Is this still not supported in server 2012? I did about a weeks worth of working setting servers up thinking i was getting Datacenter keys turns out i was only provided with Standard keys.

• Edited by JustusIV Monday, September 24, 2012 1:16 PM

Hey Justus:

Standard and Datacenter have feature parity in Windows Server 2012.  So no need to "downgrade" from a technical perspective.  The only licensing differences are in pricing and licensing rights for virtualization and/or number of physical processors - 2 VMs per license on Standard and unlimited with Datacenter. The Licensing & Pricing FAQ may provide additional context on the differences.

- C

• Proposed as answer by Miya YaoModerator Wednesday, September 26, 2012 7:00 AM
• Unproposed as answer by Miya YaoModerator Friday, September 28, 2012 6:46 AM

You can change your PRODUCT KEY from Server Manager, you can enter your "Standard product key".

Entering a Standard license key into a Datacenter install didn't work for me. I think you have to reinstall Standard from scratch. You can however upgrade from Standard to Datacenter.

This is a real pain, and it's not obvious why you can't downgrade licensing.

• Proposed as answer by David Trounce Thursday, September 27, 2012 5:31 PM
• Marked as answer by Miya YaoModerator Monday, October 08, 2012 6:09 AM

Most likely a carryover from days gone by.  Previously, there were features enabled in the premium Editions that were not in the Standard Edition.  As a result, Microsoft has never allowed downgrading.  However, now that Standard and Datacenter are only different in licensing, it should be possible.  If Microsoft gets enough customers asking for it, I'm sure they would consider it.  However, I don't know how many customers would want to pay for a Datacenter license and then want to convert it to a Standard license.  I KNOW Microsoft won't refund the difference in the license cost, so the customer is just throwing money out the window.

Again, as stated earlier, there is no difference in the capability, so it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense in any situation I can think of.

This is extremely lame.....

I don't want to rebuild my whole fail over cluster simply because i thought i was going to get datacenter keys and then only got standard keys.... If some features where different or something i could understand more but the ONLY feature difference is my key doesn't work....

Again, as stated earlier, there is no difference in the capability, so it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense in any situation I can think of.

As the OP said, he already fully configured a Datacenter install, but only has licenses for Standard. So he needs to be able to convert his preexisting install to Standard. This is a valid use case, but it can't be done (unlike going from Standard to Datacenter). So it does make sense to want to do this.

The only solution is a complete re-install, which seems unnecessary in Server 2012 given the only difference is just a licensing change for the # of VMs permitted.

• Marked as answer by Miya YaoModerator Monday, October 08, 2012 6:09 AM

Again, as stated earlier, there is no difference in the capability, so it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense in any situation I can think of.

As the OP said, he already fully configured a Datacenter install, but only has licenses for Standard. So he needs to be able to convert his preexisting install to Standard. This is a valid use case, but it can't be done (unlike going from Standard to Datacenter). So it does make sense to want to do this.

The only solution is a complete re-install, which seems unnecessary in Server 2012 given the only difference is just a licensing change for the # of VMs permitted.

QFT :)

Dodged a bullet here and got datacenter keys... This would have taken weeks to correct.... there needs to be a supported way of doing this...

Feedback noted.  Thanks

I haven't tried this, but maybe this will work?

DISM /online /Set-Edition: ServerStandard /ProductKey:XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX /AcceptEula

See also http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj574204.aspx

I just used this to license in-place a Standard Evaluation install (installed from the microsoft.com evaluation ISO) into a licensed Standard edition using our SA MAK. This was necessary, as my SA MAK was not accepted either via the dialogs or using 

slmgr.vbs /ipk XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

Maybe worth a try?

I haven't tried this, but maybe this will work?

DISM /online /Set-Edition: ServerStandard /ProductKey:XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX /AcceptEula

See also http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj574204.aspx

I just used this to license in-place a Standard Evaluation install (installed from the microsoft.com evaluation ISO) into a licensed Standard edition using our SA MAK. This was necessary, as my SA MAK was not accepted either via the dialogs or using 

slmgr.vbs /ipk XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

Maybe worth a try?

Hi

You can't use /Set-edition to go down to Standard - the only available target is Datacentre when you have installed Standard.

Cheers, Steve

on our case, we have to do a reinstall of the said machine.

1. supplying standard keys did not work

2. in-place "Upgrade" only allows Standard to Datacenter

At least it was just a fresh install, so we didn't lose much.

Is there a way to do this now? 

Id also liked to know if there is any way to downgrade. Would be an verry helpful feature for me.Or may and Repair-Intallation from cd can fix this?

• Edited by Armin_Kraemer Friday, December 27, 2013 8:14 AM

This way is probably not supported, and I would not try it on something like a DC... but here is what I recently did to downgrade Server 2012 R2 Datacenter to Server 2012 R2 Standard.

Edit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion

Key: EditionID

Change To: ServerStandard

Key: ProductName

Change To: Windows Server 2012 Standard

Note that in this example I am going to be "upgrading" to Server 2012 R2 Standard, so I put in Windows Server 2012 Standard as the ProductName, not Server 2012 R2 Standard.  After the upgrade, this key will change itself to proper version.

Next mount or insert your Server 2012 installation media, run the installer.  Do not check for updates, I chose Server 2012 R2 Standard with gui as my OS, and pick Upgrade.

It will go through the standard upgrade process, and you now have downgraded from Server 2012 R2 Datacenter to Server 2012 R2 Standard.

After that I ran slui 3 from command prompt, entered my Server 2012 R2 Standard product key, and activation went through.

I'm about to test doing this on a DC, but honestly if you were to try this, I would demote the server, remove DNS and DHCP, then do the "downgrade". 

Once again, I highly doubt this method is supported, so make sure you have a full backup of your data or VM.

• Proposed as answer by Niels_k Wednesday, August 13, 2014 3:38 PM

This way is probably not supported, and I would not try it on something like a DC... but here is what I recently did to downgrade Server 2012 R2 Datacenter to Server 2012 R2 Standard.

Edit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion

Key: EditionID

Change To: ServerStandard

Key: ProductName

Change To: Windows Server 2012 Standard

Note that in this example I am going to be "upgrading" to Server 2012 R2 Standard, so I put in Windows Server 2012 Standard as the ProductName, not Server 2012 R2 Standard.  After the upgrade, this key will change itself to proper version.

Next mount or insert your Server 2012 installation media, run the installer.  Do not check for updates, I chose Server 2012 R2 Standard with gui as my OS, and pick Upgrade.

It will go through the standard upgrade process, and you now have downgraded from Server 2012 R2 Datacenter to Server 2012 R2 Standard.

After that I ran slui 3 from command prompt, entered my Server 2012 R2 Standard product key, and activation went through.

I'm about to test doing this on a DC, but honestly if you were to try this, I would demote the server, remove DNS and DHCP, then do the "downgrade". 

Once again, I highly doubt this method is supported, so make sure you have a full backup of your data or VM.

I have tested this method to convert Windows 7 Enterprise to Professional successfully.

Now I have to convert 2012 Datacenter to Standrard as I deployed SCCM 2012 on the trial version of Datacenter. I'm going to do this again on server now.

• Edited by Amir H Jafarian Wednesday, February 19, 2014 1:09 AM

no method for downgrade only reinstall the o.s

This isn't a supported method to change editions.  If you need to downgrade your Windows editions, you need to reinstall the operating system to the edition you need.

I tried this, and it works for me:

This way is probably not supported, and I would not try it on something like a DC... but here is what I recently did to downgrade Server 2012 R2 Datacenter to Server 2012 R2 Standard.

Edit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion

Key: EditionID

Change To: ServerStandard

Key: ProductName

Change To: Windows Server 2012 Standard

Note that in this example I am going to be "upgrading" to Server 2012 R2 Standard, so I put in Windows Server 2012 Standard as the ProductName, not Server 2012 R2 Standard.  After the upgrade, this key will change itself to proper version.

Next mount or insert your Server 2012 installation media, run the installer.  Do not check for updates, I chose Server 2012 R2 Standard with gui as my OS, and pick Upgrade.

It will go through the standard upgrade process, and you now have downgraded from Server 2012 R2 Datacenter to Server 2012 R2 Standard.

After that I ran slui 3 from command prompt, entered my Server 2012 R2 Standard product key, and activation went through.

I'm about to test doing this on a DC, but honestly if you were to try this, I would demote the server, remove DNS and DHCP, then do the "downgrade". 

Once again, I highly doubt this method is supported, so make sure you have a full backup of your data or VM.

This way is probably not supported, and I would not try it on something like a DC... but here is what I recently did to downgrade Server 2012 R2 Datacenter to Server 2012 R2 Standard.

Edit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion

Key: EditionID

Change To: ServerStandard

Key: ProductName

Change To: Windows Server 2012 Standard

Note that in this example I am going to be "upgrading" to Server 2012 R2 Standard, so I put in Windows Server 2012 Standard as the ProductName, not Server 2012 R2 Standard.  After the upgrade, this key will change itself to proper version.

Next mount or insert your Server 2012 installation media, run the installer.  Do not check for updates, I chose Server 2012 R2 Standard with gui as my OS, and pick Upgrade.

It will go through the standard upgrade process, and you now have downgraded from Server 2012 R2 Datacenter to Server 2012 R2 Standard.

After that I ran slui 3 from command prompt, entered my Server 2012 R2 Standard product key, and activation went through.

I'm about to test doing this on a DC, but honestly if you were to try this, I would demote the server, remove DNS and DHCP, then do the "downgrade". 

Once again, I highly doubt this method is supported, so make sure you have a full backup of your data or VM.

Hello Derekcn,

Thank you for posting this.  It worked like a champ!

I changed the 2 registry keys you mentioned in your post, mounted my Server 2012 R2 Standard ISO, and proceeded with a upgrade of the OS from Windows Server 2012 Datacenter to Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard.

This saved me a ton of time.  I had a Server 2012 2 Node Failover Cluster with many Hyper-V VM's running, and a very short Window of time to downgrade from Data Center and then Upgrade to 2012 R2.

Interestingly enough, I completed the process with 2 Nodes, and they were both Server 2012 Data Center Cluster Nodes.  

A bit of an aside, an upgrade of a Server 2012 Cluster Node to a Server 2012 R2 Cluster Node is not supported, but... 

The upgrade of cluster nodes from 2012 to 2012 R2 can be done.  It is a bit involved and takes some doing, but in the end, doable and working great.

Thanks again!

Thanks!  Worked for me.  Ran Without demoting or removing DNS, DHCP, or other services but of course domain was down during that time.  No command prompt needed.

regedit

reboot

run installer

no update

upgrade

enter new key through gui

• Edited by MS learner 227 Thursday, June 12, 2014 12:21 AM

Hello,

the Datacenter Edition of Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 allowed you to downgrade Edition rights. it means you can for example install 10 VMs as a Standard Edition on the datacenter license but to do it, you need to have the media +key product for Standard Edition. for volume licensing customers, the Standard Edition is available on the VLSC to download it without to need the media and the key product.

thanks

diramoh

Intstalled a new server and selected datacenter instead of standard and first found out at the end of the day. Now 1 hour later we have the server as a 2012 R2 Standard edition with all Hyper-v that was setup still functioning.

I dindt need to run the slui 3 command because we use KMS.

You great Sir, are Saluted!!

Interesting thought pattern around this solution, worked like a charm!

I know this is an ancient post but just for clarity it appears you cannot do it.

I accidentally installed DC and have AD FS 3.0 all installed and configured. The customer also wanted the POC environment to resemble how it is going to in live. As the AD FS servers are going to be on VMware a DC license is going to be bound to each ESXi host.

Although it will make no technical or functional difference I had to downgrade or build again....

I tried;

DISM /Online /Get-TargetEditions (this listed nothing, if I were upgrading I would see ServerDatacentre)

then just in case I could force it;

DISM /Online /Set-Edition:ServerStandard /ProductKey:xxxx-xxxx-xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx /AcceptEULA

It came back with the error 50 and the message This Windows image cannot be upgraded to the edition of Windows that was specified. This is the only way I know how to change the edition so apologies if there is another way to do it.

Ryan Betts

blog.ryanbetts.co.uk