All Windows and Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) software acquired from the University, with the exception of student media and Work at Home (WAH) licenses, will automatically activate via an activation service known as Key Management Service (KMS). For activation to be successful, you must be on the University's network (wired, wireless, or cVPN).

If your copy of Windows or Microsoft 365 does not activate, it may be because of one of the following issues:

• Clock
  
  • Your computer's clock needs to be accurate. Additionally, often the time is correct, but the time zone is incorrect. Check both, to ensure they're set properly.
• Location/Network
  
  • If you're on your home network or a commercial network, such as a coffee or sandwich shop, the activation will fail. Log in to the cVPN using your CNetID and password. Once on the University's network, the activation should be successful.
• Software Source
  
  • You must be using a university-licensed version of Windows or Microsoft 365 for the activation to be successful. If it is not a university-licensed version, you will need to contact your computer manufacturer or whoever you obtained the Windows or Office installation from for activation. However, you also have the option of installing a university-licensed version, and that may be the easiest course of action.

If activation is not successful after checking the possible issues, contact the IT Services Service Desk.

Troubleshooting for IT Professionals and Advanced Power Users

1. There is often an issue with auto-discovery. The largest contributor to this problem is Connection-specific DNS Suffix. This is a setting on your network card that should be uchicago.edu. This is normally set automatically when on the University wireless network or using an auto-configured connection on the wired network (DHCP). You can check this setting in the properties of your primary network connection.
2. Bring up the Windows 8 Charms Menu on the right-hand side and select Settings. For Windows 7, click the start button and then select Control Panel on the right-hand column of the menu.
   
3. Select Control Panel
   
4. In the resulting window under Network and Internet, select View network status and tasks.
   
5. Select Change adapter settings.
   
6. Select your active network adapter. This is the one that is not greyed out or has a red X next to it. If you have two adapters active, such as wireless and wired (Ethernet or Local Area Connection), right-click on the wired connection and select Properties. In the image below that is the Ethernet connection (also known as Local Area Connection).
   
7. In the Ethernet Properties window, double-click Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4). You may also click it once and then click the Properties button when it is no longer gray.
   
   
   
   
8. Take note of whether Use the following IP address: and Use the following DNSserver addresses: are enabled. If they are, settings may need to be changed in the next step. Select the Advanced button.
   
9. In Advanced TCP/IP Settings, check that DNS suffix for this connection: is set to uchicago.edu. If it is not, change it to uchicago.edu or add it if the field is empty.
   
10. Restart your computer and try to activate Windows or Office. If it does not activate, continue on with the sections listed below.  

Additional Options for IT Professionals and Advanced Power Users

The following sections are for IT professionals and advanced power users, and it is written with the assumption you've already tried making the changes suggested above.

• Start a Command Window as Administrator
• Look for the KMS record you need in DNS
• Manual activation of Windows 7 or 8 and troubleshooting commands
• Manual activation of Office 2013 and troubleshooting commands

Start a Command Window as Administrator

1. Bring up the Windows 8 Charms Menu on the right-hand side and select Search. For Windows 7, click the Start Menu and use the Search function.
   
2. Search for cmd.
   
3. Select cmd, then in the menu that appears below, select Run as administrator. For Windows 7, right-click on cmd,  then click Run as administrator.
   
4. If you are prompted with the following window, select Yes.
   

Look for the KMS record you need in DNS

Do Start Command Shell as Administrator first.

If you don't use uchicago.edu, bsd.uchicago.edu, or chicagobooth.edu as the Connection-specific DNS Suffix, check for the existence of the record Windows is looking for in your DNS domain currently set on the network adapter.

At the prompt, type nslookup, press Enter, then type set type=any. Select Enter again, and finally type _vlmcs._tcp.X.uchicago.edu and click Enter. ( X is the sub-domain you have configured on your network adapter.) If you get results similar to what is shown in the image below, then auto-discovery should work. Go to the next step. If you don't have similar results, you must have your adapter configured with your custom sub-domain. Contact the IT Services Service Desk for this.

Manual activation of Windows 7 or 8 and troubleshooting commands

Do Start Command Shell as Administrator first.

Alert: You should only do this when troubleshooting activation issues! Do not activate computers in this fashion!

Attempt to manually activate Windows by manually setting the KMS server by typing cscript.exe slmgr.vbs /skms plank.uchicago.edu:1688 at the command prompt and click Enter. You should see that the command was successful. See the top of the image below.

Type cscript.exe slmgr.vbs /ato and click Enter. You should see that the computer activated successfully. See the second command in the image below.

If you do NOT see a successful activation message, type the following command: cscript.exe slmgr.vbs /dlv and press Enter. Contact IT Services at the Service Desk via 773.702.5800 and provide them the output of that command as well as the error from the activation command. The image below shows the normal results of the command when the computer is activated.

Manual activation of Office 2013 and troubleshooting commands

Begin in Start Command Shell as Administrator mode.

Attempt to manually set the KMS server by typing cd "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15" at the prompt then select Enter. Next type C:\Windows\System32\cscript.exe ospp.vbs /sethst:plank.uchicago.edu and select Enter. This will set the server manually. You should see that the command was successful. See the top of the image below.

Next type C:\Windows\System32\cscript.exe ospp.vbs /act then select Enter. You should see that Office activated successfully. See the second command in the image below.

If you do NOT see a successful activation message, type the following command C:\Windows\System32\cscript.exe ospp.vbs /dstatus and select Enter. Contact the IT Services Service Desk and provide them with the output of that command as well as the error from the activation command. The image below shows the normal results of the command when Office is activated.