Forum Discussion

Copper Contributor

Aug 14, 2023

Why is a fresh Enterprise Evaluation installation license expired?

Hello, normally whenever I would install the Windows Enterprise Evaluation it would automatically activate the 90-day license. This has changed however as this time I did a fresh install (already tr...

Copper Contributor

Aug 16, 2023

I don't have a solution for this either, but i can confirm the same thing is happening to me. I tried installing windows 11 ent eval in a virtual machine 15 times today with different setup parameters, and I was unable to pickup the 90 day trial license either. Even running a slmgr /rearm to grab a new license fails for the same reason. 2 weeks ago i installed win 11 ent eval from the same ISO image and it did grab a license then. I think we will probably just have to wait till Microsoft fixes this on their end. The error message code returned is an office license activation error code (0xC400C032) so maybe win 11 ent eval is being pointed to the wrong activation server, who knows??

boogle

Copper Contributor

Aug 17, 2023

Chiming in that I too am in the same situation. New images built from Win10 enterprise trial (regular and ltsc) are expired immediately after installation and a few older builds that still have ~60 days left are expired if I try to reset them.

Of note, it does NOT appear to affect Windows Server 2019 right now as I am able to install and rearm trials today.

Jakub_Pavlat
Copper Contributor
Aug 17, 2023
FYI I have originally posted the same issue https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-win_licensing/why-is-a-fresh-enterprise-evaluation-installation/df0b8887-f89a-4cea-b565-834922f3c27a and there is a discussion ongoing as well

AnurinX exactly the same state - my best guess would be a combination of the key the ISOs use and the records for those on the activation server

Sath07 i think the error code is more universal - i think it's just more known from issues with activating the office suite rather than the eval licenses, but I could be wrong. I also tried an older ISO which I know worked before, so if the issue is contacting the wrong server it would have to be the server that changed.

boogle thanks for investigating - is the partial product key of the Server 2019 also "YG9R6"? any info you get from a working eval install is potentially gold

David_8086-i9 I think that is the common sentiment here 🙂 it is just super convenient to have a disposable install like that available
- boogle
  Copper Contributor
  Aug 17, 2023
  Jakub_PavlatNo, the partial product key for Win 2019 is H6F8M. I installed from the iso named: 17763.737.190906-2324.rs5_release_svc_refresh_SERVER_EVAL_x64FRE_en-us_1 and confirm that right now /rearm works successfully on it.