Categories: Windows 11 & Windows 10Windows Server

SOLVED: How To Activate Windows 10 / Server 2016 Through Command Line

UPDATE: July 2023 – If this does not work for you, you may find this updated article more useful: How To Easily Convert Windows Server Evaluation To Standard / Datacenter

If you are having problems activating Windows 10, Server 2016, Windows 8, or Server 2012 one of these three solutions below should get you through:

Command Line to Launch Activation GUI:

This is handy if the GUI won’t start and you want to skip some steps to get it to work.

  1. click START (gets you to the tiles)
  2. type RUN
  3. type slui 3 and press ENTER
    1. yes, SLUI: which stands for SOFTWARE LICENSING USER INTERFACE
      1. SLUI 1 brings up the activation status window
      2. SLUI 2 brings up the activation window
      3. SLUI 3 brings up the CHANGE PRODUCT KEY window
      4. SLUI 4 brings up the CALL MICROSOFT & MANUALLY ACTIVATE window
  4. Type in your product key
  5. Have a nice day.

Command Line to Activate Windows Through Command Line:

  1. Launch a CMD as an Administrator
  2. Type: slmgr.vbs /ipk xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
  3. Press Enter

If your key is valid and you are connected to the internet, it should activate within a second or two.

Call Microsoft Activation Center:

In Canada and the US, call the support line directly at 1 800-936-4900, otherwise, use this table of Microsoft Activation Phone Numbers to do the deed.

You also might find some of our previous posts on activation problems to be helpful:  urtech.ca/?s=activation

View Comments

  • This is a great tutorial! I have been struggling to activate Windows 10 on my work computer for a while now. This is the solution I was looking for!

  • I did what JamieP suggested and it worked for me.

    Using just SLUI (no option) from cmd line with Windows firewall turned off and it worked like a charm

  • Thank you this save my day. Windows Server 2016 had some issues when you try to install using the GUI.

  • I ran in to the same issue recently after building 3 Server 2016 VM's using a template in vSphere 5.5 .

    I tried DISM /Online /Set-Edition:ServerDatacenter /ProductKey: /AcceptEula with no luck.

    DISM /online /Get-CurrentEdition - showed me were running ServerDatacenter edition.

    Using just SLUI (no option) from cmd line or SLUI 3 came back with error saying it couldn't find the KMS server.

    I turned off Windows firewall and ran SLUI (no option) again and it worked.

  • Hi,

    Try this.

    1. Open Notepad, enter commands below substituting the Xs for your Windows Server Key.

    2. Save the file as a batch file.

    3. Run batch file.

    Commands:
    C:\Windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -ipk XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
    C:\Windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -ato

  • Thanks a lot for this info...
    SLUI 4 helped me to activate WIN-16, you saved my time and efforts. Thanks once again :)

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Published by
Ian Matthews
Tags: command line to activate windowsmicrosoft activationmicrosoft activation phoneServer 2012Server 2016Windows 10
8 years ago

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