Search the Community

Anyone having any issues with KMS activation of Windows 10? I have a Windows Server 2012 R2 setup with KMS that is happily servicing Windows 7, 8 and Office KMS activations currently. I read somewhere that in order to activate Windows 10 you need to make sure update KB3058168 is installed on the KMS host server, which it is! However when ever I run cscript slmg.vbs /ato on any Windows 10 Education PC is comes up with the following: Error: 0xC004F074 The Software Licensing Service reported that the computer could not be activated. No Key Management Service (KMS) could be contacted. Please see the Application Log for additional information. Which is weird as the Windows 7 and 8 PC's activate fine! On the KMS host I get this in the KMS log: An activation request has been processed. Info: 0xC004F042,25,WIN10-TEST.coombeshead.com,bc69bd8b-4053-4e03-b0fd-6668ffe66b78,2015/08/10 12:05,0,5,0,e0c42288-980c-4788-a014-c080d2e1926e Any ideas? Cheers... Neil

Hi, Just deployed a load of laptops running Windows 7 Pro... Only to notice that it was set to use a MAK key and not KMS. Is there a script or something that I can use on startup/login that will change it to KMS and activate? Thanks!

Morning everyone, I've got a major issue with KMS here. Until last week, we had all Windows 7 clients (with Office2010) activated via KMS on a server 2008R2 DC. Well this summer we have rebuilt both our DC's and upgraded them to server 2012 R2. I am trying to set KMS up and it's not working My aim is to have a KMS server which will activate Windows 7 and 10 (as we plan to roll that out over the year) as well as Office 2010 and 2016 - which we also plan to roll out. Is there a KMS key which will activate Windows 7 and 10, and another to activate office 2010 and 2016? I know this is a big ask however we can't be the first school to do this... Thanks in advance. Regards Harry

Hi everyone, Im extremity confused about KMS I thought there would be a roll i could install and just tell it what my KMS keys where and that was it. i have been googleing around and have only found a Microsoft article telling me how wonderful KMS is im running server 2008R2 I want to activate win 7 and office 2010 (just received my key today) is there something i need to install HELP! thanks!

Hi, This could probably go in a number of different forums, but as the main issue is with Windows 8 Pro, I have posted here. Please feel free to move / duplicate to Server 2008, if that is a better place for it. I am trying to activate a Windows 8 Pro machine on our domain network. In preparation for Win 8, I had already found out about the requirement to upgrade VAMT from 2 to 3 and I have downloaded the ADK and installed VAMT 3 (v6.2.9200.0) on the required 2008 R2 server with SQL 2008. This was a straight forward process and the VAMT service is running. I have installed all of my required keys, of which VAMT is quite happy with. I have also installed KB2757817, which is required when running VAMT 3 on 2008 R2. I ran slmgr /dlv to check that the server was running correctly and got an active response. VAMT has found lots of existing Windows 7 pcs and Office 14 which have been set against the KMS keys that we have been provided with. This tells me that the KMS service is running happily. To make sure I have looked at the Server Manager Event Logs. The KMS log shows lots of Event 12290, where the server is finding machines on the network, however the Windows 8 pcs in these events are returning an error code of 0xC004F042 in their data but, the Windows 7 pcs return 0x0 in their data. The VAMT log on the server shows an error event 1000 VAMT Runtime. Data for this is: Error while updating products: System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x800706BA): The RPC server is unavailable. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800706BA) at System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ThrowExceptionForHRInternal(Int32 errorCode, IntPtr errorInfo) at System.Management.ManagementScope.InitializeGuts(Object o) at System.Management.ManagementScope.Initialize() at System.Management.ManagementScope.Connect() at Microsoft.Licensing.VolumeActivation.WmiConnection.Connect() at Microsoft.Licensing.VolumeActivation.UpdateProductsProvider.RefreshMachineGenericInformation() at Microsoft.Licensing.VolumeActivation.UpdateProductsProvider.UpdateProducts() on machine using credential On the Windows 8 pc, I have run the slmgr /dlv, which tells me that the Product key ends: J8CK4, however my KMS key on the server ends: FKQW7. This report also says that I need to run slmgr /ato to activate the machine? (Doesn't this defeat the point of a KMS server if each machine has to be activated individually?) The KMS log on the PC is empty. The application log however, contains the following:- Information event ID 12288 - The client has sent an activation request. (The data for this shows the IP address of the VAMT server, so its trying to talk to the right server.) Information event ID 1003 - The software protection service has completed licensing status check. Error event ID 8198 - License Activation (slui.exe) failed with the following error code: hr=0xC004F074. As our network has its own Firewall, I have turned off the firewall on all internal machines on the domain so there should not be any restrictions on any network services or protocols. The RPC service is running on both the server and the Windows 8 PC. As you can see, this is becoming a little frustrating, especially as the VAMT server is functioning fine with all of the Windows 7 and 2008 machines on the domain. I have looked over the internet for any existing support or documents regarding this, but most point at upgrading to the 6.2.9200 version of VAMT, which I am already running. Any assistance you may be able to offer would be much appreciated. Thanks, Barry.

Hello, We are running XenServer and XenDesktops 5.6 and have created a gold image for students to use with both Windows 7 and Office 2013 activated via our internal KMS server. The problem we have is when we create the desktops from the gold image (approx 30) they are no longer activated. I was wondering what the best practice is for KMS activation for both windows and office on citrix virtual desktops? Any info would be great. Thank you, William

Hi All, This has been puzzling me for a while and I’m sure I’m missing something really simple! I set up my KMS on a server 2008 r2 machine, as I added new server 2008 r2 machines it activated them fine via KMS. But now I’m adding Windows 7 machines they don’t activate! Office 2010 activates no problem. I can see in the event viewer the new Windows 7 machines are commutating with KMS but no activation. Any ideas what I’m doing wrong? Thank you

Got Office 2010 though the new EES licensing. We haven't had any new Microsoft products since office 2000 and windows XP so KMS is all new to me. Set up a KMS server yesterday and activated the 5 minimum office clients so that's all working. The question I would like answered is what's the best way to activate office 2010 when using sysprep. We image the computer rooms quite alot with new software and/or tweaks maybe 2 or more times a term. I believe the way is to install office on the image and not activate but I would like to make sure before I do something silly. Will KMS bitch about anything if I keep re-imaging the computers and activating Office? Cheers

Hello everyone, Struggling to get Windows 10 LTSC 2019 Activated using AD-based Activation. I have added the Server 2019 DataCtr/Std KMS key to Volume Activation Tools on our Server 2012 R2 Domain Controller. It flat out refuses to activate. Have I used the correct host key? Has anyone managed to get it working? Many thanks in advance.

Hello, We are currently running Windows Server 2012 Std with Volume Activation services enabled. Windows 8/7 and office 2010/2013 activate against this server but now we have our Windows 8.1 KMS key which we would like to add to this server. Is there something I need to do to add this? I remember there was a patch to activate windows 8 clients against a 2008R2 server but cant find anything for 8.1. Any ideas? Thank you, William

Hello, Our KMS server had been running without any issue for months on Windows Server 2008 R2, until recently when I tried to activate 25+ Windows 7 Machines and 25+ Office 2013 machines, and it just wouldn’t activate, giving the error “Error: 0xC004F074 The Software Licensing Service reported that the computer could not be activated. The Key Management Service (KMS) is unavailable”. We are currently able to activate Office 2010 without issues. I have updated VAMT to version 3.1, reinstalled VAMT on a fresh installation of Server 2008 R2 and also on Server 2012 R2, however this also gave the same error messages and I am still unable to activate Windows 7 Professional or Office 2013 using KMS. I have used the Volume Licencing Keys from the Microsoft Website (https://www.microsoft.com/Licensing/servicecenter/default.aspx) and am fairly confident that our keys are correct. I would be grateful for any assistance. Thank you.

Hi, Spent the last working week setting up KMS and getting a WDS image that will work with it. Continuing from this thread, here is all the information that should be needed when setting up KMS, including most common problems people are getting regarding unnatended installs, wrong keys etc... The old thread is here http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-vista/21577-vista-licencing.html#post221848 The document i have written is attatched. *Edit - This is really a one or two day job, and took us a week with troubleshooting. Hope this doc helps. Feel free to make any comments, and good luck installing and using KMS. Simon. Installing VISTA with WDS and Key Management Server.doc

Hello all, I am working on the test Windows 7 images for a student lab and have a question on KMS/MAK Licensing for a LAB environment; 1. if I use the KMS server for Licensing, after machine gets imaged does it take a license count after the machine talks to the KMS server? 2. if I use the MAK license key, does it count depreciates after the re-image? regards, Francisco

As above, really. Don't have S2012R2 KMS keys, but do have W8.1 KMS keys. Is this achievable without setting up a Windows 8.1 machine to KMS activate the others? As I'd rather change them to MAKs if that's the case!

I just took over KMS from another admin that is leaving, I got the basics from him, but wanted to ask some questions to make sure I understand what’s going on here, as I have never managed a KMS server before. We needed to add the key for server 2022, from my understanding this will also activate win11 win10 and previous versions of server and desktop. For example, “the KMS host key Windows Srv 2019 allows you to activate all previous versions of Windows, starting from Windows 7/Windows Server 2008 R2.” I would assume the same for win server 2022 standard key form VLSC? When Guides/blogs refer to KMS host key, they are talking about the Host key one gets from the VLSC? So, if I want servers and desktops to be activated I just get the key for Windows Server 2022 standard and import that? The commands I used was the below, is this standard procedure on how to do this? And I fell like those command is for KMS/DNS not KMS/AD. .\cscript.exe slmgr.vbs /ipk 12345-33333-55555-ZZZZZ-XXXXX .\cscript.exe slmgr.vbs /ato .\cscript.exe slmgr.vbs /dlv Mostly Followed this guide: https://theitbros.com/activate-windows-with-kms-server/ If the above is for KMS/DNS what are the commands for KMS/AD (Yes, I know I need enterprise admin). I know one can use “Volume Activation Tools” to add the Key for AD, but how does one do it from the command line? I know we use both KMS/DNS and KMS/AD, as we can find records for both. After running the above commands my test windows server 2022 did activate after a reboot. However why do I hear some people say you need to run 5-25 clients before the KMS will activate them. For example, I would need to spin up 25 windows 2022 server before KMS would kick in? A question about he VLSC, we are EDU So how long before Windows 11 ISO is released on there? I already see it in SCCM an servicing update… Thanks in advance, just need some these cleared up to have a better understanding. -AA

Good morning, I have recently set up a 2012 R2 DC on my network, as part of a network upgrade from XP to 7. I am in the process of installing KMS for windows activation. I have installed the Volume activation Tools role on the server, and go through until i click "commit" to activate the KMS host, but i get a security error (please see attached image). Why do i get this error? i can't seem to find a decent guide on how to set up KMS for windows 7 on server 2012 R2, and i am new to KMS. Anything else i need to do before this, or anything i need to check when installing? Thanks in advance, Regards Harry

Hiya Had KMS up and running for windows 7 & office 2010 for ages now however a few weeks ago we checked the activated clients which was a couple of thousand compared to the 50 or so computers we have, have searched the internet to no avail, any ideas?! Thanks

Currently using MDT that deploys the OS only (with MAK) and then everything else is deployed via GPO, including Office 2021 (with MAK). One day I'll get around to working out Task Sequences, but it works fine. I also have VAMT set up but the only time it gets used is when one of the Suite PCs, which are currently on the old "fat image", gets re-imaged and needs Windows/Office reactivating. As the suite is being MDT'd over summer, is there still a need for VAMT or similar? The server that currently holds it is being decommissioned and I'm wondering if there's any point transferring the role.