Ondrej Žilinec – IT Blog

We do have access to Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center. So I checked if we have right to download Windows Server 2012. And we do. So I downloaded and installed it. I wanted to Activate it. I went to Action Center // Windows Activation. I clicked button called Activate and I’ve got following error:

Windows Activation error

So I tried to google for an error: 0x8007007B. Nothing similar to my problem was found. I tried to call licence call centrum and they redirected me to support call centrum. After waiting on line to get to technician I checked status of our contract with Microsoft. I found out that all our contracts Expired or Ended. So in short: Error message:”0x8007007B The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.” means you don’t have right to activate Microsoft Windows 2012 Server product 🙂

Thank you Microsoft to make your error messages more and more understable.

Sometimes you need to find out if your windows is activated and quickes way to do so is to run command:

slmgr /dli

This command can also do

• /ipk <Product Key> – Install product key (replaces existing one)
• /ato [Activation ID] – Activate Windows
• /dli – Display license information
• /dlv – Display detailed license information
• /xpr – Expiration date for current license state
• …AND MANY MORE

For full help use slmgr /?.