Windows activation is designed to be as foolproof as possible, so Microsoft’s graphical tools keep it simple. If you want to do something more advanced like remove a product key, force an online activation, or extend the activation timer, you’ll need Slmgr.vbs.
This command line tool is included with Windows, and provides options unavailable in the standard activation interface provided on the Update & Security > Activation screen in the Settings app.
I'm trying to get a better understanding of Windows 7 activation and rearming. In the following scenario, does the rearm count matter? KMS Server is in place and working fine. Windows 7 image built Sysprep run multiple times and the image was captured by Windows deployment services. Hello smallcm, It’s highly recommended to have more.
First: Open an Administrator Command Prompt Window
SkipRearm is a registry entry which specifies whether to run the Windows Software Licensing Rearm program. Learn how to legally use Windows without activating, for 360 days. When a user uses up all three rearms available and remaining rearm count countdown to 0 (zero), the only option left is to enter a legit and genuine product key to activate Windows 7, or left the Windows 7 goes into non-genuine status, where user will face several annoyances such as black desktop background, repetitive notification messages to. Oem activation with slmgr commands. But the codes were 'deactivated' and could no longer be used to activate Windows. This was an OEM refurbisher. They supplied. To compound the problem, I can't even give this a try now as having installed our KMS server, any new install of Windows 7 immediately activates itself against the KMS and then cannot be sysprepped because the remaining rearm count drops to 1 straight away. That's from a clean install from the volume license media. Windows activation is designed to be as foolproof as possible, so Microsoft’s graphical tools keep it simple. If you want to do something more advanced like remove a product key, force an online activation, or extend the activation timer, you’ll need Slmgr.vbs.
RELATED:How Does Windows Activation Work?
To use this tool, you’ll want to launch a Command Prompt with Administrator access. To do so on Windows 8 or 10, either right-click the Start button or press Windows+X. Click the “Command Prompt (Admin)” option in the menu that appears. On Windows 7, search the Start menu for “Command Prompt,” right-click it, and select “Run as Administrator.”
Note: If you see PowerShell instead of Command Prompt on the Power Users menu, that’s a switch that came about with the Creators Update for Windows 10. It’s very easy to switch back to showing the Command Prompt on the Power Users menu if you want, or you can give PowerShell a try. You can do pretty much everything in PowerShell that you can do in Command Prompt, plus a lot of other useful things.
View Activation, License, and Expiration Date Information
To display very basic license and activation information about the current system, run the following command. This command tells you the edition of Windows, part of the product key so you can identify it, and whether the system is activated.
To display more detailed license information–including the activation ID, installation ID, and other details–run the following command:
View the License Expiration Date
To display the expiration date of the current license, run the following command. This is only useful for Windows system activated from an organization’s KMS server, as retail licenses and multiple activation keys result in a perpetual license that won’t expire. If you haven’t provided a product key at all, it’ll give you an error message.
Uninstall the Product Key
You can remove the product key from your current Windows system with Slmgr. After you run the below command and restart your computer, the Windows system won’t have a product key and will be in an unactivated, unlicensed state.
If you installed Windows from a retail license and would like to use that license on another computer, this allows you to remove the license. It could also be useful if you’re giving that computer away to someone else. However, most Windows licenses are tied to the computer they came with–unless you purchased a boxed copy.
To remove uninstall the current product key, run the following command and then restart your computer:
Windows also stores the product key in the registry, as it’s sometimes necessary for the key to be in the registry when setting up the computer. If you’ve uninstalled the product key, you should run the below command to ensure it’s removed from the registry as well. This will ensure people who use the computer in the future can’t grab the product key.
Running this command alone won’t uninstall your product key. It’ll remove it from the registry so programs can’t access it from there, but your Windows system will remain licensed unless you run the above command to actually uninstall the product key. This option is really designed to prevent the key from being stolen by malware, if malware running on the current system gains access to the registry.
Set or Change the Product Key
You can use slmgr.vbs to enter a new product key. If the Windows system already has a product key, using the below command will silently replace the old product key with the one you provide.
Run the following command to replace the product key, replacing #####-#####-#####-#####-##### with the product key. The command will check the product key you enter to ensure it’s valid before using it. Microsoft advises you restart the computer after running this command.
You can also change your product key from the Activation screen in the Settings app, but this command lets you do it from the command line.
Activate Windows Online
To force Windows to attempt an online activation, run the following command. If you’re using a retail edition of Windows, this will force Windows to attempt online activation with Microsoft’s servers. If the system is set up to use a KMS activation server, it will instead attempt activation with the KMS server on the local network. This command can be useful if Windows didn’t activate due to a connection or server problem and you want to force it to retry.
Activate Windows Offline
Slmgr also allows you to perform an offline activation. To get an installation ID for offline activation, run the following command:
You’ll now need to get a a confirmation ID you can use to activate the system over the phone. Call the Microsoft Product Activation Center, provide the installation ID you received above, and you’ll be given an activation ID if everything checks out. This allows you to activate Windows systems without Internet connections.
To enter the confirmation ID you’ve received for offline activation, run the following command. Replace “ACTIVATIONID” with the activation ID you’ve received.
Once you’re done, you can use the
slmgr.vbs /dli
or slmgr.vbs /dlv
commands to confirm you’re activated.This can generally be done from the Activation screen in the Settings app if your PC isn’t activated–you don’t have to use the command if you’d rather use the graphical interface.
Extend the Activation Timer
RELATED:You Don’t Need a Product Key to Install and Use Windows 10
Some Windows systems provide a limited time where you can use them as free trials before entering a product key. For example, Windows 7 offers a 30-day trial period before it begins complaining at you. To extend this trial period and reset it back to 30 days remaining, you can use the following command.As Microsoft’s documentation puts it, this command “resets the activation timers.”
This command can only be used several times, so you can’t indefinitely extend the trial. The number of time it can be used depends on the “rearm count,” which you can view using the
slmgr.vbs /dlv
command. It seems different on different versions of Windows–it was three times on Windows 7, and it seems to be five times on Windows Server 2008 R2.This no longer seems to work on Windows 10, which is very lenient if you don’t provide it a product key anyway. This option still works on older versions of Windows and may continue to work on other editions of Windows, such as Windows Server, in the future.
Slmgr.vbs Can Perform Actions on Remote Computers, Too
Slmgr normally performs the actions you specify on the current computer. However, you can also remotely administer computers on your network if you have access to them. For example, the first command below applies to the current computer, while the second one will be run on a remote computer. You’ll just need the computer’s name, username, and password.
The Slmgr.vbs command has other options, which are useful for dealing with KMS activation and token-based activation. Consult Microsoft’s Slmgr.vbs documentation for more details.
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SkipRearm is a registry entry which specifies whether to run the Windows Software Licensing Rearm program. Rearming a computer restores Windows Vista and later, to the original licensing state. All licensing and registry data related to activation is either removed or reset. Any grace period timers are reset as well.
- 0 : Specifies that the computer will be rearmed & any grace period timers will be reset
- 1 : Specifies that the computer will not be rearmed & grace period timers will not be reset.
SkipRearm registry key in Windows
SkipRearm specifies whether to run the Windows Software Licensing Rearm program. Rearming a computer restores the Windows operating system to the original licensing state. All licensing and registry data related to activation are either removed or reset. Any grace period timers are reset as well, states Microsoft.
In other words, SkipRearm specifies whether to reset the Windows licensing state when you generalize a computer. Resetting the Windows licensing state means that all licensing and registry data related to activation is either removed or reset.
The activation grace period is typically 30 days. It begins after Windows Setup finishes and the computer boots for the first time. While there is no limit to the number of times that the Sysprep command can run on a computer, in Windows 7 and Windows Vista, there is a limit to the number of times Windows can be rearmed. Typically, a system can be rearmed only 3 times, mentions Technet.
Knowing this, one can now proceed as follows : Click Start > Type cmd in search > Press Ctrl+Alt+Enter to access it in the Administrative mode. Now type slmgr -rearm in it and press Enter.
Within a minute, you will be prompted to restart your computer. After the restart, the activation timer will have been re-set to 30 more days. Now this works only 3 times; which means that you effectively get 120 days.
Now open Regedit and go to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentversionSL
Right click SkipRearm & change its value to 1. Now again Click Start > Type cmd in search > Press Ctrl + Alt + Enter to access it in the Administrative mode and again type slmgr -rearm in it, press Enter and then reboot when prompted.
This way you can use rearm 8 more times, giving you 240 days. this way you will get 120 + 240 = 360 days !
However, at study mentions that SkipRearm may or may not help. While some users reported that they could duplicate the results of changing the SkipRearm value in the Registry, others found no effect on Windows activation deadline.
Continued tests have revealed that SkipRearm cannot be used to extend Windows deadline. Instead, the results indicate that Windows has what may be called “defensive mode.” In this mode, Windows changes its activation deadline if a PC’s system clock is changed.
Try the following steps on a fresh copy of Windows:
Slmgr Rearm Windows 7
Step 1. Install Windows on a clean hard drive.
Step 2. When prompted for the correct time by Windows, set the clock back at least a few minutes from the original time held by the system clock. Or set the clock back at any point after you’ve installed Windows.
Step 3. Open a command window with admin privileges. To do this in Windows, click the Start button, enter cmd in the Search box, and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter. If you’re asked for a username and password, enter the ones that log you into your domain. At the command prompt, type slmgr –dli and press Enter. This command, which can require as long as one minute to process, displays Windows license information. Note the number of minutes remaining before Windows activation deadline. It’s a maximum of 43,200 minutes (30 days) on a new installation. Type exit and press Enter to close the command window.
Step 4. Reboot the PC, then repeat step 3 to determine the new number of minutes remaining.
On the PC’s they tested, Windows activation deadline has been pushed back a seemingly random amount of time by this procedure. They’ve seen changes of as much as 303 minutes (more than 5 hours). The process has nothing to do with the SkipRearm key in the Registry and doesn’t allow SkipRearm to push the deadline back indefinitely. This means dishonest PC sellers can’t use SkipRearm to create PCs that look activated.
However, one can still continue to use Windows without activation for 120 days, by the tip mentioned originally.
Although the source of this registry trick is a TechNet article, you should check if it is in tune with Microsoft’s Licence agreement for your product key..
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