MDT2013 Automated Activation

As an MSP we use the product keys stored in the BIOS to activate the systems installed via MDT 2013.
Doing this per computer does take a while if you put out a few hundred machines a year; retrieving the key, copy, entering, activating.

With the help of someone else already creating a nice function to check the activation status;

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/5675.determine-windows-activation-status-with-powershell.aspx

I have created a simple activation script via Powershell to be launched as a task in an MDT task sequence.

function Get-ActivationStatus {
[CmdletBinding()]
    param(
        [Parameter(ValueFromPipeline = $true, ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName = $true)]
        [string]$DNSHostName = $Env:COMPUTERNAME
    )
    process {
        try {
            $wpa = Get-WmiObject SoftwareLicensingProduct -ComputerName $DNSHostName `
            -Filter "ApplicationID = '55c92734-d682-4d71-983e-d6ec3f16059f'" `
            -Property LicenseStatus -ErrorAction Stop
        } catch {
            $status = New-Object ComponentModel.Win32Exception ($_.Exception.ErrorCode)
            $wpa = $null    
        }
        $out = New-Object psobject -Property @{
            ComputerName = $DNSHostName;
            Status = [string]::Empty;
        }
        if ($wpa) {
            :outer foreach($item in $wpa) {
                switch ($item.LicenseStatus) {
                    0 {$out.Status = "Unlicensed"}
                    1 {$out.Status = "Licensed"; break outer}
                    2 {$out.Status = "Out-Of-Box Grace Period"; break outer}
                    3 {$out.Status = "Out-Of-Tolerance Grace Period"; break outer}
                    4 {$out.Status = "Non-Genuine Grace Period"; break outer}
                    5 {$out.Status = "Notification"; break outer}
                    6 {$out.Status = "Extended Grace"; break outer}
                    default {$out.Status = "Unknown value"}
                }
            }
        } else {$out.Status = $status.Message}
        $out
    }
}



$Key = powershell “(Get-WmiObject -query ‘select * from SoftwareLicensingService’).OA3xOriginalProductKey”
$Activate = Get-ActivationStatus

Start-Process cscript.exe "C:\Windows\System32\slmgr.vbs /ipk $($Key.ToString())"
Write-Host Product key is being added... -BackgroundColor Green

Start-Sleep 5

Start-Process cscript.exe "C:\Windows\System32\slmgr.vbs /ato"
Write-Host Windows is being activated... -BackgroundColor Green

Start-Sleep 15

if ($Activate.Status -eq 'Licensed'){

Write-Host $Activate.ComputerName license status is $Activate.Status -BackgroundColor Green

}

else {

Write-Host $Activate.ComputerName license status is $Activate.Status -BackgroundColor Red
$Key | Out-File "$env:USERPROFILE\Desktop\License.txt"
}

Write-Host License.txt is added to the Desktop incase activation did not succeed. -BackgroundColor Green

Save the PowerShell script in the scriproot, located under the \\DeploymentShare$\Scripts

Next we create a new “Run PowerShell Script” task;

Don’t forget to update the DeploymentShare and happy activating!