I started to write a new post this morning on cloud standards and the areas I felt should be receiving the most attention. Then I started to think a little, ‘What would other people say? Hmm…’
Well here’s an opportunity to voice your opinion on which areas of the cloud deserve the most attention when it comes to standards. Please take a couple of minutes to list up to five areas in this brief poll. I’m going to let this run for a few days. At the end of the poll, I’ll tweet and post the results so everyone may see.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dE5EXzJGTGJZYlZHNTh5LS1YM2×5emc6MQ
A few months ago, I came across a strange error while trying to activate a Windows 2008 Server. Upon investigating, I learned that the product key used during the installation was not the correct key for this particular build of Windows. Well today was my lucky day because I ran into the same situation yet again. When I logged into the server, I was presented with this screen:
When the grace period for activating a Windows 2008 Server expires, it still continues to run and you receive constant reminders that the grace period has expired. The desktop background is black and the message in the lower right corner states that the installed copy of Windows is not genuine. To read more about product activation, click here.
Notice how the ‘Show me other ways to activate’ is not available. It turns out that the product key used during the installation of Windows was not valid for this Windows build.
Fortunately, I took notes on this topic the first time I ran into it and I decided to write a quick blog post about it.
Here are some helpful commands you can use to troubleshoot and resolve the issue.
To view the system ID information, enter slmgr -dlv from the command prompt. This should invoke the Windows Script Host and display a window showing you the following:
- Description – useful for identifying which type of license is used – Volume license or OEM
- Installation ID – this is the group of numbers that Windows Activation uses for generating the activation ID
- Partial product key – useful for helping identify which product key was used to generate the installation ID
To invoke the Activation screen from a command prompt, type slui 4
To uninstall the product key, type slmgr -upk A window should appear stating that the uninstall of the product key was successful.
To install a new product key, either use the Windows Activation screen or from a command prompt, type the following: slmgr -ipk <PRODUCT KEY>
A window will appear stating that the new product key was successfully installed.
You should then be able to activate your copy of Windows.
