that key can’t be used to activate this edition of windows

Method 1:

This may work for other later Operating Systems but it has been tested on 2012 R2.

I installed 2012 R2 on a brand new server as a trial and then later the license arrived, while trying to install the license, it was failed with error saying "that key is not valid for this version of Windows".

Firstly, check to make sure of what version you are using by running the following command

dism /online /get-currentedition

and check the possible target edition

dism /online /get-targeteditions

and if yours is supported then all you need is the new key and run the following command, be sure you are connected to the internet.

dism /online /set-edition:EDITION /product xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx /accepteula

if you don't put /accepteula it will not work.

SCREEN SHOTS:

If you try and enter the new product key from the System Control Panel you'll receive an activation error like below.

Open an Administrative Command Prompt. Then run the command:

slmgr.vbs /dlv

Slmgr.vbs /dlv is used for volume licensing, and this step is to gather information only. The /dlv switch displays detailed license information. As you can see below we are currently running the ServerStandardEval edition.

If you wanted to continue using the trial for another 180 days, your could use the /rearm switch.

From the Administrative Command Prompt, run the command:

dism /online /get-currentedition

This will confirm the information we obtained from slmgr.vbs /dlv, as you can see the current version is ServerStandardEval.

Next, run the command:

dism /online /get-targeteditions

This will show you which versions the current evaluation license can be upgraded to, in our case it can be upgraded to ServerStandard or ServerDatacenter.

Next run the command:

dism /online /set-edition:ServerStandard /ProductKey:xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx /AcceptEula

This command selects the version of Windows 2012 R2 you want to upgrade to, specifies the product key and Accepts the Eula.

Once the process has completed it will prompt you to restart your computer.

The process will reboot the server twice.

Once completed and logged in you can see in the bottom right hand corner that the server is no longer running and evaluation version. Also on my test server I received an Shutdown Event Tracker.

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