I am trying to Sysprep a 2008 Std. server, but each time it comes back up I get the message that I need to activate it.I added a MAK key into the product key section of the answer file and during setup it doesn't prompt me for a product key, but I stillhave to activate it.Is there a way to have the image be already activated once it comes up?Thanks,Scott

Hi Scott, Make sure the following settings is not set as true: Microsoft-Windows-Security-Licensing-SLC-UX | SkipAutoActivation Note: This setting has no effect on Server Core installations of Windows Server 2008. The ProductKey setting specifies the product key to apply for each unique installation of the Windows operating system. There are two Product Key settings you can configure by using Windows System Image Manager (Windows SIM). Use the ProductKey setting in the Microsoft-Windows-Setup component to specify the Windows image to install during Windows Setup. The product key that is specified by this setting is stored on the computer after installation. If you choose to activate Windows, this product key will be used. Use the ProductKey setting in Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup to specify a different product key to activate Windows. For example, you can specify one product key to install Windows with the ProductKey in the Microsoft-Windows-Setup component, and then specify a different product key to activate Windows with ProductKey in the Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup component. If you specify a product key in the windowsPE configuration pass with ProductKey in the Microsoft-Windows-Setup component, then Windows Welcome will prompt for a product key. If you specify the ProductKey in the Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup component during the specialize pass, then Windows Welcome will not prompt the user for a product key. For more information, please refer to the following article: Work with Product Keys and Activation http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc749016.aspx Hope it helps. Tim Quan - MSFT

Thank you for your response.I addded Windows-Shell-Setup to the "specialize" pass and added the MAK key in addidion to theproduct key that I already entered under the Microsoft-Window-Setup pass.Then I sysprepped it and when I reboot, I no longer have the mini-setup which asks for hostname,accept license, etc... How can I still have the mini-setup once I reboot?By the way, I was able to activate it once the server was back up.Thanks a lot,Scott

Hi Scott, Did you configure these settings in the unattend file? Only settings omitted in the unattend file will prompt you to input. Tim Quan - MSFT

I didn't configure any setting other than the 2 product keys, but it still doesn't prompt for any information.Below is a copy of the .xml file.Do you see anything that could be wrong with this?Thanks,Scott<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend"> <settings pass="specialize"> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <ProductKey>KHDGX-4B3HC-QJKD7-R33GH-62KVV</ProductKey> </component> </settings> <settings pass="windowsPE"> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <UserData> <ProductKey> <Key>TM24T-X9RMF-VWXK6-X8JC9-BFGM2</Key> </ProductKey> </UserData> </component> </settings> <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="wim:c:/users/administrator/desktop/install.wim#Windows Longhorn SERVERSTANDARD" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" /></unattend>