How to Activate Windows Server 2019 Evaluation Edition with VLSC MAK key or Retail key #WINDOWSSERVER #MVPHOUR

Posted by Cary Sun | Apr 3, 2019 | Step-by-Step, Windows Server | 23 |

When you try to activate Windows server 2019 from evaluation version, do you always get an error message “the product key you entered didn’t work. Check the product key and try again, or enter a different one. (0x80070490)”? Today, I am going to show you how to install license key to activate Windows Server 2019 from Evaluation version. Let’s follow steps to activate your windows server 2019 (it also can be use for activating Windows Server 2016).

Note: you cannot use slmgr /ipk command with VLSC MAK key or Retail to activate evaluation edition server directly.

Login to Windows Server 2019.
Open Settings and then select System.
Select About and check Edition.
If it shows Windows Server 2019 Standard or others non-evaluation edition, you can activate it without reboot.
Don’t use GUI to activate it, you will get error message most of time.
Run command prompt or PowerShell as administrator.
Type following command.
```
slmgr /ipk your_product_key
```
It will pop up Windows Script Host window and shows “install product key xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxx successfully. Click OK to close the window.
Type following command to activate license key.
```
slmgr /ato
```
It will pop up Windows Script Host window and shows “Activating Windows ®, ServerStandard edition (xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxx).. Product activated successfully”. Click OK to close the window.
That’s it, you have already activated your server without reboot.
But when you check your server edition and it shows Windows Server 2019 Standard Evaluation, you need more steps to activate it and need to reboot server.
You cannot use slmgr command to install product key(Retail or VLSC MAK key) to evaluation edition server, you will get error message “Error:0xC004F069 On a computer running Microsoft Windows non-core edition….”
To upgrade evaluation edition server to standard (or Datacenter) edition, you cannot use VLSC MAK key, you will got error message “Error 1168 the specified product key could not be validated……”
You need a KMS clients Activation and product Keys—Key Management Services (KMS) client activation and product keys for Windows Server and Windows | Microsoft Docs ( and use DISM command to upgrade Edition from evaluation edition to standard (or Datacenter) edition

Type following command to upgrade evaluation edition to standard (or Datacenter) edition.

Standard Edition:


DISM /Online /Set-Edition:ServerStandard /ProductKey:xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx /AcceptEula

Datacenter Edition:


DISM /Online /Set-Edition:ServerDatacenter /ProductKey:xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx /AcceptEula

Click Y and restart the server. if you own VLSC MAK license not retail, you need to following steps to install your VLSC MAK key and activate for your server.
Login the server after reboot.
Run command prompt or PowerShell as administrator,

Type following command.

slmgr /ipk XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX (your VLSC MAK key)

It will pop up Windows Script Host window and shows “install product key xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxx successfully. Click OK to close the window.
Type following command to activate license key
```
slmgr /ato
```
It will pop up Windows Script Host window and shows “Activating Windows ®, ServerStandard edition (xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxx).. Product activated successfully”. Click OK to close the window.
That’s it, you have already change product key from Retail key to VLSC MAK key and activated your server without reboot.

Hope you enjoy this post.

Cary Sun

Twitter: @SifuSun

Web Site: carysun.com

Blog Site: checkyourlogs.net

Blog Site: gooddealmart.com

About The Author

Cary Sun

Cary Sun has a wealth of knowledge and expertise in data center and deployment solutions. As a Principal Consultant, he likely works closely with clients to help them design, implement, and manage their data center infrastructure and deployment strategies. With his background in data center solutions, Cary Sun may have experience in server and storage virtualization, network design and optimization, backup and disaster recovery planning, and security and compliance management. He holds CISCO CERTIFIED INTERNETWORK EXPERT (CCIE No.4531) from 1999. Cary is also a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP), Microsoft Azure MVP, Veeam Vanguard and Cisco Champion. He is a published author with several titles, including blogs on Checkyourlogs.net, and the author of many books. Cary is a very active blogger at checkyourlogs.net and is permanently available online for questions from the community. His passion for technology is contagious, improving everyone around him at what they do. Blog site: https://www.checkyourlogs.net Web site: https://carysun.com Blog site: https://gooddealmart.com Twitter: @SifuSun in: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sifusun/ Amazon Author: https://Amazon.com/author/carysun

23 Comments

concerned user on June 24, 2019 at 7:16 pm

In your first screenshot, you have the product key in the title. You will probably want to change that.
Reply
Ralph on June 26, 2019 at 2:31 pm

Hi Cary. Very helpful, but I expect you probably want to blur your window titles too. I am grateful you didn’t as I was able to use the key temporarily with my network disconnected before switching to my volume license key to activate against our KMS. The choice between reinstalling a couple of servers or buying a retail key just for the purposes of changing an Eval to a licensed server really sucked. In future I know to download the ISO from VLSC not the Eval site.
Reply
- Dave Kawula on July 10, 2019 at 3:26 pm
  
  We have fixed it up now
  Reply
clwolf on September 3, 2019 at 6:22 pm

This did not work for ServerStandardEvalCor to ServerStandardCor. Still trying to get it licensed.
Reply
- jesonir on October 25, 2019 at 12:16 am
  
  I just tried and it worked. You would need to convert the Evaluation Copy to Standard using a Retail Product key (which i got from the internet) instead of your MAK key. Once converted to Standard, you can then activate (Powershell) using your MAK key from VLSC.
  
  Thanks Cary.
  Reply
  - Predrag Mirjanic on August 20, 2020 at 7:58 am
    
    HOW?! Im banging my head for 2 days now. CORE edition creates error 1168. Maybe you have misread clwolf, it is problem to activate ServerStandardEvalCor to ServerStandardCor (please note the “cor” in edition). Can you please write steps if you managed to fix problem with “cor” one.
    Reply
RockyDog on September 16, 2019 at 4:55 am

Thank you! Steps 14-18 allowed me to activate 2019 Standard Eval to 2019 Standard. The PowerShell command was not needed in my case. The license was updated after re-boot.
Reply
Sebastian on September 16, 2019 at 8:51 am

I had a problem with my key. I always got the message “Error 1168 the specified product key could not be validated……”. So I used the public microsoft standard key for the KMS to switch from StdEval Std. After the switch I was able to change the key with slmgr /ipk
Reply
HF on October 8, 2019 at 9:59 pm

In step 16, we used the generic KMS key to convert from EVAL. After rebooting we were able to input the MAK key using the GUI.
Reply
Rurico on October 14, 2019 at 4:50 pm

Thanks! It worked
Reply
Sajikumar on November 2, 2019 at 1:43 pm

You can activate windows evaluation version using Volume license key in a tricky way.

If you have OEM or retails key you can use slmgr /ipk to install new prodcut key slmgr /ato to activate windows.

But to activate volume license key use follow the below procdure .

Run this command as administrator
Check your current edition of windows using the below command

DISM /online /Get-CurrentEdition

Refer the below URL and find the product for your current edition (I was installed windows 2019 standard and product i taken from below URL
is N69G4-B89J2-4G8F4-WWYCC-J464C is windows server LTSC/LTSB edition)

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/get-started/kmsclientkeys

Then remove the existing key using below command

slmgr /cpky —- remove key from registry
slmgr /upk —uninstall the product key

run the following command in command prompt as admin

DISM /online /Set-Edition:ServerStandard /ProductKey:N69G4-B89J2-4G8F4-WWYCC-J464C /AcceptEula

if command run successfully, it will prompt to restart server.

After restart run the below command as administrator

slmgr.vbs /ipk M7XTQ-FN8P6-TTKYV-904CC-J462D (My volume license key, use your key instead)

slmgr.vbs .ato ( to activate windows )

This is works for me.
Reply
- 1_IT_JUNKIE on January 27, 2020 at 2:57 pm
  
  Thank you so much! This is the only method that actually worked for me after trying all sort of fixes.
  Reply
- Alpendu on October 26, 2021 at 7:22 am
  
  Excellent saji Its worked for me. I was worried for my domain connected file server but as you suggested in steps its done 🙂
  Reply
- Feras on March 29, 2022 at 12:53 am
  
  You saved many people big effort and time. Thanks a lot….
  Reply
Wandel on February 23, 2020 at 3:00 pm

Thank you very much! Step 16 did the trick. We wanted to activate Server Standrad Evalualtion with a ROK Key and until we found this it has always failed.
Reply
lukeselectricalsalescom on December 2, 2020 at 10:57 pm

Thank you so much!
Reply
Seth on March 6, 2021 at 10:37 am

it would be super awesome if I could adapt this to running in VM (parallels). I had to resort to using a chinese KMS for home edition 🙁
Reply
markgosscounselling on July 15, 2021 at 10:01 am

Thanks a lot. Worked perfectly. Appreciate you sharing this.
Reply
SPYDOR on August 26, 2021 at 11:14 am

Excellent article; saved me any further problems yesterday, all thanks to Microsoft’s inept software developers and poor design choices in totally screwing up should have been a simple task via the GUI.
Reply
Sam on November 11, 2021 at 9:54 am

thanks man. You saved my day.
Reply
myvitrd on May 26, 2022 at 5:55 am

Tq bro… success install My volume license key
Reply
Razi on January 21, 2023 at 2:40 pm

Wonderful Worked Smoothly. Excellent Article with very easy explanation
Reply
Gaystb1 Gonzalespy47 on March 2, 2023 at 7:07 am

Thanks.
Reply