Converting Windows 2016 from Evaluation Edition and activating Windows

Please note that this how-to guide applies only to hostworld customers. You will be unable to activate Windows by following this process if your server is not provided by hostworld.

If the operating system is still in Evaluation mode or is unactivated please follow the below process. Be careful not to miss out or skip any steps.

Important: Please also note that converting from 2016 Evaluation Edition can take a number of hours when you get to step 7, however you can just leave step 6 to complete and check back periodically.

1. Login to your VM as the Administrator user.
2. Search for and open the “Task Scheduler” app. This can done by pressing the start button and typing “Task Scheduler”
3. Within the “Task Scheduler” app, click “Task Scheduler Library” on the left
4. For the task that is named “RST” – right click on this and click “Delete”. This must be deleted to continue with this process. If there is no task named “RST” proceed to step 5.
5. Restart the server and login as Administrator when it starts back up.
6. Open a command prompt (run as Administrator). Command prompt can be opened by right-clicking the start menu and selecting this option
7. Run the following command:
   

   Dism.exe /Online /Set-Edition:ServerStandard /ProductKey:WC2BQ-8NRM3-FDDYY-2BFGV-KHKQY /AcceptEula

   This can take a couple of hours and unfortunately there’s no way to speed it up. Do not restart or do anything else on your machine whilst this process is running. Once complete it will then prompt to restart the computer.
   Success: Assuming the process is a success however, restart the machine when prompted and then progress to step 8.
   Error 1: If you receive an error message relating to “/Get-Editions” please run these commands in order:

   slmgr /upk

   slmgr.vbs /cpky

   slmgr /ckms

   slmgr.vbs /ckms

   slmgr /skms localhost

   slmgr /ipk WC2BQ-8NRM3-FDDYY-2BFGV-KHKQY

   slmgr.vbs /skms kms-activation.serverworld.uk:43215

   slmgr.vbs /ato

   If at the last command you receive a message stating Windows is activated you do not need to commence any further in this process. Your Windows is now activated.
   Error 2: If this process fails you will be unable to activate your VM and will need to reinstall your VM using our latest pre-activated templates. Ensure you back up your data locally before proceeding with this.

8. Login as Administrator again and this time open PowerShell (run as Administrator). This can done by pressing the start button and typing “Powershell” and then right-clicking on this and selecting the “Run as administrator” option
   Run the following command:

   slmgr.vbs /skms kms-activation.serverworld.uk:43215

   You should then get a message stating that the Key Management Service machine name set successfully.

9. Whilst still in Powershell (still running as Administrator):
   Run the following command:

   slmgr.vbs /ato

   You should then get a message stating that the Product has been activated successfully. It can sometimes take 10 seconds or so to show this. If you get a message stating that the product is NOT activated, run all of the following commands in PowerShell:

   slmgr /upk

   slmgr.vbs /cpky

   slmgr /ckms

   slmgr.vbs /ckms

   slmgr /skms localhost

   slmgr /ipk WC2BQ-8NRM3-FDDYY-2BFGV-KHKQY

   slmgr.vbs /skms kms-activation.serverworld.uk:43215

   slmgr.vbs /ato

   If you are still unsuccessful in activating Windows, please raise a support ticket to us via our portal or reinstall your VM with our latest Windows 2016 template (backup your data before doing so)

10. (Optional) To verify that the product is activated run the following in Powershell (still running as Administrator)

slmgr.vbs /dli