Volume Activation changes in Windows 7

Posted By: Adam Bomb | Jul 6th, 2009 @ 12:01 AM | 87,952 Views | 19 Comments

Media Downloads:

so what's different about doing product activation in Windows 7 vs. previous versions of the OS?
Ram brought in Kalpesh, the lead program manager on activation, to answer some of those questions. He explains how you have to do things compared to XP and Vista environments.
For upcoming Windows 7 volume activation guidance, visit http://www.technet.com/volumeactivation.
There's other Edge coverage of volume activation here and here.

Tags: kms, mak, product activation, product key, Top 10, volume activation, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2

Rating:

aleinss

So if you have both an Office 2010 key and a Windows 7 key and install both, does the KMS take the last key and just know to activate both products or are both keys embedded within the KMS itself?

nytebyte

Thumbs down to Microsoft for making Windows Vista and Windows 7 unnecessarily complicated. Why not just use the VLK1 model in XP? It worked well and didn't cause extra administration headaches for IT staff. This is one of the primary reasons we never moved to Vista at my company.

juswannaplay

This is just one step closer to subscription based software and operating system usage which will end up costing the consumer more per year of useful life. It's too bad they can't realize that once you've paid for something, you should not have to pay again and again.

Dustin in Dalla

In reply to juswannaplay

#Jul 16th, 2009 @ 8:49 AM

@juswannaplay - Many businesses already budget for subscription-like costs for software (such as Software Assurance). This has very little to do with consumers who are still offered retail upgrades that do not require volume activation. I should note that I fail to see how the changes to volume activation in any way point toward a future of subscription-based software. That's not to say I like product activation at all, as it makes me feel like Microsoft is treating us as intellectual property infringers as opposed to paying customers with enterprise agreements.

CorvallisITSpec

IMO this is M$ getting a handle on exactly how many license are being used as opposed to purchased. By having the kms server limit the activations to the number owned, as opposed to the current system where there is no central count of the deployed licenses. I do agree that those of us who are legal are having to put up with the expense of having to protect against illegal activations.

ChrisLuther

In reply to CorvallisITSpec

#Jul 16th, 2009 @ 12:52 PM

@CorvallisITSpec "I do agree that those of us who are legal are having to put up with the expense of having to protect against illegal activations"

How is that any different from your car insurance being higher to cover potentially uninsured drivers?

lewis121701

In reply to ChrisLuther

#Jul 16th, 2009 @ 2:22 PM

I thought that the server recognized you board or hard drive so if something happened you can format again and not have any problem re-activating it. Now if you have to build a new computer I see why you need to call India and get it activated over the phone but I guess this only applies to big business not the solo user keys.

Harold

I can't get the sound to work on my computer, but I am interested in knowing what the licensing model is

going to be for Windows 7. Is there a written document that discusses it? The link to technet activation didn't

have anything that I could see.

Ram Rathnam

In reply to aleinss

#Jul 16th, 2009 @ 6:01 AM

There is no relationship between the KMS keys for Office 2010 key and KMS keys for Windows 7 . When these keys are installed on the KMS host, it uses all those keys in respondng to the activation requests.

In other words, in order for a single KMS host to activate both Windows 7 and Office 2010 one does need to install both the keys on the KMS host.