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Obtaining Extended Security Updates for eligible Windows devices

Poornima_Priyadarshini's avatar
Poornima_Priyadarshini
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Feb 11, 2020
  Update 3.14.2023: We have added a new table with ESU SKU IDs for Windows Server 2008/2008 R2. Update 1.31.2023: For organizations that need additional time to upgrade and modernize thei...
Updated Nov 29, 2023
Version 28.0
servicing and updates
CFS3RD's avatar
CFS3RD
Copper Contributor
Mar 19, 2020

Regarding Activation IDs:

 

Mystery #1: At first because I didn't know any better, I was only using the command slmgr /ato and that worked on a couple of Windows 2008 R2 servers. The servers showed as activated and got the March Rollup. I'm not sure why I didn't need an activation ID.

 

Mystery #2: I'm glad I read this article because I discovered that slmgr /ato needs to be followed by the activation ID. (Apparently not always....See Mystery #1.) So what makes this also a mystery is that my Windows 2008R2 activation IDs do not match what is in the table above. Once I did add my servers' activation ID (not what's in the table above) to the command on the problem servers, I finally got them activated. I've read through the comments on this page but nobody else seems to have found the same discrepancy.