Activating & Changing Product Key on Windows Server Core 2008 After Installation

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Using the voluming licensing iso or media to install Windows Server 2008 does not provide you the opportunity to specify your approapriate product code for activation purposes. THis results in failed activations since it's using the default product key.

 Fortunately you can specify a different product key after installation or after a failed activation by issueing the command:

    slmgr -ipk xxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

If the product code is correct this should return a dialog box indicating success, otherwise it fails. Once you have specified the correct product code it's time to register by issuing command:

    slmgr -ato

A successful activation will return a success dialog box and a failure will indicate as such.