Troubleshooting Windows Activation

If the activation of Windows with the TU Toolbox fails, this can have many causes:

• The toolbox is outdated ( Link to the current version )
• An attempt is made to activate an unsupported version (Home or Pro)
• The Windows installation or parts are damaged
• kms.tuwien.ac.at is not reachable - outside TU-Wien a VPN connection is necessary
• A firewall blocks the ports (1688 and 1689 TCP to kms.tuwien.ac.at)

The following things you can do to possibly fix these errors:

1. Open a command prompt (cmd) with administrator rights, enter cmd in the search field and select 'Run as administrator', this is also necessary if you are logged in as administrator.

   

   Enter the following commands here:

   sfc /scannow

   This will take a while, if errors are found here, restart the computer and open a command prompt with administrator rights again and enter the following; if no errors are found go to the next topic.

   Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

   Windows 10 checks the component storage for damage. The execution may take a while.

   Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

   Indicates whether damage has been detected and can be repaired.

   Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

   The command tries to repair the detected errors.

2. To get advanced error messages it can also be helpful to try the activation manually via the command prompt (with administrator rights).

   Here is a list of the commands and their desciptions:

   slmgr /ato

   Attempts an activation

   slmgr /dli oder slmgr /dlv

   Displays the status

   slmgr /xpr

   Shows how many days are left until activation is needed

   slmgr /skms kms.tuwien.ac.at:1689

   sets the KMS server for LTSx

   slmgr /skms kms.tuwien.ac.at:1688

   sets the KMS server for all other Windows versions

   Before running these commands, the KMS server must first be enabled for your computer. To do this, visit the following website: https://oase.it.tuwien.ac.at/Products.msActivation?auth=saml&format=json and log in with the TU account credentials.

   

3. If it is not possible to activate Windows despite these measures, often only an in-place repair (or if possible an upgrade to the next new version) helps, i.e. mount the corresponding ISO image, right-click the ISO file and select Deploy. It is important to use the same edition that is installed on the computer!

   

   From this drive start setup.exe and click through the setup...

   

   The Windows edition must match the installed version and very important, keep personal files and apps (programs). Only when everything is OK, click on 'Install'.

   

   If you are not sure which Windows edition you are using, you can use the command winver (enter via search) to find out the installed version and edition.

   

If this is not successful either, in most cases only a new installation is the last resort, which will result in the loss of all installed programs and files. The personal data should therefore be backed up on an external data medium beforehand. Or even better, make a complete backup of the disk.