by Alex Verboon
Hey there, it’s been a while since I wrote the last blog post, but that is because I spend 2 excellent weeks at an Italian beach with my family and enjoyed “dolce far niente”. Now and then I did read some tweets so of course got notice of the Office 2013 Preview Microsoft released earlier last week. So now that I’m back I have started reading through the various documentations and so I came across Read More …
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 as being one of the top 10 challenges I’ve seen in Windows 7 deployment projects I must mention KMS. Yes Read More …
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 a separate infrastructure for volume activation of Windows clients, servers and office, but according to the article “What’s new in Read More …
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 options. Now what? I don’t have enough machines to use KMS, so I’ll use MAK. What do I do now? Read More …
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)
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 using a KMS Infrastructure. Source: Windows Partner Activation Guide
A good FAQ about Microsoft Volume licensing. Details here
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 is a lightweight service, and you can co-host an Office 2010 and Windows KMS host. However, only Windows Server 2003, Read More …