Windows 2008 KMS activation limit workaround
Another tip from Elianne van de Kamp, which I of course couldn’t keep to myself. Your Windows 2008 KMS key (replacement of the Volume License Key/VLK) can be registered for a maximum of ten times on six different machines. If you want to extend this you will have to file a request at your Microsoft representative with lots of information:
- Organization name
- Agreement number
- Authorization number
- Requester name, telephone, etc
- Product
- Last 5 digits of your KMS key
- Number of additional activations
- And last but not least: A good reason why you need extra activations.
The process takes 48 hours to complete, which means you have to wait that long before your extra activations are available. The first step to activate your KMS key is to register it with:
slmgr -ipk xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
It will tell you the key is valid (or not, but you then have another problem). Then you have to activate it with:
slmgr –ato
When the key is out of activations it will respond with “ERROR: 0xc004c008: the key is valid, but cannot be activated.”
Instead of filing a 2 day taking request you can use a quick workaround:
- Enter the KMS key as the registration key on the KMS server. (Control Panel – System – Change product key).
- Activate the key. You will get a message the key cannot be registered. Choose activation by phone.
- Call MS activation line. Enter the numbers into the automated response, and you will receive the 8 times 5 new key.
- Enter the numbers and you’re all done, the KMS server will now be activated.
You can check this with:
slmgr –dlv
