We can’t activate Windows on this device – an Intune solution to Windows not activated

Working with a customer recently, the devices were failing to activate properly. Checking Activation in the Settings app on the devices, I noted that they were all trying to activate via KMS and using the Windows 10/11 default enterprise key ending in 2YT43.

Since we are using subscription activation to activate the device, KMS is not in the equation here, and, indeed, the devices had no access to KMS since they were cloud based.

The resolution was to convert the licence to the original digital licence which came with the device. To do this I had to create a simple PowerShell script. You can download the file from here.

$CheckForGVLK = Get-WmiObject SoftwareLicensingProduct -Filter "ApplicationID = '55c92734-d682-4d71-983e-d6ec3f16059f' and LicenseStatus = '5'"
$CheckForGVLK = $CheckForGVLK.ProductKeyChannel

if ($CheckForGVLK -eq 'Volume:GVLK'){

$GetDigitalLicence = (Get-WmiObject -query 'select * from SoftwareLicensingService’).OA3xOriginalProductKey

cscript c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -ipk $GetDigitalLicence

}

The first part of the script will check the licence status of the device, here we are looking to see if the licence status = 5, which means it it not activated.

We then need to check to ensure that the ProductKeyChannel is running as the Microsoft Generic Volume License Key – the value of this will be Volume:GVLK.

Now, we need to get the digital licence from WMI on the device, (Get-WmiObject -query ‘select * from SoftwareLicensingService’).OA3xOriginalProductKey will achieve this, and then run slmgr -ipk with that digital licence key.

This will convert back and the user will be able to activate the Windows device successfully.

Adding to Intune

In the MEM portal, go to Devices\Windows\PowerShell scripts. Click Add.

Enter a Name and click Next.

Upload the script and leave all the sliders at default. Click Next.

Choose a group to deploy to and continue through the wizard to completion.