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# Windows 10 Activation
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Welcome to the `activation` repo. This will have some info on Windows 10
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activation methods and related stuff. Start below.
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Preliminary info:
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* **TBV** means "To Be Verified" and is a placeholder for when I don't have time to
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verify something at the time of writing.
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* In some places the words "licensing" and "activation" might be used
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interchangeably. This is incorrect but try your best to ignore it if you
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really care or actually know the difference.
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# Scope
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Most of the things I will be writing about here are about Windows 10 activators.
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All of the work I've been involved with had to do with Windows 10 activators.
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Nothing about Office, 8, 8.1, 7, Vista, XP or anything else so don't expect me
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to write anything correctly about those things.
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This is not a guide for purchasing Windows either. Licensing is described mainly
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in terms of product keys (more on them in due time) associated with its types
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and not meant as an article on "the nuances of volume licensing". That would be
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boring.
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# Windows 10 Activation and Activators
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Windows has seen a lot of activators in its time. Instead of fixing the problem
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once and for all Microsoft went for reinventing the wheel with Windows 10 and
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made fraudulent activation as easy as possible. (As to why they did it, the
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reason is likely very simple - they want you to keep using Windows. That's it.)
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Windows 10 was, for a time, offered to everyone as a free upgrade from Windows
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7, 8 and 8.1. This meant everyone who had an activated copy of those could (and
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still technically can) get it free of charge forever.
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But first, it might be useful to get a vague understanding of what Windows
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licensing even looks like in the first place.
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## Windows Licensing
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Windows has different types of licensing for different types of customers.
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The most familiar names might be:
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* **Retail**
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* **OEM**
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* **Volume**
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### Retail Licensing
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Microsoft's Retail customers are treated as royalty, they chose to pay Microsoft
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for their product directly after all.
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The retail license entitles a single user to use Windows on whatever machine
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they like for as long as they like. If the user so desires, they can move their
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activation onto a different machine but the limit of simultaneously activated
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machines is always (in theory) just one.
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### OEM Licensing
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**Original Equipment Manufacturers**, through an agreement with Microsoft are able
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to sell Windows with their hardware. Customers who buy computers with Windows
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preinstalled will be licensed to use it **only** on the hardware they bought it
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with and are **not** entitled to official Microsoft support.
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There are multiple types of keys that will accompany OEM licenses. Those are:
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* **OEM:SLP** (System Locked Pre-installation)
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* **OEM:NSLP** (Non-System Locked Pre-installation)
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* **OEM:DM** (Digital Marker)
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The differences between them are pretty extreme but ultimately do not matter
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that much. In short, **SLP** keys do not require Microsoft's activation servers
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to activate - the OEM marks a machine as activated during manufacturing,
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**DM** are the "BIOS keys" you might have seen/heard about and **NSLP**s are the
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**SLP** equivalent for when the OEM doesn't want to bother with activation
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during manufacturing. In terms more people might understand, NSLP is analogous
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to COA.
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### Volume Licensing
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Microsoft's bigger customers that "need" more licenses for more computer can opt
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in for an easier way to manage and pay their Microsoft overlords for their OS
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needs.
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Volume licensing offers two ways to activate Microsoft products: via the
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internet (or by phone if you're weird) and using KMS servers.
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There are three types of keys that will matter for volume licensing. Those are:
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* **Volume:GVLK** (Generic Volume Licensing Key)
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* **Volume:MAK** (Multiple Activation Key)
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* **Volume:CSVLK** (Customer-Specific Volume Licensing Key)
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Generic keys are installed on all machines that are to be activated by a KMS
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server. Those keys are not specific to customers and are not special in any way;
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in fact, every volume licensing cusomer on the planet uses [the same GVLK
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keys](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/get-started/kms-client-activation-keys).
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Because Generic keys are generic, they do not activate the system by themselves;
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they need a KMS server to do that. The KMS server is "created" by installing a
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**CSVLK** key on a machine. This KMS server will grant activation to all its
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configured Generic-key subordinates that ask for it for a period of 180 days and
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report your activations to Microsoft so you can pay for them. Basically, very
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flexible and manageable license management with some setup required.
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MAK keys are an alternative to this when you don't need or don't want a KMS
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server. When paying for a MAK key you are buying a specific amount of
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activations it can be used for. You can "spend" the key's activations wherever
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and whenever you like. Very easy to use, requires no setup but could be hard to
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keep track of.
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## Regular Users
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All this licensing crap surely doesn't mean anything to the regular user, does
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it? Well.. yeah..
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When activating Windows as all normal people do - using an activator - you don't
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really pay attention to the tricks behind the scenes. You end up with an
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activated system and that's it. Some more attentive users might notice that
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during activation there are specific words and incantations thrown around,
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including (but not limited to) spells like "installing product key",
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"patching gatherosstate", "generating ticket", "activating Windows",
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"setting KMS server".
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In this repository I will be trying to describe all the activation methods and
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answer all questions that might arise from hearing those weird incantations
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above. But first, we need to know what activation methods there even are.
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### Types of Windows 10 Activation
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For Windows 10 there are four main types of activation. Those are:
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* **Online KMS activation**
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* **KMS38**
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* **HWID / Digital License**
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* Buying it legally (lmao)
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