How to Install RSAT on Windows 11

Windows 11 offers a range of exciting features and improvements, but for IT professionals, one of the most significant advantages is the ability to install Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) directly from the operating system. In this article, we'll explore how to install RSAT on Windows 11 and what you need to know before doing so.

First, let's take a step back and talk about my personal experience with installing Windows 11 under Parallels with an M1 chip. As I'm also in the process of setting up Visual Studio 2022, I've encountered some potential issues that may be relevant to your own experience. For instance, my fingerprint reader doesn't work, which suggests that Microsoft may have fixed a related problem in the Dev version.

One of the biggest challenges I expect to face with RSAT is device drivers. On the retail version, Outlook hangs at startup after installing Kutools. Fortunately, I've found one product that installs fine on the Dev version but fails on the retail version: Kutools for Outlook. The good news is that the Dev version feels slightly faster, although this may be just my imagination.

So far, the retail version seems to work well. To set up my virtual machine (VM), I created a new user account on my Mac and then created the VM from that account. Due to lack of access to my main account's Documents folder, I had to transfer the VM between accounts using an external drive, which wasn't a big deal.

There are some workarounds available for getting around this issue, such as creating an empty VM and installing Windows into it. However, this approach failed for me, likely due to a bug in Windows that causes it to only partially delete the user account. This results in the default user appearing on the login screen, requiring multiple keystrokes or clicks to access the desired user ID.

To resolve this issue, I created a new Administrator user and deleted the one set up by Parallels. Unfortunately, this caused hundreds of pathnames in my Windows apps to become invalid. During the retail install process, I was able to correct an annoying problem: Parallels sets up the initial Administrator account using my Mac username, which isn't the same as my Windows username.

I rebuilt the ISO on my big Windows Intel desktop C drive and installed it without issues. On the first try, I ran the scripts on the C drive of my Dev VM. The great thing about VMs is that I was able to build a new VM with the retail version and keep the Dev version for testing purposes.

In conclusion, installing RSAT on Windows 11 is a straightforward process that offers many benefits for IT professionals. By following these steps, you can ensure a successful installation and start enjoying the features and improvements offered by this latest version of Windows.

Install rsat windows 11