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As you know, Windows Server is a specialized operating system which is designed for server only. In today’s post, I will show you how to activate Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials in your VPS or dedicated server for FREE using KMS client product keys. So, you can renew it whenever you want. Actually, the license will be renewed automatically every 7 days by default. In this way, just do it one time and forget it completely.
Before you begin
- If you’re using an evaluation edition of Windows Server. Let’s follow this post to convert then activate it to the licensed version.
- The methods work with all Windows Server editions.
- KMS license is valid for 180 days only. But it will be renewed automatically before the expiration date if you are online. However, you can renew your Office manually anytime (even when its expired) by running the activation command or script again.
As you can see in the below screenshot, we’re using a copy of Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials, and it is not activated. We need to activate it to made it function normally and remove the license watermark on the desktop.
Method 1: Manual activation (CMD)
The first way, we can use the Windows Command Prompt (CMD) to activate the Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials license free forever without any software or activation tools.
1. Move your mouse to the bottom-left corner. Right-click on the Windows Start icon. and select “Command Prompt (Admin)” from the menu.
2. Copy the following commands, right-click to paste them into CMD window and press .
cscript //nologo %windir%\system32\slmgr.vbs /ipk KNC87-3J2TX-XB4WP-VCPJV-M4FWM
cscript //nologo %windir%\system32\slmgr.vbs /skms kms.msgang.com
cscript //nologo %windir%\system32\slmgr.vbs /ato3. Your Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials is activated using a KMS key. It’ll reactivate after every 7 days automatically. So, your Windows is permanently activated.
4. Finally, check activation status of your Windows again. Open Control Panel | System then check Windows Activation status.
Method 2: Using PowerShell
The second method involves using Windows PowerShell to activate the Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials license. advantages of this approach:
- There is no need to disable the Real-time Protection in Windows Security Center, as we do not use any crack tools to activate Windows.
- The methods work seamlessly with all versions of Windows, including Windows Server.
- The script works on both Windows 64-bit and Windows 32-bit systems.
- You don’t need to worry about which Windows edition you’re using. The script automatically detects your Windows edition and activates it for you.
- A KMS license is valid for 180 days; however, it will be renewed automatically before the expiration date if you are online.
- It is not necessary to download any files to your computer to activate the Windows license.
1. Click on the Windows Start icon or press the Windows key on your keyboard. Search PowerShell, right-click on the best match then select Run as administrator to open a new elevated PowerShell window.
2. Copy, right click to paste all below commands into CMD window at once then hit .
Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force;
[System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072;
iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://win.msgang.com'))4. Your Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials is activated using a KMS key. It’ll reactivate after every 7 days automatically. So, your Windows is permanently activated.
Method 3: Using batch script
This method is not recommended anymore due to the new update of Microsoft. In case, if you have to use the batch script for automation, you can continue with below steps:
1. The first step is to download the batch script to your computer by clicking the button below. While our script is safe, it’s always a good idea to verify the security and contents of any script from the internet that you’re not familiar with.
2. Right click on the downloaded kms.zip file, select Extract All… from the right-click context menu to extract it to your computer.
3. Navigate to the extracted folder. Right-click on the extracted batch file then select Run as administrator to run the batch file with admin rights.
The script will run automatically. If there are no issues, Windows has been activated. You can now press any key to close the command prompt window.
Conclusion
Hello Friends! My name is Leo, and I’m excited to share everything I know about activating Microsoft software products. In the past, I managed several YouTube channels on this topic, but they were taken down by Microsoft. That’s why I decided to start this blog to keep the conversation alive without interruptions. I’m committed to sharing my knowledge and insights for as long as possible!
If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to leave a comment or visit my Discord server. I’d be happy to provide more details. Thank you so much for your feedback and support!
Want to activate others Microsoft products for free? You can follow the below posts:
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