

For example, Windows 7 offers a 30-day trial period before it begins complaining at you. Some Windows systems provide a limited time where you can use them as free trials before entering a product key. RELATED: You Don't Need a Product Key to Install and Use Windows 10 This can generally be done from the Activation screen in the Settings app if your PC isn’t activated–you don’t have to use the command if you’d rather use the graphical interface. This allows you to activate Windows systems without Internet connections. Call the Microsoft Product Activation Center, provide the installation ID you received above, and you’ll be given an activation ID if everything checks out. You’ll now need to get a a confirmation ID you can use to activate the system over the phone. To get an installation ID for offline activation, run the following command: slmgr.vbs /dti Slmgr also allows you to perform an offline activation. This command can be useful if Windows didn’t activate due to a connection or server problem and you want to force it to retry. If the system is set up to use a KMS activation server, it will instead attempt activation with the KMS server on the local network. If you’re using a retail edition of Windows, this will force Windows to attempt online activation with Microsoft’s servers. To force Windows to attempt an online activation, run the following command. To display more detailed license information–including the activation ID, installation ID, and other details–run the following command: This command tells you the edition of Windows, part of the product key so you can identify it, and whether the system is activated.

To display very basic license and activation information about the current system, run the following command.

RELATED: How to Put the Command Prompt Back on the Windows+X Power Users Menu View Activation, License, and Expiration Date Information You can do pretty much everything in PowerShell that you can do in Command Prompt, plus a lot of other useful things. It’s very easy to switch back to showing the Command Prompt on the Power Users menu if you want, or you can give PowerShell a try. Note: If you see PowerShell instead of Command Prompt on the Power Users menu, that’s a switch that came about with the Creators Update for Windows 10. On Windows 7, search the Start menu for “Command Prompt,” right-click it, and select “Run as Administrator.”

Click the “Command Prompt (Admin)” option in the menu that appears. To do so on Windows 8 or 10, either right-click the Start button or press Windows+X. To use this tool, you’ll want to launch a Command Prompt with Administrator access. RELATED: How Does Windows Activation Work? First: Open an Administrator Command Prompt Window
