Regional University Computing Center Kaiserslautern-Landau

Key Management Service (KMS)

KMS stands for KeyManagementService. This is a server-client infrastructure that enables automated and centralized activation of Microsoft Office and Windows.

The RHRZ provides two Microsoft KMS servers.

Products that can be activated are

  • Microsoft Windows 8.1
  • Microsoft Windows 10 Enterprise
  • Microsoft Office 2013 Professional Plus
  • Microsoft Office 2016 Professional Plus
  • Microsoft Office 2019 Professional Plus
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2012 / 2012 R2
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2016
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2019

What requirements must I fulfill in order to activate via KMS?

  • An edition of Windows or Office that can be activated via a volume license must be used. Use the media from the service portal for this, as these are already configured with the correct product key.
  • A qualifying basic operating system(basic license) is required to activate desktop operating systems such as Windows 10.
  • The RHRZ KMS servers are only accessible via the campus network, so a connection to the university network is required. (also possible via VPN )
  • The time and date between server and client may only differ slightly. You must therefore ensure that the time and date are set correctly on your device.
  • Activation via KMS is a cyclical process. This means that activation must be renewed at certain intervals. This is done automatically if the above conditions are met. The maximum activation period is 180 days.

How can I recognize a successful activation?

If the requirements described above are met, no further action should be necessary to activate Windows or Office via KMS. Instead, the products should activate themselves automatically. The following describes how the licensing status can be checked.

Windows

The activation status of Windows can be viewed in the system properties. To do this, the system settings dialog must be opened. This can be done via the gear icon in the Start menu or the key combination "win+i".

The activation dialog can be found using the search field under the term "Activation". Alternatively, the menu item can be accessed via the direct path under "Update and Security => Activation".

The activation dialog on the right-hand side of the window provides information about the current activation status of the system. A successful activation via KMS appears under the description"Windows has been activated by your organization's activation service".

Office

The activation status of Office can be viewed in all installed Office products (Word, Excel, Powerpoint [...]) in the "Backstage area" under"File => Account". A successful activation is displayed under the description "Product activated".

How can I manually configure the time and date on my system?

The time can be found in the system settings dialog using the search field under the term "Time". Alternatively, the menu item can be accessed via the direct path under"Time and language" =>"Date and time".

In the dialog for date and time, it is possible to configure the date and time manually in the event of a problem. To do this, the "Set time automatically" option must be deactivated.

The date and time can be set below under "Set date and time manually". Normally, however, the system should be able to determine the date and time independently using the hardware or via the Internet.

Any further questions?

If you do not want to wait for the automatic activation, you can also activateWindows and Officemanually.

If activation is not successful after some time, you can contact a KMS server for Windows and Office directly.

You can find instructions on how to do this and further information on troubleshooting on the KMS instructions page.