SOLVED: Windows Activation Stuck at 10% Using DISM Command

Are you using the standard DISM command to activate your Windows and finding it is stuck at 10%:

Dism /online /Set-Edition:ServerStandard /AcceptEula /ProductKey:12345-12345-12345-12345-12345

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.14393.0
Image Version: 10.0.14393.0
Starting to update components…
Starting to install product key…
Finished installing product key.
Removing package Microsoft-Windows-ServerStandardEvalEdition~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~10.0.14393.0
[=====                      10.0%                          ]

The solution is to:

  1. Disable the network card
  2. Reboot (yes, keep the NIC disabled)
  3. Start the WINDOWS LICENSE MANAGER service
  4. Try the DISM activation command again

We have also seen the WINDOWS LICENSE MANAGER service stop during the DISM command and we just restarted it without problem.

We have also seen this process still take hours rather than the 5-10 minutes it should take, and solved the problem by restarting the WINDOWS LICENSE MANAGER while the DISM command it running.


Published by
Ian Matthews

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