[windows software] M365 A3 Windows edition query

[LastoftheOutlaws]

Hi everyone,

 

We've noticed some strange behaviour relating to our Windows editions/Product Keys/M365 A3. I'm expecting the final result to be Windows 10 Education edition, as per our license entitlement. When imaging a device (tried with images of Windows 10 Pro Education and Windows 10 Education), we are activating it using the embedded key in the device (most of our devices have W10 Pro license embedded) which changes the edition to Windows 10 Pro. When the device enrolls to our hybrid AAD after a user logs in with a M365 A3 license, the edition then changes to Windows 10 Enterprise. It doesn't seem to matter what order I do this in, it always ends with Windows 10 Enterprise.

 

If I don't use a product key, and use Windows 10 Pro Education version of our image, the edition will (correctly) upgrade to Windows 10 Education.

 

Has anyone encountered this issue before, and if so what did you find was the resolution. Do we need to obtain Windows 10 Education product keys to make sure we're on the "right track" for the activation? Any advice is much appreciated.

[jnfarmer]

Yes, we had a similar issue, I can't quite remember how we solved it but I'll rack my brain and see what I can remember (sorry, that's not very helpful) I'd be interested to know how you're activating with the embedded key though?

[LastoftheOutlaws]

Yes, we had a similar issue, I can't quite remember how we solved it but I'll rack my brain and see what I can remember (sorry, that's not very helpful) I'd be interested to know how you're activating with the embedded key though?

That's alright, anything you can remember would be super appreciated! I've been extracting the key using the CMD command in this thread thus far. I've not started a full roll out yet so I've not worked on automating it yet...

[jnfarmer]

Ah, that's jogged my memory a bit. We're using Intune so I deployed this little bit of PowerShell to grab the product key then activate it, and then when the user logged in it activated it to Windows 10 Education.

 

$productKey = (Get-CimInstance -Query 'select * from SoftwareLicensingService').OA3xOriginalProductKey
slmgr.vbs /ipk $productKey

 

No idea if it's any good, or "proper" but seems to work. Happy to take advice from anyone on how to neaten it up a bit.

[LastoftheOutlaws]

That was what I had in mind to use to automate it, looks good to this PowerShell novice. I've spoken to MS now via our MSP and apparently if the device has a Win 10 Pro license then the correct action is to change it to Enterprise and not Education. We need to start with Pro Education to get it to Windows 10 Education. But to activate Windows I have to use the Win 10 Pro key...

 

I think my goal needs to be to get MS to assign us some Pro Edu keys so we can activate the correct version, I found this thread on here earlier which seems to suggest they had to get keys from MS as well. Not looking forward to this battle...