If you have installed the Eval copy of Windows Server, you may decide once you get it configured that you want to push it into production. Unfortunately, you will shortly realize that its not as simple as adding your Volume License key. This is because Windows has editions/versions that it can be set to. Luckily we are provided with a way, if clunky, to change the editions.
Open a command prompt, and type the following. Substitute the X with your key.
In this example we are moving the Eval to Standard edition and activating.
You can first check your current edition, and the available paths via:
DISM /Get-CurrentEdition
DISM /Get-TargetEditions
Then change and activate:
DISM /online /Set-Edition:ServerStandard /ProductKey:XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX /AcceptEula
Keep in mind, you can’t downgrade with this process. So you can go from STD to ENT, or EVAL to STD, but NOT ENT to STD, for example.
