Windows 10 Enterprise Subscription - 5 device limit behaviour and background activation process

[Ben Owens]

Hello,

Hoping can shed some light on the below.  I have a few questions relating to Windows 10 Enterprise step up licensing via Azure AD. 

1. When a user has utilised their limit of 5 devices for Windows 10 Enterprise activation, what is the expected behaviour when they logon and attempt to step-up the license on a 6th device?  E.g. is the first subscription revoked?

2. How/Where can you report on the devices a user has stepped up to Windows 10 Enterprise?  Can you revoke this in PowerShell in Azure AD somewhere?

3. For troubleshooting, what is the process that actually carries out the step up in license at log on.  I found two scheduled tasks, EnableLicenseAcquisition and LicenseAcquisition under \Microsoft\Windows\Subscription\ which both run ClipRenew.exe from the system32 directory, but running this manually doesn't appear to step up the license.  They may not be related to the step-up process.  Does anybody have any details on this?

Ref - Up to five devices can be upgraded for each user license - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/windows-10-subscription-activation

Many thanks,

Ben

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Ben Owens 

Q1: It's like a queue, the 1st activated device will drop off the list when the 6th one is activated. The user may not see the device become unlicensed as the device may not have checked into Microsoft 365. The device will poll every 30 days. Once the device drops the enterprise license, it should switch back pro.

Q2: You can use the PowerShell command get-windowsedition and it will report enterprise or pro depending on the activated license. If you are activating via Office365, it should handle the changed when you add or remove a license. Local installs would use something like KMS, so you can switch the version with slmgr.vbs.

Q3: not sure on the process exe that runs the tasks. Its part of the Windows activation process. To troubleshoot this, use the standard activation steps. 

1. Is the existing license supporting the update to enterprise and is it activated.

2. Is the activation via KMS, then check DNS, SLMGR.VBS commands etc

3. Is the activation via AzureAD, then check DNS,  dsregcmd /status etc

All the information is in the link https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/deploy-enterprise-licenses.

Cheers

Craig