activate Windows automatically

[oskingen]

Hi, i' have configured MDT 2010 to deploy win 7 in my enterprise. But there is something i want to do but i did not find a solution yet.

I want that 7 automatically activactes itself during the installation software sequence. How to do that ?

Edited October 12, 2009 by hannubys

[ricktendo]

I second this...how do we unattendedly activate Win7 over the net

[cluberti]

MDT itself can't activate Windows, as it's just a framework to run scripts in the OS (this part of setup is still controlled entirely by the Windows setup engine). However, it's purpose *is* to run scripts, so you could very easily leverage this by creating a new task in a task sequence to run slmgr.vbs to activate Windows - creating a set of tasks in the State Restore phase tree to run slmgr would work. The first step would be to run "cscript.exe %windir%\system32\slmgr.vbs /ipk <product key>" if we're not talking about VL keys (the slmgr switches would differ for a VL key depending on your KMS infrastructure, obviously), and then a second step to run "cscript.exe %windir%\system32\slmgr.vbs /ato" to activate that key.

[oskingen]

actually i'm using this command "slmgr.vbs /ato" like an application install but i have to click "OK" when it says activation ok elseif the process stay in stand by to continue.

I will try your way in a task sequence.

Also, it's a Multiple Activation key and i don't use KMS in the infrastructure, is that bad to use this method (I hope not because i already started to deploy Win 7 and activate it this way)?

Edited October 13, 2009 by hannubys

[cluberti]

actually i'm using this command "slmgr.vbs /ato" like an application install but i have to click "OK" when it says activation ok elseif the process stay in stand by to continue.

I will try your way in a task sequence.

Also, it's a Multiple Activation key and i don't use KMS in the infrastructure, is that bad to use this method (I hope not because i already started to deploy Win 7 and activate it this way)?

No, this method is fine - in fact, you almost need to use slmgr to activate if you're going for automation. You should be able to do the above (assuming your MAK key is in the xml file correctly) and get fairly unattended setup and activation. If you still get stuck with an "OK" click, consider wrapping your slmgr steps in an autoit script or similar.

[oskingen]

Actually, i did exactly what you suggested me. I put this command in a task sequence instead of letting it in the application list and everything went fine. No more "Ok" to click.

Thank Cluberti!

[cluberti]