WinCC V7 AS-OS Separation: Copying HMI Projects Without STEP 7

Overview

Siemens WinCC V7.x projects developed with STEP 7 V5.4 SP5 HF1 (or any SIMATIC Manager-based STEP 7) normally bind to the SIMATIC software stack on the engineering PC. When the HMI portion must be copied to a second PC that does not have STEP 7 installed — for example a permanent runtime station, a test bench, or a customer's office PC — the default project activation fails with a user-rights or component-not-found error. The fix is to enable the Allow activation on ES option on the source PC before copying the WinCC project folder.

This reference covers the full AS-OS separation workflow: the underlying engineering principle, the WinCC V7 project architecture that creates the dependency, the exact configuration steps, Windows security prerequisites, and a verification checklist. It applies to WinCC V7.0, V7.2, V7.3, V7.4 SP1, and the corresponding WinCC/Options packages. The same logical path also works for WinCC V7 Documentation (Siemens Support entry ID 109747175) chapters Working with WinCC > Working with Projects > Copying and Duplicating Projects.

AS-OS Engineering Concept

The terms AS (Automation Station) and OS (Operator Station) come from the IEC 61131-3 and ISA-88 control-hierarchy vocabulary that Siemens adopted in SIMATIC. They map directly onto:

The principle is a direct industrial analog of separation of concerns: the AS handles deterministic control logic, the OS handles operator-facing visualization and supervision, and each subsystem can be engineered, commissioned, and maintained independently. In STEP 7 V5.x this is enforced by storing AS data in S7P/S7L files and OS data in a separate WinCC project tree that is referenced from the STEP 7 project through an @ prefix integration path.

The Windows file-system rule that C:\Windows is reserved for the OS while applications live in dedicated directories (described in Microsoft Learn's guidance on separating OS from applications) mirrors the same concept at OS level: do not couple a runtime image to the engineering toolchain unless you intend to engineer on it.

WinCC V7 Project Architecture and Dependencies

A WinCC V7 project is a folder hierarchy rooted under the WinCC project directory (default: C:\Program Files (x86)\Siemens\WinCC\WinCCProjects\<ProjectName> or Siemens\Automation\WinCC\WinCCProjects\<ProjectName> depending on installation profile). Inside this folder you will find:

If the project was originally created as an integrated WinCC project inside STEP 7 (the typical configuration with AS-OS link), the OS will contain references to the S7 program symbols via @S7_... connections. Those references require either STEP 7 or a previously exported symbol file to resolve at startup. Removing the engineering binding is therefore a precondition for clean runtime on a non-STEP-7 PC.

Prerequisites

1. WinCC V7.x installed and licensed on the destination PC (Runtime license, or a temporary Configuration license if you plan to edit).
2. SQL Server instance matching the WinCC version (WinCC V7.0–V7.4 ship with Microsoft SQL Server 2005/2008/2012 as the embedded database engine — see the relevant Siemens Industry Online Support compatibility list entry for your WinCC SP).
3. Local Administrator rights on both source and destination PCs.
4. Identical Windows user account with the same SID/password on both machines (or a domain account if the machines are domain-joined). WinCC stores owner-SIDs in the project files; mismatched accounts cause the user-accessible rights problem reported in the source query.
5. The computer name on the destination PC must match the entry inside the WinCC project (Computer\<Name>). For a generic copy, plan to rename the computer inside WinCC or rename the PC to match.
6. The source PC must be able to open the WinCC project once more to enable the Allow activation on ES flag (see next section).

Configuring "Allow Activation on ES" on the Source PC

This is the single most important flag in the entire AS-OS separation workflow. Without it, WinCC refuses to start runtime when STEP 7 components are absent, because the ES (Engineering Station) state expects the SIMATIC Manager toolchain to be present.

1. Open WinCC Explorer on the source PC.
2. Right-click the project name in the tree on the left.
3. Select Properties.
4. Open the Options tab.
5. Tick the checkbox Allow activation on ES (German UI: Aktivierung auf ES erlauben).
6. Click OK and confirm any prompt about project modification.
7. Close WinCC Explorer so that no PDL files are locked.

Step-by-Step Project Copy Procedure

Method A — Manual Folder Copy (most portable)

1. On the source PC, stop WinCC Runtime if it is running (WinCC Explorer > File > Stop Runtime).
2. Navigate to the WinCC project folder (default \Siemens\WinCC\WinCCProjects\<ProjectName>).
3. Copy the entire project folder (including the .MCP file) to a USB drive or network share. Do not copy only GraCS — this will lose the project database, archive configuration, and runtime settings.
4. On the destination PC, paste the folder into the equivalent WinCC project path.
5. Open WinCC Explorer and select the project via File > Open > Open Project (use the Open dialog, do not double-click .MCP).
6. If the computer name differs, WinCC will display a dialog Computer name has changed. Confirm the new name; WinCC will rewrite the per-computer paths.
7. Right-click the project, choose Properties > Options and verify Allow activation on ES is still ticked after the rename.
8. Start Runtime from WinCC Explorer.

Method B — WinCC Project Duplicator (built-in tool)

1. On the source PC, open Start > Siemens Automation > WinCC > Project Duplicator (also documented as Project Copy in WinCC V7.4).
2. Select the source project and the target directory.
3. Choose Copy (creates an editable duplicate) or Duplicate (creates a runtime-only image). For the AS-OS separation use case, Duplicate is the cleaner option because it strips AS-OS integration references.
4. Transfer the resulting folder to the destination PC and follow steps 5–8 of Method A.

Method C — WinCC Information System Reference Path

Siemens documents both methods in Working with WinCC > Working with Projects > Copying and Duplicating Projects. The help text states that copying a project always preserves the original configuration, while duplicating creates an independent copy whose computer name, paths, and AS-OS references can be re-bound. For pure AS-OS separation where the destination has no STEP 7, Duplicate followed by deleting the PAS subfolder is the most robust sequence.

User Rights and Windows Security Configuration

The user-accessible rights problem in the source query is almost always a Windows-SID mismatch or a missing DCOM launch permission. Apply the following on the destination PC:

For a single-user, single-PC deployment, the fastest path is:

1. Create a local Windows user (e.g. WinCCUser) with the same password on both PCs.
2. Make WinCCUser a member of the local groups SIMATIC HMI, SQLServerMSSQLUser$COMPUTERNAME$WINCC, and Users.
3. Log on to both PCs as WinCCUser before copying or starting WinCC.
4. Set the WinCC Runtime service to log on as WinCCUser via services.msc → CCAlgRtServer, CCArchiveConnMon, CCArchiveServer, CCEventMgrServer, CCLicenseServer, CCMessageServer, CCProjectManager, CCRtServer, CCSysdiag, CCTextServer, CCTrendServer.

Registry and DCOM Considerations

WinCC stores per-user activation flags under:

The key RTActive (DWORD, 1 = enabled) must be writable by the current user. After a copy, if activation still fails, export this branch from a known-good PC and import it on the destination. The system-wide settings live under:

Do not edit HKLM registry values manually unless instructed by Siemens support — incorrect changes can break the SQL Server instance name resolution used by the WinCC archive services.

Verification Checklist

1. Open WinCC Explorer and confirm the project loads without warnings.
2. Right-click project → Properties > Options: verify Allow activation on ES is ticked.
3. Click Activate in the toolbar (or right-click project → Activate). Runtime should start within 10–20 seconds on a typical PC.
4. Verify tag connection to the AS: open Tag Management → right-click the S7 connection → Diagnosis. Status should display OK, not Disconnected.
5. Trigger a configured alarm and confirm it appears in the Alarm Control.
6. Force a tag value change and confirm it is logged in the archive by opening the Tag Logging Control.
7. Stop Runtime via File > Stop Runtime and confirm the SQL archives flush (watch the CCArchiveServer service in Event Viewer).

Troubleshooting Matrix

Field-Proven Caveats

• The Allow activation on ES flag is project-scoped, not user-scoped. Moving the project between users without re-confirming the flag is a common silent failure.
• If the destination PC has WinCC V7.0 and the source uses V7.4, open the project in V7.0 with File > Open > Open Project (read-only) first to inspect — do not save with the older version; WinCC V7.0 cannot read V7.4 databases without SP migration.
• Domain-joined deployments: the AS-OS separation remains cleanest when the runtime PC is in a separate OU with a Group Policy that restricts installation rights; this prevents accidental re-installation of STEP 7 and re-coupling of the project.
• Keep the original STEP 7 PC as a long-term engineering station. The duplicated project on the destination is for runtime only; any future PLC symbol change must be re-exported and re-imported into the runtime project.
• For multi-user WinCC projects (server + clients), copy the server project first, start runtime there, and then copy each client project — clients must reference the server's computer name correctly.

Quick Reference — Key Paths

FAQ