Year on year our Microsoft volume licensing subscription gets renewed and I have very little issue.
In our environment we generally use a KMS server as our means of activating our Windows and Office clients. However, we use the odd MAK key here and there if we have a business device that’s going to spend most of its life offsite (so won’t be able to access the KMS server so will fallout of activation).
Up until the recent renewal I have not had an issue finding our KMS keys. They have always been listed under the product alongside our MAK keys on the ‘Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center’.
However under our new licence agreement we didn’t have any KMS keys, only MAK.
This is a bit of an issue as though activating clients using MAK keys isn’t a problem we do end up re-imaging our devices fairly often. Meaning that we can end up burning through MAK activations pretty fast.
After doing a bit of looking around I found a post mention that not too long ago Microsoft changed who they dish KMS keys out to automatically. Looking on the FAQ section of the ‘Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center’ there is an answer:
Apparently “KMS keys are no longer pre-assigned to Open agreements as use of MAK (Multiple Activation Key) keys is the preferred method for activation.” Which is fine in an ideal world but KMS keys are very handy and do save a lot of time.
But all is not lost, if you do need one or more KMS keys you can contact Microsoft and they will generate them for you. One option is to email them at KMSADD@microsoft.com. However I did try this and got no response, waited a week, still nothing. In the end I gave up and just rang them.
The number I tried was one I found on Google from another post with a similar issue:
0800 9179016
There is also a link you can follow on the FAQ that takes you to a list of numbers to ring depending on your country:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/existing-customer/activation-centers.aspx
On this page the number for the UK is listed as:
0800 018 8354
I rang the first number and it worked a treat, gave them my agreement number and email, then told them which KMS keys I needed and they generated them there and then. I logged onto the MVLSC while they were on the phone and my new KMS keys were listed straight away.
I never tried this second number but I assume it gives the same results!
