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.

click START (gets you to the tiles)
type RUN
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
Type in your product key
Have a nice day.

Command Line to Activate Windows Through Command Line:

Launch a CMD as an Administrator
Type: slmgr.vbs /ipk xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
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

Categories: Windows 11 & Windows 10Windows Server

Tags: command line to activate windowsmicrosoft activationmicrosoft activation phoneServer 2012Server 2016Windows 10

21 Comments

Benjamin · August 2, 2018 at 5:43 am

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

Adri · February 4, 2018 at 2:37 am

This helped me getting Win2016 activated by using SLUI 3.

Thanks a lot and have a great day!

JamieP · January 28, 2018 at 6:14 pm

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.

Jose · January 12, 2018 at 12:33 pm

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

Z@!D · November 13, 2017 at 10:53 pm

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

manuelc · August 23, 2017 at 8:10 am

thanks for the information, it help me to activate win16 save me time and effort.

Piet Heijn · June 26, 2017 at 5:33 am

But how to do the offline activation?
Not everyone’s on the net….

Ian Matthews · July 4, 2017 at 2:32 pm

You have to call Microsoft to activate offline. Here all of the regional numbers for Microsoft activations:
http://www.urtech.ca/2014/07/solved-how-to-call-microsoft-on-the-phone-to-activate-your-windows-or-office-product/

JDE · June 20, 2017 at 5:00 am

slui.exe 4 worked just fine for Windows Server 2016.

Ibrahim · June 7, 2017 at 12:46 am

Hello, please which way can this server 2016 activate well?
Please help!!!

Ian Matthews · July 4, 2017 at 2:48 pm

Server 2016 should activate using the same processes. What are you seeing?

Steffen · May 30, 2017 at 6:38 am

Pour une clé d’activation originale, je vous suggère le site “licence-activation”
J’en ai utilisé une clé de chez eux et ça marche parfaitement bien.
Ils répondent assez rapidement, et peuvent aussi vous assister par Teamviewer en cas de problème.
Je le recommande fortement.

Ian Matthews · July 4, 2017 at 3:05 pm

TRANSLATION: For an original activation key, I suggest the ‘license activation’ site. I used a key from them and it works perfectly well. They respond pretty quickly, and can also assist you by Teamviewer if problem. I highly recommend it.

Michael Weyant · February 5, 2017 at 4:01 pm

I believe this is the command you’re looking for.

dism /online /set-edition:ServerStandard /productkey:XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX /accepteula

Or if you installed Standard edition and you want to change it to datacenter

dism /online /set-edition:ServerDatacenter /productkey:XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX /accepteula

or you can also see what upgrades are available
dism /online /Get-TargetEditions

Pete · January 6, 2017 at 2:40 am

Server 2016 Datacenter gui would not allow product key change. The command line activation works fine.

Meziggues · November 8, 2016 at 3:18 am

Hello, slui.exe 4 doesn’t work for win 2016 server sorry…

Raj · October 29, 2016 at 8:59 pm

Great article with all the methods summarized, thanks!

Windows server 2016 TP 5 activation | Richard Siddaway's Blog · May 26, 2016 at 10:49 am

[…] This post http://www.urtech.ca/2016/02/solved-how-to-activate-windows-10-server-2016-through-command-line/ […]

Published by Ian Matthews on February 25, 2016February 25, 2016

Command Line to Launch Activation GUI:

Command Line to Activate Windows Through Command Line: