Activation on Anything About IT

Windows 8 Active Directory based volume activation

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 14:25:52 +0000

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 Windows Server 8 Active Directory” from the Windows IT Pro magazine KMS will still be required for a while to support everything that uses KMS today, unless Microsoft would provide an update to enable current systems and applications to activate via Active Directory.

ReadTip: General (Windows) activation concepts (KMS/MAK)

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 23:37:38 +0000

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?

Tip: How to troubleshoot KMS Activation problems

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 14:16:43 +0000

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

Mon, 17 May 2010 19:44:17 +0000

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

Identifying KMS Servers

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:30:50 +0000

Assume you are at a client site and plan to deploy a Windows Server (2008 / 2008-R2) or Windows Clients (Windows Vista / Windows 7) and want to check if they do already have KMS Services running on their network.

It’s very simple. Just open a command prompt and type the following command:

nslookup -type=srv _vlmcs._tcp

If KMS Services are present on the network the results will be listed as shown in the picture below.

Fundamentals of Volume Activation

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:38:49 +0000

If you are looking for a very easy 5 minute video that explains Volume Activation for Windows 7, then click here

Additional sources

TechNet Volume Activation

Volume Activation changes in Windows7

Windows 7 Activation Improvements

Volume Activation changes in Windows7

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:37:29 +0000

Here is another video from TechnetEdge talking about the changes in volume activation for Windows7. What I found interesting to hear is that there will be a patch available for your current KMS server running on Windows Server 2003 or 2008 that will allow your current KMS system recognizing Windows7 clients.

http://edge.technet.com/Media/Volume-Activation-changes-in-Windows-7/

Volume activation documentation

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:31:06 +0000

Microsoft recently updated their volume activation 2.0 technical guidance documents. Everything you need about volume activation when deploying Vista / Win2008 can be found here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9893f83e-c8a5-4475-b025-66c6b38b46e3&DisplayLang=en

Windows XP reports pending activation

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 07:49:44 +0000

Within at least every second implementation project I work on, people get nervous about Windows XP reporting that the system is not yet activated, although their Windows XP client image was build using an enterprise volume license key.

When you run msinfo32.exe as as a standard user (without administrative rights), it does report the following:

But no worries, if you run msinfo32.exe with an administrative account, the message does not show up.