Installed WHS2011 without entering product key. After installation, successfully ran all updates. Tried to "activate" WHS2011 via internet but received incorrect product key error. Tried other product key with the same results. (Neither had been used before). The saga (and my rant) begins:
Windows Home Server 2011 Product Key Generator
BullDawgIn God We Trust____________ wrote in message news:55d9369b-f717-45a5-9db1-295482c75dfd@communitybridge.codeplex.com...: Downloaded from TechNet, Windows Home Server 2011. Also got 2 products keys for WHS2011 at the same time.:: Installed WHS2011 without entering product key. After installation, successfully ran all updates. Tried to "activate" WHS2011 via internet but received incorrect product key error. Tried other product key with the same results. (Neither had been used before). The saga (and my rant) begins::: * Called activation phone number. They sent me to TechNet.: * TechNet checked both product keys and both are valid.: * Called activation again. They sent me to support.: * Spent 1.5 hours and talked to 5 people only to get to Level 2 Support's gatekeeper. She would not put me through to tech support. Repeatedly tried to pass support ownership (OEM product? No; Retail product? No; Where did you get the product? TechNet; Where did you get the product? TechNet; etc.). I repeatedly reminded her that this WAS a Microsoft Activation Issue (who else can handle an activation issue?). I believe the issue was WHO was going to pay for the support call and whether it should be home or corporate support. OH, and by the way, I asked for support id/case id from each agent only to be told that the next agent would create one. The Gatekeeper said they would create one and then call me back.: * For the record, I have sold and supported Microsoft products for 25 years. I have never had a significant issue with activation.:: Rant done! Anyone, have any ideas? Run the repair disk? Regedit? Any other way to activate this product?:: I hesitate to recommend a product that: 1) I can't activate, 2) Microsoft does not want to support.:: A perfect song for this experience: :
After 4 hours on the phone and 8 agents, Microsoft determined that I have an OEM version of WHS 2011 and that my TechNet product keys will not activate this version. The CATCH 22 experience is that Microsoft does not have a non-OEM version (that I can find). Therefore, the TechNet product keys will not activate the TechNet downloaded version of WHS 2011...
One tech tried issuing a new product key that was linked to the ECS motherboard I am using. I believe it failed to activate since it is a generic server that uses ECS motherboard without any special OEM partitions/configurations. Does the activation try to poke the ROM to get this information? That would be the only validation available for an OEM validation.
I updated my posting. The WHS 2011 version I downloaded from TechNet is an OEM version. The TechNet product keys are valid but fail during the OEM validation. In my research, I do not believe Microsoft offers a traditional version (non-OEM version). A support tech offered a new product key supposedly "tied" to my ECS motherboard but it failed to activate also.
I updated my posting. The WHS 2011 version I downloaded from TechNet is an OEM version. The TechNet product keys are valid but fail during the OEM validation. In my research, I do not believe Microsoft offers a traditional version (non-OEM version). A support tech offered a new product key supposedly "tied" to my ECS motherboard but it failed to activate also.
BullDawgIn God We Trust____________ wrote in message news:abc5236d-4817-4a82-9a4c-8e021cc52485@communitybridge.codeplex.com...: UPDATE::: After 4 hours on the phone and 8 agents, Microsoft determined that I have an OEM version of WHS 2011 and that my TechNet product keys will not activate this version. The CATCH 22 experience is that Microsoft does not have a non-OEM version (that I can find). Therefore, the TechNet product keys will not activate the TechNet downloaded version of WHS 2011...:: One tech tried issuing a new product key that was linked to the ECS motherboard I am using. I believe it failed to activate since it is a generic server that uses ECS motherboard without any special OEM partitions/configurations. Does the activation try to poke the ROM to get this information? That would be the only validation available for an OEM validation.:: I found a link to a Microsoft tool that allows pre-configuration of OEM server versions. Is there a way to use a tool to let the WHS2011 software know what OEM configuration I have?:: Any other ideas???:
Now, i have a pirate copy of windows home server, although its not cracked im using the 30 day trial just to try it out. The thing is i cant buy it. There is always a problem buying software here in Iceland. Its not for sale here, and i cant order online because no one wants to ship it here. Also if i would find some company to ship it here it would cost me roughly 330$ instead of the 160-180$ because of taxes are so high here in Iceland.
I used your suggested method to build my home server install dvd (OEM version was downloaded) with files extracted from a VLK of standard edition. Initial home server setup (whsoobe.exe /server) would not complete and it always retried on each bootup but killing it in the startup tab of msconfig fixed that. I assigned the password by ctrl-alt-del (default is left blank), and finished the rest of the settings in the WHS console screen normally. Connector software on each client fails to detect the server but if you click cancel and then kill the connector program in task manager instead of clicking finish (clicking finish starts the program uninstall procedure) it actually does work the next time it launches on the client. Everything else after completing this works normally, there is no activation and updates do install with no issue. I do have badging for server 2003 standard edition at logon and computer properties but the settings screen of the WHS console does show windows home server. I am hopeful that when they release the super patch 1 that it updates with no issues or at least is available for manual download and installation. Maybe you have some insigt as to how that will actually go?
Why do I use the pirate edition when I own a licensed copy?? Because everything is so unsettled right now, both on my part and Microsoft. I keep changing out motherboards(as I rotate out and uprgade my home hardware), which is no problem with the pirate copy(no activation). If I activate my OEM product, I feel I will be stuck without any fexability since this is not a retail product, and no retail product is available. With the data corruption issue, and the news of this product moving to the 2007 platform, I feel like I am using a Beta software product.
Hey guys, any ideas on how I can install the client 64x version for the windows home server? I already updated it to the pp1 and I still cant figure out how to get my windows 64x working with the whs. Anyhelp is greatly appreciated.
I have tried the pirate copy for more than a month and no problems with it. Impressed i decided to buy a legal copy, i suggest every one to give it a real try, for backing up 10 home PC, to share multimedia folders, now with Firefly iTunes server patch ,i want to stream HD to my Apple iTV and podcast. PefectDisk and Avast antivirus make it too a perfect system, for me. If you have many many evenings to spend on it, for techs it is a chalenge too !
Since most of us work normal jobs we may not always have the time necessary to perfect our Windows Home Server or our Small Business Server 2011 Essentials Server the way we want to before being forced to activate or copy of the product. However, there is a way of extending that mandatory time limit of activating Windows Home Server 2011 or even Small Business Server 2011 Essentials.
This will need to be done again just prior to the end of the of the grace period (I would repeat the above steps anywhere between the 27th and 29th day for WHS 2011 and the 57th and 59th day for SBS 2011 Essentials) or you will be forced just to activate your server.
You can test Windows 11 before you deploy it to your organization or home. In this case, you can use a virtual machine such as VirtualBox or Hyper-V. You may find it a bad idea to enter your license product key you are using on the real computer to activate a vritual instanse. It may have a limit on the number of activations.
Additionally, there are also product keys for KMS clients. If your OS is supposed to work with a KMS server, you must install the appropriate product key (GVLK) instead of the retail one. The keys are as follows.
It worked like a charm for my on my 490. Yes, it is a bit tedious that you have to wipe yje first drive but besides that Ihaven't had any issue. Hmm, just realised that I forgot that WHS can't find a driver for a Silicon Image SATA driver. I did find a link for a Win7 x64 driver for it.I bought 3 WD 2 TB green caviars and built a RAID5 with it by logging onto the console. However, it seems that you can't used the built-in server backup feature if you do this. Changed it back to 3 drives of 2 TB. The 3rd is used for server backups now. I did enable encryption on one of the drives. We'll see how things go with that.Sofar I am quite happy with WHS2011 on the HP with 2 GB RAM. Too bad that the 3rd led keeps blinking blue.... I'll have to live with that.Now I'm thinking about hooking up my USB printer. See if it'll share that as well like Server 2008 R2 itself does fine.
Glad it works Bob... and yeah, our backup only backs up to 2TB volumes. this is a windows server limitation that we inherited. if you do the printer, make sure you add the X86 drivers as well, otherwise your 32-bit clients won't get the driver. 2ff7e9595c
Comments