Important note before I continue: The SMTP stack in Windows is a legacy of the old IIS6 service that was part of Windows 2003. As such, it is long out of support but it is still available in Windows 2022. You can use it, but it’s your own risk and there’s no support.

You can install the Windows SMTP Service on Windows 2022 using the following command:

Install-WindowsFeature -Name SMTP-Server,Telnet-Client -IncludeAllSubFeature -IncludeManagementTools -Restart

But when trying to manage the SMTP service, the MMC span-in crashes.

There’s an easy way to fix this by editing the MetaBase.xml file. Run the following commands:

Stop-Service SMTPsvc
Stop-Service IISAdmin

Under the IIsSmtpServer node, add a new line RelayIPList=”” as shown in the following screenshot:

Start the services again using the following PowerShell commands:

Start-Service IISAdmin
Start-Service SMTPsvc
Set-Service SMTPsvc -StartupType Automatic

You can use the last command to set the startup mode of the SMTP service to automatic (manual is the default setting).

You SMTP Service on Windows 2022 can now be managed using the MMC snap-in.