How To Verify or Check your KMS/MAK Product Key
Hello, my name is Scott McArthur. I am a Senior Support Escalation Engineer in the Windows group and today’s blog will cover a common question we get involving product keys. Many times you may have a product key but you need to find out what type of key it is. We will use the VAMT 2.0 tool to accomplish this task. VAMT 2.0 can decode the following types of keys:
- MAK keys
- KMS keys
- Retail keys
- OEM keys
To determine what type of key you have do the following:
1. Download the Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT) 2.0 and install it
2. Click Start, All Programs, VAMT 2.0, Volume Activation Management Tool 2.0
3. Click the Product Keys option
Figure 1. VAMT 2.0
4. Enter your Product Key then click Verify.
5. VAMT 2.0 will connect to the internet and verify what type of key you have. For example(I removed my product keys)
Figure 2. VAMT Product Key Output
The following describes the column headings
Key Type: CSVLK, MAK, Retail, OemCoa, etc… Note: CSVLK is a KMS host key
Edition: The editions (Standard, Enterprise, etc…) the key is valid for
Description: More detailed description of the key
Remaining Activations: This column is only valid for MAK keys
Some Common Keys
Windows 7 Home Premium OEM Key
Key Type: OemCoa
Edition: HomePremium
Description: Windows 7 Home Premium OEM:COA
Windows 7 Ultimate Retail Key
Key Type: Retail
Edition: Ultimate
Description: Windows 7 Ultimate Retail
Windows 7 MAK key
Key Type: Mak
Edition: Enterprise;EnterpriseN;EnterpriseE;Professional;ProfessionalN;ProfessionalE
Description: Windows 7 All Volume Editions Volume:MAK
Windows 7 KMS Host Key
Key Type: Csvlk
Edition: Enterprise;EnterpriseN;EnterpriseE;Professional;ProfessionalN;ProfessionalE
Description: Windows 7 All Volume Editions Volume:CSVLK
Windows Server 2008 R2 MAK_B
Key Type: Mak
Edition: ServerStandard;ServerEnterprise
Description: Server 2008 R2 Std and Ent Volume:MAK (MAK_B)
Windows Server 2008 R2 KMS_C
Key Type: Csvlk
Edition: ServerDatacenter;ServerEnterpriseIA64;ServerEnterprise;ServerStandard;ServerWeb;ServerHPC
Description: Server 2008 R2 DC and IA64 Volume:CSVLK (KMS_C)
Windows Server 2008 R2 KMS_B
Key Type: Csvlk
Edition: ServerStandard;ServerEnterprise;ServerWeb;ServerHPC
Description: Server 2008 R2 Std and Ent Volume:CSVLK (KMS_B)
Entering all your keys into VAMT 2.0 is a good way to save your productkeys and be able to reference them easily. VAMT 2.0 is a powerful tool that you can use for many other activation functions. For more information on VAMT 2.0 click Help to see the included helpfile.
Scott McArthur
Senior Support Escalation Engineer
Microsoft Enterprise Platforms Support
Comments
- Anonymous
January 01, 2003
@Easter Rabbit, @Athos, @asjadMagic Jellybean is cool, but if all you want to grab are Windows product keys, ProduKey is free and work great. - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
@Niranjan
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff686876.aspx - Anonymous
August 23, 2011
I have a slightly different issue maybe you could help with. We have several different 2008 product keys. When our servers were created, no-one ever kept track of which keys were used with each server. Is there a way I can view the product key on the servers so I can record what product keys were used where? If not, what is the best method recommended by Microsoft to address this issue? - Anonymous
September 01, 2011
@brodiemac: Magic Jellybean is your friend... - Anonymous
March 20, 2013
Thanks, great info! - Anonymous
October 26, 2013
excellent bossss... - Anonymous
February 13, 2014
Doesn't install - Anonymous
February 19, 2014
Awesome features and techniques illustrated by jeff. Thanks - Anonymous
March 06, 2014
Here are the top Microsoft Support solutions to the most common issues IT Pros experience using or deploying - Anonymous
April 17, 2014
there is a way to validated office key to see if they are active or not for IT resource bussiness? - Anonymous
June 18, 2014
I'm just wondering is there a way to check keys like Posready 2009/7, Wepos, Embedded, XP sp3 embedded?
Because 1 of my keys got blocked and i still have about 200 licenses left so something went wrong. - Anonymous
June 20, 2014
Have an Office 2013 key that I THOUGHT was an Enterprise key; Activated it in 2013; had a crash reactivated. DESPISE 2013 so I removed it. I remember TALKING to an MS person and THEY helped me activate it. Does that still exist? The Volume Activation Manager from MS says this key is no good. ANYONE? kctobyjoe@Comcast.net - Anonymous
July 24, 2014
i want to verify windows 2012 r2 code. seem not functioning? - Anonymous
November 09, 2014
I can't seem to type an 'N' into the product key field... is this a bug? - Anonymous
November 11, 2014
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
November 14, 2014
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
January 31, 2015
Dear Sir, I recently purchased windows 2012 R2 STD version, It is downloadable version, seller provided me the KEY.
How do I validate and ensure that key is Genuine ? - Anonymous
February 14, 2015
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
February 26, 2015
can u please tell me how VAMT works - Anonymous
March 10, 2015
does not work - Anonymous
March 11, 2015
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
October 22, 2015
Question.If I have a servers that are using mak keys and after a year later I dispose the machines.how can I retrieve those mak keys back so I can reuse them. - Anonymous
October 22, 2015
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
December 10, 2015
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
December 25, 2015
windows 7 english sp1 product key - Anonymous
December 25, 2015
windows 7 english sp1 product key - Anonymous
January 18, 2016
“I have an IT related job for a global company, Which headquarter situated in berlin.
I saw, Microsoft offer its license activation keys to activate only one PC or Notebook as a time,
Last week, We need 7 key codes to activate new laptops for our new office,
Where installed windows 7 professional, So I called my vendor to buy more activation,
But he asked me that, They don’t have windows 7 pro activation at their stock.
I was confused, As I must need license within two days to provide it for new office,
So I searched at Google to find another distributor of Microsoft products,
Where I found: http://odosta.com
They have reasonable price for all their products.
Now we’re buying all products license from there via PayPal,
Which are working well, I’ll suggest it for all my friends.”
You can also get an unused Windows 7(any version)8, 8.1 pro License key & 10 from :(link deleted) - Anonymous
January 23, 2016
If someone has windows key, Then he can submit it to Microsoft site to download or get relevant ISO or DVD, But Microsoft did not offer product key after seeing your DVD media.
You can only restore lost product key, If you've link it with your Microsoft account, Otherwise you've to buy a new product key for any version of any OS, As I was in the same problem last week, So I searched at Google to find a cheap license key for Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit for my Lenovo i7 laptop, Where I found a site: http://products.odosta.com">ODosta Store
I recommend it for other guys, Because they have quality and quick support for their customers. - Anonymous
March 16, 2016
For those having issues with N, you need to use VAMT 3 to valid these. - Anonymous
April 20, 2016
What Site/URL has to be open though a proxy for VAMT to verify? It keeps giving an error "unable to connect to the remote server"