Windows Vista Product Activation And The Fashionable LSP

Ryan Hartman (rdhartma@indiana.edu)

April 19, 2023

Overview

• Quick review of Office 2007/Windows Vista product lines

• Update on Office 2007/Windows Vista availability at IU

• Microsoft Production Activation 2.0

• MAK Activation VS. KMS Activation

• How to Activate

• How to automate Activations

April 19, 2023

April 19, 2023

Windows Office 2007 Editions

• ConsumerBasic 2007

Home and Student 2007

Standard 2007

Ultimate 2007

• BusinessSmall Business 2007

Professional 2007

Professional Plus 2007

Enterprise 2007

Office Suite ComparisonApril 19, 2023

April 19, 2023

Office 2007 Distributions

• Volume License – Office 2007 Enterprise• Available IU to the community from IUware Online

• Embedded (Shared) Product Key

• Available now

• Retail Edition – Office 2007 Enterprise• IU Bookstores

• Individual Product Key

• Cost ??

• Available: April 2007??

• Uses “old school” Production Activation• More about this later

April 19, 2023

Windows Vista Editions

• Consumer

Windows Vista Home Basic

Windows Vista Home Premium

Windows Vista Ultimate

• Business

Windows Vista Business

Windows Vista Enterprise

Windows Vista ComparisonApril 19, 2023

Windows Vista Enterprise• Similar features to Business• Data Protection

• BitLocker™ (don’t forget the ™)• Application Compatibility

• VM’s for Legacy Apps• A UNIX based subsystem for UNIX apps

• Multi-Language Support• One image-> many languages

April 19, 2023

April 19, 2023

Windows Vista Distributions

Volume License Edition - Enterprise• Available LSPs only from IUware Online• MAK or KMS Activation Required• Available now

Retail Edition – Enterprise & Ultimate• IU Bookstore• Retail Key Activation Only• Cost ??• Available: April 2007??

Microsoft Volume License Product Keys

• Volume Activation 1.0– The first generation of VLKs

– Almost everything but Vista uses this type of key

– This key bypasses product activation

• Volume Activation 2.0 Multiple Activation Key– Activate products through the internet or telephone

– Have a limited number of activations associated with them

• Volume Activation 2.0 Key Management Service– Key will be used to enable a new service in your environment that will

automatically activate products in your environment

April 19, 2023

Microsoft Production Activation 2.0 Goals from their FAQ

• Close significant piracy loopholes – Volume License keys represent majority of the keys that are involved in

Windows piracy.

– According to Microsoft 35% all software is stolen.

• Improve the volume customer experience.• VA 2.0 also may provide enhanced security

– Frequent background validations for genuine modules.

– This is currently limited to critical software, but may be expanded greatly over time.

April 19, 2023

VA 2.0 Covers A Lot of Ground

• VA 2.0 will be expanding• Many of the tools and for VA are not currently

available!• For the moment let’s limit our discussion to

– VA 2.0 and Windows Vista

– VA as it exists now

– VS as implemented here at IU

April 19, 2023

Windows Vista - Volume Activation 2.0 at IU

• An installation key is not required– Vista installations will install and run for 30 days without any keys

• Activation is required– If activation does not occur in that 30-day period, the OS goes into

Reduced Functionality Mode (RFM)

• Two methods of activating VA2 software– Multiple Activation Key (MAK)

– Key Management Service (KMS)

• Other Vista activation methods you might see– OEM installs

– Retail

April 19, 2023

Multiple Activation Key (MAK) Activations• How it works

– Computers connect directly to servers at Microsoft and perform a one-time, permanent activation

– Computers that cannot be connected to the Internet can activate over the phone

• Limited Number of Activations– No new activations allowed when this limit is reached

– This number can be increased by request

• ‘Black Listing’ is Possible– No new activations allowed

– Previously activated machines could be mark as non-genuine!!

April 19, 2023

Component class name Weight

CD-ROM/CD-RW/DVD-ROM 1

Display adapter 1

RAM 1

Audio adapter 2

MAC Address 2

SCSI Adapter 2

IDE Adapter 3

CPU 3

BIOS ID 9

OS Hard Drive Serial Number 11

MAK activations must be renewed if significant hardware changes occur.

As hardware changes occur, Windows Vista tracks each change, using a weighted score to accumulate changes made.

If a cumulative score reaches 25, the computer is considered out of tolerance and must be activated with a MAK

Activation Hardware Tolerance

April 19, 2023

Key Management Service (KMS)Activations

• KMS activation requires a local KMS Server– microsoftkeys.iu.edu

• Finding the KMS Server– Put a client Machine in ADS

• The activations are leases– Once clients find and activate on the KMS server, their lease is 180 days

– If a client is unable to reconnect to the KMS server for 180 days• It will go into a 30-day grace period

• If that 30 days passes without activation, the client will enter RFM

– Clients will attempt to reconnect to the KMS server at one-week intervals. Every time it succeeds in connecting, it will extend its lease out another 180 days from the date it connects

April 19, 2023

Choosing between MAK and KMS

MAK• PROs

– One time activation– Doesn’t need KMS– Familiar

• CONs– You have do an activation– Reactivate with major

upgrades– Possible Black Listing/ Key

Exhaustion

KMS• CONs

– 180 Day Lease– Requires connecting to KMS server– Restricted to the IU network

• PROs– Put the machine in ADS and you

don’t have to do anything else as long as the machine is on the IU network

– Unlimited number of Activations!

April 19, 2023

My Personal Recommendations

• Machines on campus: KMS– Why not? It is really easy and doesn’t burn a MAK key

• Machines off campus: MAK– Not as convenient but no worse than the current XP model

• Can’t decide?– No problem: it is possible to switch

• Ok how do I do this stuff?

April 19, 2023

To activate MAK manually using the Windows interface

April 19, 2023

To activate MAK manually using the Windows interface

April 19, 2023

To activate MAK manually over the Internet using a script

April 19, 2023

To activate KMS clients (easy way)

• Install Windows Vista on the Machine• Join the Machine to ADS

– Machine needs to be able to reach

• Host microsoftkeys.iu.edu (10.79.6.29)

• Port 1688

• Done

April 19, 2023

To activate KMS clients from a script

• Tell you Client where the KMS Server lives:– cscript \windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -skms microsoftkeys.iu.edu:1688

• Activate– cscript \windows\system32\slmgr.vbs –ato

April 19, 2023

To Convert from MAK to KMS

• Remove the MAK Key:– cscript \windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -ipk <setup key>

– <setup Key> lives in sources\pid.txt on you Vista DVD

• If the machine is in ADS KMS will happen by itself– To do it manually just like the last side.

April 19, 2023

Activation and Multiple Machines

• Ghost• Unattended Installs• MAK to KMS GPO scripts etc.

April 19, 2023

• A computer enters RFM if it fails to activate within the 30-day grace period or if it fails to reactivate within 30 days after the 180 days KMS activation expires (in case of a KMS-activated computer).

• In RFM, the user is provided multiple options for activation after logon. If the computer is not reactivated within one hour, the user is forcibly logged off.

• MAK-activated computers go into RFM if they fail to activate within 30 days of installation or if they fail to renew activation within 30 days of a major hardware replacement

Reduced Functionality Mode

April 19, 2023

Virtual Machines

• VM’s don’t count towards the KMS n-count– So try to use KMS for VM’s

• You can do MAK activations on VM’s– If the host machine hardware changes significantly then it might

require reactivation

• VM’s get the regular 30-day grace period

April 19, 2023Customize header: View menu/Header and Footer

Ryan Hartman (rdhartma@indiana.edu)

Questions?

April 19, 2023