I’ve been involved in Windows 7 deployments since the Beta came out in 2009 and before Windows 7 there was Vista, XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT and even Windows 3.11 and although over time the technology has changed the basic challenges of every migration remained the same. If today someone asks me what I consider [...]
Archive of posts filed under the KMS category.
Windows 8 Active Directory based volume activation
Windows Server 8 comes with a new role called Volume Activation Services. The Volume Activation Service allows IT administrators to enable volume activation for domain joined systems using a Key Management Service Host (KMS) or Active Directory based Activation. This means in theory that going forward there is no need anymore to install and manage [...]
ReadTip: General (Windows) activation concepts (KMS/MAK)
A great article from Kevin Ledman – Microsoft Platforms Support, covering the following topics around Windows activation: What is KMS? What is MAK? What do you consider your ‘current operating systems? How do I know what I have available to me? I see both keys on the volume website, so I guess I have both [...]
Tip: How to troubleshoot KMS Activation problems
Here are some good resources for KMS troubleshooting: MS KB 938450 How to troubleshoot Volume Activation error codes on Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista-based computers. TechNet article How to troubleshoot the Key Management Service (KMS)
Windows 7 Product Activation Methods
Today I was asked whether Windows 7 Ultimate can be activated through KMS, since we’re primarily busy with Windows 7 Enterprise I couldn’t instantly provide an answer (I prefer to first check out things instead of providing an incorrect answer). So unless I have overlooked something…… only Windows 7 Professional and Enterprise can be activated [...]
Frequently Asked Questions About Volume License Keys
A good FAQ about Microsoft Volume licensing. Details here
Office 2010 KMS Server Requirements
Although I have been working with Office 2010 for a while, I wasn’t aware of the KMS Server specific requirements until today when we were asked to load the Office 2010 KMS key into one of our customers KMS servers. A dedicated server is not needed to run KMS for Office 2010. A KMS host [...]
