Forum Discussion

Copper Contributor

Jun 17, 2019

Windows 10 Subscription Activation via Powershell

We recently purchased E3 Subscription licenses for Windows 10. Microsoft's documentation states for exisiting enterprise deployments, the following script should be ran via a command line: @echo off...

System Center Configuration Manager

Windows PowerShell

Graham Watts

Copper Contributor

Jun 25, 2019

Pat O'Neil

OK, I'll admit I didn't validate the actual process you were running initially; it looked visually OK at a first glance.

Some quick playing shows that changePK.exe seems to suck when called via Start-Process or Invoke-Expression. So, what I've done instead is switch to another licensing utility instead, slmgr.vbs.

Try this:

$ProductKey = (Get-CimInstance -ClassName SoftwareLicensingService).OA3xOriginalProductKey

if ($null -ne $ProductKey)

{

Start-Process -FilePath "c:\Windows\System32\slmgr.vbs" -ArgumentList "/ipk $ProductKey"

}

Pat O'Neil

Copper Contributor

Jun 27, 2019

Figured it out. Had to add -filepath after start-process. It now activates the embedded key! Thank you so much!

$ProductKey = (Get-CimInstance -ClassName SoftwareLicensingService).OA3xOriginalProductKey

if ($null -ne $ProductKey)

{
start-process -filepath c:\Windows\System32\changePK.exe -ArgumentList "/ProductKey $ProductKey"
}

gastone

Brass Contributor

Jul 27, 2019

Totally native Powershell & remote activation:

cls
$computer = $env:computername
$ProductKey = (Get-CimInstance -ClassName SoftwareLicensingService).OA3xOriginalProductKey
if ($ProductKey) {
    write-debug "set $ProductKey" 
    $service = get-wmiObject -query "select * from SoftwareLicensingService" -computername $computer
    $service.InstallProductKey($ProductKey )
    $service.RefreshLicenseStatus()
    $service.RefreshLicenseStatus()
    write-debug "done"
}else{
	write-debug 'Key not found!'
}

Graham Watts
Copper Contributor
Jun 28, 2019
Pat O'Neil

Interesting! I could have sworn I tried formatting the command fully with the -FilePath in my lab and it didn't work, hence I change over at all.

I'm glad we got there in the end! :)
- Pat O'Neil
  Copper Contributor
  Jun 28, 2019
  The command won't work if you're running it on a VM or a machine without an embedded key in the mobo, so perhaps that's why?
  
  Thank you again for your assistance. I appreciate it quite a bit.
  - Graham Watts
    Copper Contributor
    Jun 30, 2019
    That could be it.
    
    Either way, glad you got what you need.
    
    No problem, any time!