Windows Product Activation During Testing

Windows Server 2008: Often you will want to test Active Directory by copying it to an isolated test computer running Windows Server 2008 in your lab. Microsoft gives you a grace period of up to 60 days before you have to activate the test computer's Product Key at the Microsoft website.

You can extend the grace period for another 60 days, up to 3 times (total 240 days), using the administrative console command slmgr -rearm. For details see Microsoft Knowledge Base article KB948472.

Automatic activation: Depending on how you set up Windows Server 2008, after 3 days Windows Server 2008 might attempt to activate the license code by contacting the Microsoft web site automatically. This can happen if during the initial Windows Setup procedure the box Automatically activate Windows when I'm online was checked. The box is checked by default. Automatic activation can also happen if you are using a Volume License (VL) key.

How to delay auto-activation

During testing you may want to delay auto-activation. When you select test copy, UMove will ask if you want to block auto-activation. Check the box block auto-activation to prevent the Windows from automatically activating the Windows Product Key on your test computer.

How to activate Windows after testing

If you later want to activate Windows, use the following procedure:

1. Click on Start -> Control Panel -> Windows Firewall
2. Click on Change settings
3. Click on the tab Exceptions
4. Uncheck the box Block: Windows Product Activation
5. Click Ok. This will remove the block.

After you remove the block you can let Windows activate automatically (typically within 3 days). If you do not want to wait you can activate Windows immediately using the following procedure:

1. Open an administrative console
2. If you have not already installed the Product Key during the initial setup of Windows Server 2008, enter it now. Type
     slmgr -ipk DQ8BP-RE28Z-NBGRW-KFD2F-GKWJ2
   Substitute DQ8BP-RE28Z-NBGRW-KFD2F-GKWJ2 with your Product Key.
3. Finally, activate your Product Key at the Microsoft web site. Type
     slmgr -ato
   The -ato option stands for “activate online”.