A3 Windows activation

[ITGuyNW]

Hi all

 

Just about to sign on the dotted line to change from OVS A1 to EES A3.

 

One thought I've had is Windows 10/11 activation. How does per machine activation occur if licences are per user? I assume it no longer accepts a mak key for activation? Does it just activate the first time a licenced user uses it? Is there a limit to this? (for example a licenced service account installs a room full of PCs)

[Fazza]

Licensing and Activation are two different things. Windows Activation will stay the same, either MAK, KMS or ADBA - whichever method you currently use. The OS will not know what type of license you have purchased, that's just a paperwork thing, there are many different (and correct) ways to license Windows etc. you simply buy the cheapest one which covers you for what you want.

 

So what stops someone from buying 10 user licenses and installing Windows on 100+ computers that a lot more than 10 users will use I hear you say? Well in the terms and conditions you signed when buying your licenses you agreed to be audited by Microsoft at any point in time should they choose to do so and if they see you have 100+ users and only 10 User Licenses then in this example they will send you an invoice for the full recommended retail price of 90 licenses of the software you are using!!

 

I've been working in IT for over 25 years and have only been audited by Microsoft once, they gave us a program to run on our DC which counted the users and computers in Active Directory Users and Computers and scanned the network for installed software on the computer accounts it had found. That got uploaded to Microsoft and we never heard from them again!

 

[dhicks]

Windows Activation will stay the same, either MAK, KMS or ADBA

 

After moving to A3/A5 licesning, we only seem to have MAK keys available, we no longer seem to have KMS keys given in the Microsoft Volume Licensing control panel.

[ITGuyNW]

If its MAK keys thats fine as that is what we do already. Do you get a quantity given on the volume portal?

 

My concern was when it came to re-imaging, as I'd heard you needed some sort of base activation on the windows install already before the A3 user logs in.

[Andycat]

After moving to A3/A5 licesning, we only seem to have MAK keys available, we no longer seem to have KMS keys given in the Microsoft Volume Licensing control panel.

 

That was what we were told (just going through it now). We're sticking with OVS while we can!

[foofighterjim]

From my experience with CSP previously, as I understand it you will not have any volume licensing agreement and therefore you will not have any KMS or MAC keys, Windows devices should be licensed from the mainboard.

[ITGuyNW]

This where I'm finding confusion, I think CSP and EES have different capabilities when it comes to these keys. I've reached out to our potential supplier but heard noting back yet.

[Fazza]

After moving to A3/A5 licesning, we only seem to have MAK keys available, we no longer seem to have KMS keys given in the Microsoft Volume Licensing control panel.

 

You may need to request KMS keys from Microsoft then, a quick phone call and can they can sort that out. When Windows 10 first came out we only had MAK keys so we had to request KMS and they did it live over the phone and on refreshing the web page the KMS key magically appeared

[ThatBoringBloke]

From my experience with CSP previously, as I understand it you will not have any volume licensing agreement and therefore you will not have any KMS or MAC keys, Windows devices should be licensed from the mainboard.

 

This is what we have. Devices are purchased with a Windows (pro) licence. This activates Windows with a Digital Licence. We no longer have any keys.

When an A3 user signs in this will upgrade the version from Pro to Education.

 

EDIT: If the user is a Local AD user the device doesn't get upgraded. Only Entra Joined devices seem to get upgraded.

Edited June 13, 2024 by ThatBoringBloke

[ITGuyNW]

What do you do if you have to re-image? Keep a note of the keys used?

[ThatBoringBloke]

What do you do if you have to re-image? Keep a note of the keys used?

 

We just re-image. The device has a digital licence built into the motherboard once its connected to the Internet it just activates by some kind of Voodoo Magic!