{"id":454,"date":"2006-11-10T18:48:00","date_gmt":"2006-11-10T18:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwilson.me.uk\/blog\/2006\/11\/windows-vista-product-activation-for.htm"},"modified":"2007-05-15T15:32:47","modified_gmt":"2007-05-15T14:32:47","slug":"windows-vista-product-activation-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2006\/11\/windows-vista-product-activation-for.htm","title":{"rendered":"Windows Vista product activation for volume license customers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--116323756008221290-->Working mostly with corporate clients has one significant advantage &#8211; I&#8217;ve largely been shielded from Windows product activation, as I&#8217;ve generally had access to volume licence keys (VLKs) &#8211; also known as volume activation (VA) 1.0; however with Windows Vista and VA 2.0, this looks set to change and there seems to be a lot of misinformation on the subject (e.g. rumours of enterprises having to run licence servers on Windows Longhorn Server, which is still a beta product and hence not recommended for production use). With that in mind, I thought I&#8217;d write a bit on the subject to (hopefully) clear up any confusion.<\/p>\n<p>At a Microsoft event today, Microsoft UK&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.technet.com\/jamesone\/\">James O&#8217;Neill<\/a> was reluctant to discuss this (in my experience, Microsoft consultants and evangelists do tend to shy away from anything remotely related to licencing) but luckily I got chatting to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mcleod.co.uk\/scotty\/\">Scotty McLeod<\/a> from Perot Systems, who was extremely helpful and knowledgeable on the subject.<\/p>\n<p>Scotty explained to me (and others) how the arrangements for corporate product activation will work.  Basically, Microsoft has two systems for volume license customers:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Multiple activation keys (MAKs) will be made available, with each key valid for a defined number of installations.  Activation will require contact to Microsoft servers and, once the maximum number of activations has been reached, the key will be prevented from activating any further copies of Windows.  That sounds fair enough but these keys should be guarded closely (more closely than traditional VLKs) because if a key is leaked and administrators do install unofficially, Microsoft is unlikely to &#8220;unlicence&#8221; a machine.  In effect, if you release the key and it gets misused, then it&#8217;s your problem!<\/li>\n<li>Volume licence keys (VLKs) require that an organisation maintains its own key management server (KMS) &#8211; ideally two &#8211; to act as a proxy between Microsoft&#8217;s licencing servers and enterprise clients, validating and activating Windows Vista computers.  Each client actively searches out an appropriate KMS for activation, which must occur within 30 days, retrying every 22 hours.  If activation fails, then the installation will run in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/technet\/windowsvista\/plan\/faq.mspx#EYPAC\">reduced functionality mode<\/a> (RFM).  Then, every 180 days, the Windows Vista computer will reactivate, with a 30 day grace period before reduced functionality mode is enforced.  Effectively, Windows Vista machines will need to reactivate approximately every 6 months.  Group policy can be used to control the warnings experienced by users.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, when would administrators want to use MAKs and when would they use VLKs? MAKs only require activation once (unless there are a lot of hardware changes) and so are ideal for organisations with a dispersed user population that rarely contacts the corporate network.  For the majority of users in most organisations that regularly connect to a corporate network then VLKs will probably be more appropriate.<\/p>\n<p>There are some gotchas with VLKs though &#8211; for example, a multinational organisation with local purchasing policies will probably have many volume license agreements and will need to implement 2 KMS servers per territory.  This is for two reasons:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>To retain control and stop one territory from using all the licences purchased by another.<\/li>\n<li>Because license prices vary globally and licencing terms generally prevent low cost licenses from one territory from being deployed in another.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>KMSs also require Windows Vista or Windows Server codenamed Longhorn &#8211; with installation being performed via a script within the operating system installation (no GUI interface is provided).  Fortunately, Microsoft also provides web-based reporting tools for VLKs, including computer names and how long is left until license expiry.  One more positive aspect of the VLK arrangements is that if a licence is not successfully reactivated, then it returns to the pool &#8211; so if a laptop is stolen, then at least the licence will be returned within six months or so!<\/p>\n<p>So, that&#8217;s Windows Vista product activation for corporate users in a nutshell.  The Microsoft website has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/licensing\/resources\/vol\/\">more information on VA 2.0<\/a> (as well as an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/technet\/windowsvista\/plan\/faq.mspx\">FAQ<\/a>) and there&#8217;s a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mydigitallife.info\/2006\/10\/05\/windows-vista-and-longhorn-server-genuine-windows-product-activation-and-validation-tough-to-crack-with-software-protection-platform\/\">My Digital Life article that also has information on the software protection platform<\/a> (SPP), which is the version of product activation that users who are not subject to volume licence agreements will encounter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Working mostly with corporate clients has one significant advantage &#8211; I&#8217;ve largely been shielded from Windows product activation, as I&#8217;ve generally had access to volume licence keys (VLKs) &#8211; also known as volume activation (VA) 1.0; however with Windows Vista and VA 2.0, this looks set to change and there seems to be a lot &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2006\/11\/windows-vista-product-activation-for.htm\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Windows Vista product activation for volume license customers<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[98,59],"class_list":["post-454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-windows-vista","tag-software-licensing"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Windows Vista product activation for volume license customers - markwilson.it<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2006\/11\/windows-vista-product-activation-for.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Windows Vista product activation for volume license customers - markwilson.it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Working mostly with corporate clients has one significant advantage &#8211; I&#8217;ve largely been shielded from Windows product activation, as I&#8217;ve generally had access to volume licence keys (VLKs) &#8211; also known as volume activation (VA) 1.0; however with Windows Vista and VA 2.0, this looks set to change and there seems to be a lot &hellip; Continue reading Windows Vista product activation for volume license customers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2006\/11\/windows-vista-product-activation-for.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"markwilson.it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-11-10T18:48:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2007-05-15T14:32:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Wilson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@markwilsonit\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@markwilsonit\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark Wilson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/11\\\/windows-vista-product-activation-for.htm#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/11\\\/windows-vista-product-activation-for.htm\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mark Wilson\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468\"},\"headline\":\"Windows Vista product activation for volume license customers\",\"datePublished\":\"2006-11-10T18:48:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2007-05-15T14:32:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/11\\\/windows-vista-product-activation-for.htm\"},\"wordCount\":696,\"commentCount\":7,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468\"},\"keywords\":[\"Microsoft Windows Vista\",\"Software licensing\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/11\\\/windows-vista-product-activation-for.htm#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/11\\\/windows-vista-product-activation-for.htm\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/11\\\/windows-vista-product-activation-for.htm\",\"name\":\"Windows Vista product activation for volume license customers - markwilson.it\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2006-11-10T18:48:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2007-05-15T14:32:47+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/11\\\/windows-vista-product-activation-for.htm#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/11\\\/windows-vista-product-activation-for.htm\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/11\\\/windows-vista-product-activation-for.htm#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Windows Vista product activation for volume license customers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"markwilson.it\",\"description\":\"get-info -class technology | write-output &gt; 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With Vista SP1, reduced functionality mode has been removed although there is still the same legal obligation to run properly-licensed copies of Windows. (Microsoft has published a Q and A sheet on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Microsoft Windows Server 2008\"","block_context":{"text":"Microsoft Windows Server 2008","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/tag\/windows-server-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":838,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2007\/07\/windows-vista-volume-activation-failure.htm","url_meta":{"origin":454,"position":1},"title":"Windows Vista volume activation failure","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Tuesday 10 July 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"When I upgraded my Vista installation from a (not-yet activated) copy of Windows Vista Business Edition to Windows Vista Enterprise Edition, the activation counter was reset to 30 days; however, since then it's been bugging me with the following message Volume activation has failed. Your computer could not be activated.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Microsoft Windows Vista\"","block_context":{"text":"Microsoft Windows Vista","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/tag\/windows-vista"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1085,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2008\/05\/microsoft-licensing-part-5-virtualisation.htm","url_meta":{"origin":454,"position":2},"title":"Microsoft Licensing: Part 5 (virtualisation)","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Thursday 22 May 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I've written previously about Microsoft's software licensing rules for server virtualisation but in this post, I'll pick up on a few areas that I haven't specifically covered before. Just to summarise the situation with regards to Windows: Windows Server 2008 standard edition and later includes the right to run one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Microsoft\"","block_context":{"text":"Microsoft","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/tag\/microsoft"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":946,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2007\/11\/a-clear-virtualisation-licensing-and-support-statement-from-microsoft.htm","url_meta":{"origin":454,"position":3},"title":"A clear virtualisation licensing and support statement from Microsoft","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Tuesday 20 November 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I've commented before about the licensing implications for Windows Server in a virtual infrastructure but yesterday, I was at a Microsoft partner event during which Microsoft UK's Clive Watson gave an extremely clear explanation of Microsoft's position and I thought that it was worth repeating here: The current version of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Microsoft\"","block_context":{"text":"Microsoft","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/tag\/microsoft"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":874,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2007\/08\/avoiding-windows-server-2003-r2-product-activation-after-using-non-vlk-media.htm","url_meta":{"origin":454,"position":4},"title":"Avoiding Windows Server 2003 R2 product activation after using non-VLK media","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Tuesday 7 August 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Last month I wrote about how it's possible to upgrade a retail copy of Windows Vista to an Enterprise version and it turns out that this is also possible with other versions of Windows. Last week I needed to build a new server with Windows Server 2003 R2 and my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Microsoft Windows Server 2003\"","block_context":{"text":"Microsoft Windows Server 2003","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/tag\/windows-server-2003"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":824,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2007\/07\/confirmation-that-it-is-possible-to-upgrade-from-a-retail-edition-to-a-volume-license-edition-of-windows-vista.htm","url_meta":{"origin":454,"position":5},"title":"Confirmation that it is possible to upgrade from a retail edition to a volume license edition of Windows Vista","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Wednesday 4 July 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Just before I went on holiday, I rebuilt my company-supplied notebook PC to run Windows Vista (running Linux doesn't look too good when you work in the Microsoft Practice of a major IT company). 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