I posted the detailed instruction on how to activate Windows Server for totally free with a legal KMS client key a month ago. However, there are a lot of people left comments or sent me emails saying that they had a problem in following my instruction. As I replied at that time, Windows Server you got from Microsoft homepage is evaluation version and it has been attached 180-day trial license. As a result, you can not install another key on your machine, in this case, KMS client key. For that reason, today I will show you how to convert the evaluation version to the retail one. Show  Step 1: Determine your edition of Windows you are using. In this case, I am using Windows Server 2019 Standard Evaluation. Step 2: List the editions that you can convert
your one to. As you can see, I can convert my OS to the retail version of the Standard edition or upgrade it to the Datacenter one. Step 3: Convert your Windows to the edition you want. “<-Edition->” and “X-X-X-X-X” are the version of Windows you want to convert to in the 2nd step and the correlative KMS client key. Step 4: Restart your
machine then check the properties again. All done! Now you can back to this post then try activating your Windows again. If you would have any questions or concerns, please leave your comments. I would be glad to explain in more details. Thank you so much for all your feedback and support! I am Guang, a freelancer and a blogger. I'm currently managing KMS system, MSGuides blog and 2 tech Youtube channels. → View all my posts | Support my projects or Buy me a coffee If it doesn't work and getting an error like: Error: 0xC004F069 orError 1168 the specified product key could not be validated, You need a Retail product key (which you will get if purchased from us) and use DISM command to upgrade Windows Server Edition from evaluation edition to Standard or Datacenter edition. Sometimes you may need to uninstall the previous key by this command:slmgr /upk Please be sure that your server is running Up to Date on the current version, so complete all update before the conversion!! For this issue, please check this link to be sure about your server version and the current version or use the following both command on PowerShell/Command Prompt - Run as Administrator:
Type following command on command prompt or PowerShell/Windows Terminal to upgrade your Windows Server Standard or Datacenter evaluation version to Retail version.
Click Y and restart the system and it's done. Please note: This method only work with Retail License for upgrading from Windows Server Evaluation version to Retail & Licensed version. If you purchased from us and going to implement your server on the environment by our given Server OS and License, simply skip it. It's only required for whom, who already installed Windows Server Evaluation version. Still have the issue? Please use/install the Generic Volume License Keys (GVLK) at first which you will get from this link, and take a restart of your server and then try again with your purchased Retail License which you will get from us(if purchased from us) or from another retail seller. Otherwise you can contact withMicrosoft Support also for fixing the issue. If the server is running an evaluation version of Windows Server Standard/Datacenter as Domain Controller, you can convert it to a retail version as follows:
For the evaluation version of Windows Server Standard, you can also convert to the retail version of Windows Server Datacenter in one step using this same command and the appropriate product key. For more information about Dism.exe, see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=192466. Nothing works? Please use the Generic Volume License Keys (GVLK) first which you will get from this link, and take a restart of your server and then try again with your purchased Retail License which you will get from us(if purchased from us) or other Microsoft Partner/Seller. Otherwise you can contact withMicrosoft Support also for fixing the issue as you will have a genuine license for activation. Seems like complicated? Why not reinstalling the server over your current server? It will give you an option to keep old data while installing the server. Can you license server 2022 evaluation?Starting August 18th, Windows Server 2022 is available in the Volume Licensing Service Center. And it's available in Standard, Datacenter, and Datacenter: Azure Edition SKUs. You can now also provision Windows Server 2022 virtual machines (VM) in Azure and download an evaluation from Microsoft's website here.
Does Windows Server 2022 come with downgrade rights?Below is an example of Windows Server 2022 per core Down Edition product specific use rights in the current Product Terms. Notice that Windows Server has both types of downgrade rights- prior version (Under the Universal Terms) and down edition use rights. Not all Products have both.
What happens when Windows Server evaluation expires?You can start it up again, but after a while, another shutdown will occur. Normally before the trial license expires you should activate it with a proper license. But there are many reasons why you may want to run Trial version for a little longer.
Can you upgrade Windows Server evaluation?You can convert the evaluation version of Windows Server to the retail version. If you have installed the evaluation of Standard edition, you can convert it to the retail version of either the Standard edition or Datacenter edition.
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