If you've found yourself here, I'm guessing that you're an administrator or other IT person in charge of the Windows Server environment at your company.
I'm also guessing that you may be fearing for your job right now, thanks to the fact that you need to reinstall Windows Server but you can't find the product key.
Windows Server 2008 R2 The last serial number for this program was added to our data base on April 23, 2014 995 visitors told us the serial is good, 74 guys said the number is bad.
Fear not, my tech friend. So long as Windows Server is still installed, even if it's not working but still on a network accessible drive, you're probably in luck.
Several special tools, called key finder programs, are designed to extract the encrypted Windows Server product key that's stored in the Windows Registry. A few of these programs can even do so remotely.
Please read through my Key Finder Programs FAQ and Windows Product Keys FAQ if you're unfamiliar with product keys with Microsoft's products.
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The following procedure should only take a few minutes and works well to find lost product keys from installations of Windows Server 2012, Server 2008, Server 2003, including R2 versions. These steps also work for Windows 2000 and Windows NT.
How to Find Windows Server Product Keys
Additional Help Finding Windows Server Keys![]()
If Belarc Advisor wasn't helpful, you're of course welcome to try other product key finders, assuming they list the Windows Server version you're using as a supported operating system... not all of them do.
Beyond that, I'd recommend contacting your Microsoft sales representative, assuming you or your company have one. They may be able to provide you a copy of your original key, or even give you a new one.
If you don't have a sales rep at Microsoft, you may have luck requesting a replacement key from Microsoft directly.
While you probably don't want to hear the last idea, it's usually a fool proof one - buy a new copy of Windows Server and use that new product key.
Active4 years, 2 months ago
I have a VM configured with internal software that needs to be sent to an outside party for evaluation. As it stands, the user who configured it also activated the software with a company issued MSDN key, something I don't want to be sending outside the organization.
Sysprepping the image does seem to prompt for a new key on startup but can be skipped and, surprisingly, still permits activation with the previously used key.
Windows Server 2008 R2 Activate By Phone
Is there a way to remove the key completely and force the recipient to activate the OS by their own means? Is there another way to accomplish this outside of a rebuild on an unactivated clean install?
JackJack
1 Answer
Specify the KMS Client Setup Key in the sysprep answer file. Here's a list of keys for WS 2008 R2:
Windows 2008 R2 Activation Key
Windows Server 2008 R2 HPC Edition - FKJQ8-TMCVP-FRMR7-4WR42-3JCD7
Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter - 74YFP-3QFB3-KQT8W-PMXWJ-7M648 Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise - 489J6-VHDMP-X63PK-3K798-CPX3Y Windows Server 2008 R2 for Itanium-Based Systems - GT63C-RJFQ3-4GMB6-BRFB9-CB83V Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard - YC6KT-GKW9T-YTKYR-T4X34-R7VHC Windows Web Server 2008 R2 - 6TPJF-RBVHG-WBW2R-86QPH-6RTM4
This will give them a 30 or 60 day grace period (provided you rearm the machine during sysprep) before forcing them to enter their own key (unless they run their own KMS server, in which case, it will just activate for them).
Jason BergJason Berg
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protected by Community♦Jun 16 '15 at 6:25
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