Kms on Anything About IT

How to setup KMS on Server 2012 for activating Office 2013 Preview

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 21:17:59 +0000

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 the Microsoft Office 2013 Preview Volume License Pack that Microsoft released to activate Office 2013 Preview using KMS or Active Directory based activation.

How to avoid KMS becoming a challenge in your Windows 7 deployment project

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:44:30 +0000

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 despite the fact that in theory this is nothing more than just a service you install on one or two servers in your datacenter and publish an SRV resource record in DNS, this is something that keeps people busy in nearly any project I’ve been involved so far.

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

Office 2010 KMS Server Requirements

Wed, 12 May 2010 21:54:12 +0000

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, volume editions of Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2 are supported as Office 2010 KMS hosts

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.

Upgrade your existing KMS Service to support Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 09:08:53 +0000

If you are already running an existing KMS Service within your environment, and you do not plan to install a new KMS Service, the following information might be of interest if you have plans for deploying Windows 7 or Server 2008-R2 systems.

Update for Windows Server 2003 (KB968915)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=f3a0d90c-b7fd-44cf-bf81-11587adc599f&displaylang=en

Update for Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition (KB968915)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1678151b-b577-476f-87da-df54024b98e2&displaylang=en

An update is available that installs Key Management Service (KMS) 1.2 for Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and for later versions of Windows Server 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=968915

Windows Volume Activation Demystified

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 18:50:15 +0000

Read the “Windows Volume Activation Demystified” article on TechNet Edge and get a complete overview and insight into Windows Volume Activation.

For those that don’t like reading watch the Volume Activation Demo