• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

danblee.com

Tutorials & Knowledge Base Articles for System Administrators who wear many, many hats.

  • Home
  • About
  • Ask Me
  • DBLHost.com

There’s nowhere to change the product key in Server 2012

December 16, 2013 by Dan B. Lee Leave a Comment

Issues:

  • Server 2012 can’t change product key
  • Server 2012 won’t activate
  • Nowhere to change the Server 2012 product key
  • Activate error: DNS Name Does Not Exist

Server 2012 will tell you right away that you need to head to the Action Center in order to Activate your Windows Key. The trouble with the Action Center is that it’s not going to show you how you can change your product key. Instead, you’ll only get the option to Activate. Here’s how to get to the place to change the Product Key before choosing to activate:

Hit your Windows Key > Type in “slui 3” (If you cut this short and go to simply “slui” you’re not going to see the option to change the product key) > Choose the only application you can run > You’ll see the field where you can enter the Product Key right away.

You can use the command prompt to accomplish this as well. Open an elevated command prompt and enter the following:

1
2
3
 
slmgr.vbs /ipk <var>&lt;Your product key&gt;</var>
 

This will run the script necessary to change the PK to what it should be. After that, you’ll be able to hop back into the Action Center and make your changes accordingly.

Cheers!

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Windows Server 2012 Tagged With: Command Prompt, Licensing, Server 2012, Windows Activation

Primary Sidebar

Categories

  • Active Directory
    • Group Policy
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Browsers
    • Chrome
  • Cloud Based Technology
    • Citrix XenApp
  • ConnectWise
    • LabTech
  • Dell
  • Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
  • iPhone
  • Linux
    • CentOS
    • OpenVPN
    • SaltStack
    • Ubuntu
  • Microsoft Office
    • Lync
    • Microsoft Excel
    • Microsoft Outlook
    • Microsoft Word
  • Microsoft Windows
    • Active Directory
    • PowerShell
    • Windows 7
    • Windows 8 Preview & Release
  • Networks
  • News
  • Off Topic
  • Office 365
  • Peripherals
    • Monitors
  • Printers
    • Local Printers
    • Network Printers
  • Programming
    • Python
  • Riverbed
  • Security
  • Sharepoint
  • Social Media
  • Splunk
  • Storage
  • Switching & Routing
    • Cisco
    • Fortinet
  • Technology Culture
    • Opinion
  • Uncategorized
  • Virtualization
    • VEEAM
    • VMware
  • WAMP
  • Web Hosting
    • WHMCS
  • Website Design
  • Windows Server
    • Exchange 2003
    • Exchange 2010
    • Exchange 2013
    • Microsoft SQL
    • Windows Server 2003
    • Windows Server 2008 R2
    • Windows Server 2012
  • WordPress

Footer

Recent Activity

  • VSS Volume Shadow Copy Service - Intro - on Diskshadow, VSSAdmin’s best friend
  • Confluence: Wiki on Diskshadow, VSSAdmin’s best friend
  • Migrating VEEAM Backup Data — danblee.com on Using ROBOCOPY switches for faster, more reliable data moves
  • How to Handle Email Spam From Yourself - TrendsEvo on Anti Spoofing for Domains in Exchange 2016
  • How To Handle Email Spam From Yourself | Lifehacker Australia on Anti Spoofing for Domains in Exchange 2016

Dan Lee

Dan B. Lee works at SyApps, LLC., a Managed Hosting Solutions Firm, as a Senior Network Engineer. Dan has a decade of IT experience and specializes in a number of different disciplines including Virtualization, Web Site Hosting and Design, Network Security, Data Center Architecture, Local and Remote Server Hosting, and Backup & DRS Solutions. Read More…

Links

  • Home
  • About Dan B. Lee
  • Ask Me
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2019 · Genesis Sample Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in