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On a recent install of Windows 2008 I went to activate using the following command
Slmgr -skms kms.example.net:8084
Slmgr -ato


I received the following error message

Unrecognized Option: -skms


To fix this you need to change the OS from using a local key to use a KMS.

This is achieved by running the following command select one of the built in KMS keys below. Please note these keys do nothing but tell the system to activate using a KMS.


slmgr -ipk xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx


Replace the xxxx’s with one of the keys from this table.

Windows Vista Business – YFKBB-PQJJV-G996G-VWGXY-2V3X8
Windows Vista Business N – HMBQG-8H2RH-C77VX-27R82-VMQBT
Windows Vista Enterprise – VKK3X-68KWM-X2YGT-QR4M6-4BWMV
Windows Vista Enterprise N – VTC42-BM838-43QHV-84HX6-XJXKV
Windows Server 2008 Datacenter – 7M67G-PC374-GR742-YH8V4-TCBY3
Windows Server 2008 Datacenter without Hyper-V – 22XQ2-VRXRG-P8D42-K34TD-G3QQC
Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-Based Systems – 4DWFP-JF3DJ-B7DTH-78FJB-PDRHK
Windows Server 2008 Enterprise – YQGMW-MPWTJ-34KDK-48M3W-X4Q6V
Windows Server 2008 Enterprise without Hyper-V – 39BXF-X8Q23-P2WWT-38T2F-G3FPG
Windows Server 2008 Standard – TM24T-X9RMF-VWXK6-X8JC9-BFGM2
Windows Server 2008 Standard without Hyper-V – W7VD6-7JFBR-RX26B-YKQ3Y-6FFFJ
Windows Web Server 2008 – WYR28-R7TFJ-3X2YQ-YCY4H-M249D

You can now run the command to specify your key server and activate!

Slmgr -skms kms.example.net:8084
Slmgr -ato


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