirate turned IT Admin so this whole legitimate thing is new to me. If I wanted to get 12 licences for 12 computers that will be used by an unknown number of people, how would I do that. Also can I put SQL Server 2016 and eventually Server 2016 on it and if so how.

My final question is, would I be better off just buying the copies from Newegg instead and forget about using Volume Licencing all together?

What would cost the least?

I feel like VL is more for businesses having more systems than licences where less than every system is in use. So any help would be great.

Edit:

You know, marking this as a duplicate once was enough. Hitting me four times is just rude. I can't make comments anymore. This just discourages new people from asking questions. Also, the listed article was just as helpful as the listed answer. The real answer to those who are viewing this question is simple.

Don't ask for Volume License related question on Stack. Call your Microsoft License Dealer in your local area. You'll avoid a reputation beat down and get a real answer.

With Windows Server Backup after every backup, the server puts an exclusion in the Deduplication list for the backup folder. Is there a way to stop this behavior?

If not, is there a way to get Powershell to remove the exclusion?

Edit: The Powershell command is;

Set-DedupVolume -Volume Y: -ExcludeFolder {}

I'd prefer to prevent this behavior if possible.

I have never setup an Exchange server before.

I am trying to setup an Exchange 2016 server.

I got the pre-reqs setup; .NET 4.5.2 Microsoft Unified Communications Managed API 4.0 Core Runtime 64-bit.exe

I did the setup, checked off MailBox role and told it to install all the pre-reqs that it could do on it's own.

The only warnings I got were about Exchange 2010 roles no longer being able to install.

Now I'm at post setup. I was able to log in to the webpage portal and I can configure anything in there since I'm the administrator.

--- The Problem ---

So, what now?

This is a test network;

192.168.1.1 - Linksys Router
192.168.1.2 - Server 2012r2 Active Directory Domain Controller, DNS, DHCP
192.168.1.3 - Server 2012r2 with Exchange 2016
129.168.1.100 - Client PC (Win 10)

ADDC Settings:
Domain is named ad.testbed.com
NetBios is named testbed
Server is named Core

All firewalls disabled

I'm trying to get Thunderbird to access the Exchange server, with no success. I've tried doing a manual configuration.

I added a user (Kayot) to both the ADDC and setup an email account through the portal.

Settings I've tried:

imap.ad.testbed.com/192.168.1.3 Auto/993 Autodetect/SSL/TLS Autodetect/Normal password
smtp.ad.testbed.com/192.168.1.3 Auto/465 Autodetect/SSL/TLS Autodetect/Normal password

I also tried using Outlook 2003 with Exchange as the mail server.

I created a public folder mailbox to fix an issue where I couldn't link the Exchange to my Outlook program. Issue: "Your Administrator has blocked this version of Outlook"

I keep loosing connection to the server. When I click on the mailbox it says the folder can't be accessed.

I am completely lost. I feel that if I could get Thunderbird to link to the Exchange server then I would be one step closer to figuring out this mess.

I can get hmailserver (I swap OS Harddisks) to connect with the following settings:

192.168.1.3 Auto Autodetect Autodetect
192.168.1.3 Auto Autodetect Autodetect

So I'm stumped. Tutorials for Exchange do the setup only, or are for things that come with a more complex setup. This is a single system connected to an Active Directory system and being accessed by a single client machine. Nothing special. I want to access it internally first to make sure it works. I feel I am missing some simple step.

How do I use StandAlone on WDS without a Domain?

The Client asks for a Domain Login when I boot to PXE. My server is running in StandAlone mode which I though would bypass this requirement.

I've read tutorials, but they require a lot of wim editing, registry settings, and don't apply to Windows Server 2012 r2. Most are three plus years old.

I'm avoiding a Domain since this is a home setup and every person has their own machine. They don't want the scenario of the AD DC going down and being stuck without a computer. These are personal computers. We run a PXE server to avoid looking for DVD's and risking a bad disc. Plus it gives the file server other helpful uses.

-- Origin Problem --

Right now I'm using pxelinux though a third party tFTP server with PXE support. I have a WinPE DVD Image loading via memdisk which has the command to smb to a folder on the server and execute a bat file that is a menu for the various Windows Installs we use. In short, it's a dirty solution.

I want to use WDS so that I can drop a ton of files and clean up the system. I like the idea of using WIM files, but linuxpxe doesn't like them and I haven't figured out how. I'd also like to drop third party tftp software.