Windows Server 2019 – it will not activate:
Change Product Key Does Nothing – Windows Server 2019 / Windows 10 1809
When installing Windows Server 2019, as with previous versions of Windows, you are prompted to enter the product key during installation, however if you are waiting for licensing to arrive, you can skip this and continue building your server.
Once the licensing arrives, you can enter the product key from the Settings app.
In some cases on new installs it will not activate, nor allow you to change the License using the Change Product Key button. You click on it and absolutely nothing happens. The window did not pop up, no error in the event logs, nothing at all.
Follow instructions on how to enter your product key manually using command line utilities, then activating using the same utility.
- Click Start and type CMD in the Start Search menu
- Right Click and choose Run as administrator
- To remove any existing product key (in case you used a trial key), enter and run the command vbs /upk.
- Clear the product key from registry by running vbs /cpky
- To enter your new product key, use the command: vbs /ipk xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx where the x’s are your actual product key.
- Lastly, activate Windows by entering the command vbs /ato
- Windows is now activated.