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JustinWilliams-1251 avatar image
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JustinWilliams-1251 asked Sean-Liming commented

Windows 10 1809 IoT Enterprise Offline Activation

I have Win 10 IoT Enterprise (1809) machines that are out in the field. They were activated before deployment. On site they do not have internet access but we are now seeing some of them showing as not activated again. I read a while back that this can be caused if Windows Update cannot connect to the servers. I disabled Windows Update but it has re-enabled. This is also something new with IoT as that was never an issue before.

What are my options? It seems crazy that this issue exists when IoT is intended for industrial applications.

Thanks in Advance.

windows-10-generalwindows-iot-10core
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TeemoTang-MSFT avatar image
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TeemoTang-MSFT answered TeemoTang-MSFT commented

You mentioned that Win 10 IoT Enterprise (1809) machines were activated before deployment, what about then, do they still activated after deployment?
You know, KMS activation need clients contact to KMS server every 180 days, if this Win 10 IoT Enterprise (1809) machine use KMS activation and cannot contact KMS host beyond 180 days, its activation state will be lost.
Besides, major hardware change will also lead to activation state change.


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Hi, the machines are activated using our OEM key. They are not KMS machines. They are industrial PC's that have no access to the internet beyond initial build and deployment. I have seen this a number of times over the years where, with no hardware change or update, they will start asking for activation again. It's a strange issue. Like I said, I read a while back where others had experienced this and the explanation was that if Windows update can't connect to the servers, this message can pop up. When you are unable to permanently disable Windows Update I see this as an issue. To get rid of this message we somehow have to get the machines connected to the internet again which means taking them off the production lines so down time for our customer. Equally, I cannot give them our OEM key.

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It’s strange, have you tried reinstall product key?
In fact, I advise you contact your industrial PC's manufacturer support for help, they should meet with this situation, ask them about which system should be installed on those machine.

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Sean-Liming avatar image
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Sean-Liming answered Sean-Liming commented

Once activated, the system should remain in the activated state.

Was a major hardware change made to the system, i.e. system board change?

How did you verify the systems were activated before they left manufacturing?

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What steps did you perform to disable Windows Update?

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Hi Sean

The machines are always checked under Settings / Activation where it states Windows is Activated. This is the IoT Enterprise version of Windows 10 and that has always historically allowed me to Disable Windows Update under Services and it would remain Disabled, IoT after all is often used in environments where there is no Internet connection. What our customer is seeing is that Windows Update is re-enabling as it does with Windows 10 Pro and because it can't connect to the servers we are seeing the message for Activation pop up. As I say, I have experienced this before now, just curious if anyone has a solution, or is aware of a particular update that has changed the way IoT works regarding disabling Windows Update.

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Okay. So only Windows Update Services was disabled. There are some other items to disabled like task scheduled items that can start Windows Update.
This paper discusses what I do to disable Windows Updates for LTSC: https://annabooks.com/Articles/Articles_IoT10/Windows-10-IoT-Windows%20Update-Rev1.2.pdf.

Since the EPKEA key is in the image and with the system connected, one should be able to just run slmgr.vbs /ato to activated the system. If this doesn't work, I recommend contacting your Microsoft distributor to get help on the activation issue

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