Troubleshooting Windows 7 or WIndows 8 OS Client Activations that use a KMS Server

Occasionally we have an issue with an existing Windows 7 or Windows 8 machines not being able to activate automatically from our KMS Server or a new machine not registering the first time.



Here are the key steps we take to get it working quickly again from the client side. I'm assuming of course that the KMS server is working correctly.

The lines are run from the command prompt.  You need to start the command prompt with admin rights or you will get access denied errors.

1.  Make sure the time and timezone is set correctly on the client machine.  If the time is off by a lot it will not activate.

2.  From a command prompt,  we can first try the obvious, and manually activate the client,  but I am assuming that this will fail.

slmgr /ato

3.  Next we can try and get some info about the status that might help to troubleshoot the problem.

slmgr /dlv show status

4.  Make sure Windows  is using a KMS key (not MAK).  You can uninstall and then reinstall the KMS key to be sure.

First uninstall the key, from the command prompt.

slmgr /upk  uninstall license

Then depending on if it is a Windows 8 or Windows 7 machine run one of the following commands.  You can get a list of Microsoft KMS Client keys here

slmgr /ipk NG4HW-VH26C-733KW-K6F98-J8CK4    (Windows 8  Pro KMS Key)

slgmr /ipk FJ82H-XT6CR-J8D7P-XQJJ2-GPDD4  (Windows 7 Pro KMS Key)

5.  Then you can manually tell the client where to find the KMS server

slmgr /skms 10.80.0.24    (Use the internal IP address of your KMS server

6.  And now run slmgr /at again to try and register.

For more in-depth troubleshooting,  you can try this page
http://bjornhouben.wordpress.com/2013/09/05/microsoft-troubleshooting-key-management-service-kms-activation/