You installed Windows Server Evaluation for evaluating, testing, or training purposes. Now you want to apply a license key, but it’s not activating, and an error appears. That’s because you have to convert from Evaluation to Full Version first. After that, you can insert your license key. In this article, you will learn how to upgrade from Windows Server Evaluation license to Full Version
Find Windows Server edition
You can find the Windows Server edition in the right corner and the days remaining before the grace period expires.
The Windows License evaluation period begins and runs for 180 days.
Note: You can Extend the Windows Server Evaluation Period 6 times and run a trial version for a total of 3 years.
Check the current Windows Server edition with the DISM PowerShell command.
The below output appears.
Run the Get-ComputerInfo cmdlet to list the Windows Server OS name and edition.
The below output shows that Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Standard Evaluation is running.
Now that you have the Windows Server edition, let’s go to the next step.
Get Windows Server target editions
Check to which Windows Server versions you can upgrade.
DISM /Online /Get-TargetEditions
The below output shows that you can upgrade to one of the following editions: Server Standard or Server Datacenter.
Server Datacenter version:
In our example, we will run the below command in PowerShell to upgrade to Windows Server 2019 Standard.
Note: After you run the command, it will take some time, and you have to wait for it to finish. It’s completely normal if you see the progress hang on 10% for a while.
The below output appears. Press Y to restart the computer.
Verify Windows Server version
After the computer restarts, run the command to verify the Windows Server version.
Microsoft Activation Scripts (MAS)
A Windows and Office activator using HWID / Ohook / KMS38 / Online KMS activation methods, with a focus on open-source code and fewer antivirus detections.
- Open PowerShell (Not CMD). To do that, right-click on the Windows start menu and select PowerShell or Terminal.
- Copy and paste the code below and press enter
irm https://get.activated.win | iex
or (deprecated, will be retired on Dec 31 2024, use above instead)
irm https://massgrave.dev/get | iex
- You will see the activation options. Choose [1] HWID for Windows activation. Choose [2] Ohook for Office activation.
- That's all.