Exchange 2013 readiness check fails – The windows component Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra isn’t installed on this computer

I was trying to install Exchange 2013 SP1 on a freshly installed Windows 2016 server when I received an error running the Exchange 2013 readiness checks.

Error:
The Windows component Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra isn’t installed on this computer and needs to be installed before Exchange Setup can begin.

For more information, visit: http://technet.microsoft.com/library(EXCHG.150)/ms.exch.setupreadiness.ServerGuiMgmtInfraNotInstalled.aspx

Exchange 2013 readiness error

When clicking on the link for more information I received the helpful information:

“Sorry, but we haven’t added content for this Exchange 2013 readiness check yet”.

Exchange readiness error’s hyperlink page shows there is no content.

After double checking everything, I found out Microsoft Exchange 2013 is not supported on Windows Server 2016.  Windows Server 2016 only supports Microsoft Exchange 2016 CU3 (and presumably later).

Workaround

Unfortunately, there are only two options. Downgrade your Windows 2016 licence to Windows 2012 R2, as I did, or go for Exchange 2016 CU3.

I hope this post helps someone find a quick answer to the issue rather than trawling the internet for hours. Why can’t the installer just tell you that it is not compatible!

Let me know if there are any other workarounds or if this helped you in the comments below,

Check out other Exchange 2013 fixes here

Thanks

Ian