Forum Discussion
Question About MAK Windows Activation
Hello everyone.
The question is the following.
We have a customer with a subscription for Windows Server 2025 Standard - 8 Core License Pack 1 Year quantity 3 (from partner portal). From the servers that the key have been assign i see that the key is on MAK channel. The question is, if i remove the key with dism i will get back a activation? I mean at this time we have 0 activation remaining, if i remove the key the remaining activation number will increase to 1 from 0?
I cant found a solid answer on the web so please help.
Thanks.
Best Regards
SG
1 Reply
MAK keys are a volume licensing mechanism with a fixed number of activations. There isn’t a way to “return” an activation by removing the key from a server—each activation consumes one from the pool permanently. Removing the product key or re‑imaging the machine will not increase the remaining activation count.
If you’ve exhausted the activations because of rebuilds or hardware changes, you can request additional activations through the partner/Volume Licensing Service Center. For environments where servers are frequently redeployed, consider using Key Management Service (KMS) or Active Directory‑based activation instead of a MAK key. Those methods provide ongoing activation without consuming MAK activations.
