Usual scenes in enterprise computer infrastructure consist of lots of clients and servers, and each of them has to be powered by a certain operating system, usually various Windows.

There are so many of them that to purchase individual retail OS license for each is a unimaginable task, considering keying in that many different license keys for that many computers. What if to buy only several licenses while each can license numerous computers? That’s where Microsoft bring up the Volume Licensing.

Accompanying the introduction of Windows XP, Microsoft integrated activation mechanism to thwart software piracy. Ever since, you need to put in the product key to fully unlock a Microsoft OS. To do that you have to connect to the Internet or give telephone calls to activate the OS against Microsoft servers, leaving volume users in dire need for easier licensing.

The well-thought Microsoft introduced Volume Activation 1.0 with the start of activation. Certain types of license keys are set to have the privilege to bypass the required activation in Windows, including Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 families, or to name it as the big “Windows NT 5” family.

Useful as they are, these license keys are too powerful to be checked. Theoretically, simply using one of them can unlock unlimited copies of Windows, making it prone to software piracy. People fond of embracing free pirated software rushed to use “corporate” versions of Windows, which has mighty license keys integrated.

Aware of the serious problem, Microsoft revamped their anti-piracy mechanism, unleashing version 2.0 for volume activation. This time, there are no mighty license keys. All products have to be activated using one way or another. Two main categories are set, KMS and MAK activation.

KMS license keys

There are still two types, client keys and server keys.

Client keys are made public and integrated within the released OS installations. They don’t activate any system. Their only function is to identify the local computer as a volume client.

Server keys are way more powerful. They can build activation servers, just like the ones Microsoft holds officially. But of course it has limitation, which is it can only active its clients for 180 days, so clients have to connect with this server at least once in 180 days to maintain activated.

MAK license keys

MAK keys have set allowance of activation, be it 50, 100, 500 or even more. You can use them to activate those many copies of Windows. When it reaches the limit, it cannot activate any more system. This eliminates the potential danger if any VA license keys leak. Even though that happens, it won’t cause mass piracy and counter-piracy would not be hard.

One minor part of those differences between VA 1.0 and 2.0 is rather subtle. Not like VA 1.0 in which if license keys are banned, all computers activated by that key will become unlicensed, in VA 2.0, computers activated by license keys before it’s banned are still good to use, but any re-activation becomes impossible.clip_image001

As you may know, I posted two articles [here and here] before about Windows licensing on Windows XP. For now, XP-era is about to truly end, with the new 7-era to take the lead. So I’ve prepared a detailed demonstration about the new Volume Activation, 2.0.

Three major products from Microsoft touching the world the most are Windows Client, Windows Server, and Office System. With the 2010 refreshment expanded to all three, we now have Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Microsoft Office 2010.

All of these products employ Volume Activation 2.0, introduced with Windows Vista, aiming at thwarting software piracy more effectively.

I’d like to offer you a detailed look at the VA 2 working in real.

As mentioned, VA 2.0 involves several ways of activation, KMS, MAK, credential based token, retail licensing, proxy, while two major parts are most used, and that’s where I’m going to focus on, KMS and MAK, activation in action.

So go check Part 1, KMS activation and Part 2, MAK activation.