Vista Activation using slmgr

I finally got my Vista volume license media yesterday. The edition is Business Edition. The license key we got is called Multiple Activation Key (MAK) . I noticed that I didn’t have to enter license key during the installation. It turns out that Vista’s installation media let you try out Vista for 30 days (this can be extended 3 times). You’ll have to install the key and activate it before the tryout period ends. Here is a step-by-step guide by Microsoft.

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If you don’t want to read the comprehensive guide. Here is what I did to install and activate my machine.

  1. Open up an elevated command prompt.
  2. Enter the following
    slmgr -ipk your-mak-key-here
    
    slmgr -ato

I mentioned that you can extend the tryout period. You use the same command to do it.


slmgr -rearm

You can use this for every editions of Vista except the Enterprise Edition which has only 3 days of tryout period.


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