Forum Discussion
M365 Win 10 E3 activation issue
Option 1
Microsoft E3/E5 needs Windows 10 Pro Licence on first to install Windows 10 Enterprise, if you didn't have W10Pro then you need to purchase and install that first.
Option 2
"Cannot connect to server" this sounds like it has registered a KMS instead of a MAK key.
See if it is looking for a KMS Server:
Open CMD as an administrator. At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER: nslookup -type=all _vlmcs._tcp>kms.txt
Open the KMS.txt file that is generated by the command.
Option 3
Sometimes there are registration delays in validating licences, keep trying and also check to see if the client isn't being blocked by your firewall
Option 4
the Microsoft E3/E5 requires the PC to be Azure Joined and the user to have rights to join Azure, make sure the registered user has permission in AAD.
Option 5
Make sure the PC is up to date with the latest updates AAD has a minimum requirement
is updates fail, delete the Windows Update Cache and run this in elevated CMD
wuauclt.exe /detectnow /updatenow
My client purchases WIndows 10 Home computers from big box stores. We run the update to Windows 10 Pro via the Microsoft Store ($99) then connect the computer to Azure AD as all users have Microsoft 365 licenses. I thought the upgrade would be to Windows 10 Business, so why does it show Enterprise and not able to activate? Mark Masiak
Hi!
My issue was that this computer was purchased with a Win 10 Home license. I've purchased a Pro-license and after that everything works fine.
Thank you all for your replies!
//Peter
Peter Holzinger- This was super helpful! We had a very similar issue. What ended up happening for us, was that the imaged machine was refurbished and the product key wasn't able to be queried via wmic due to the refurbishing process. To resolve it, we entered the product key manually based on what was on the sticker on the computer itself. After re-entering this key the Activation worked.
