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Windows 8 Activation Error: DNS name does not exist Error Code: 0x8007232B

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Jose Chinchilla aka SQLJoe

The Windows 8 Activation may fail while using the online activation process. You may receive an error screen similar to this:

Image

This issue was documented in this Microsoft Support article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929826 for previous versions of Windows but also applies to Windows 8. The cause according to this article is:

As the support article explains, the issue has to do with the default behavior of the activation wizard in certain installation media. Depending on where the installation media was obtained from (for example MSDN or TechNet subscription download) the activation wizard  by default will look for a Key Management Service (KMS) host on your internal network. It will not try to activate using the internet to reach Microsoft Activation servers.

In my case, I downloaded the Windows 8 Pro ISO file from my MSDN subscription. The installation binaries from the MSDN ISO file uses a temporary / default key to install as I was not prompted for an installation key. This installation key is apparently a temporary key that tells the Windows 8 activation wizard to look for a KMS host on the local network only and not try Microsoft’s activation servers online.

The solution is to manually change the product key to a Multiple Activation Key (MAK) most likely provided with your MSDN or TechNet subscription. To change the product key, use the slmgr.vbs script included with your Windows installation. The steps to manually change the product key are as follows:

1. Open an elevated Command Prompt (CMD) in Windows 8. Elevated means, Command Prompt needs to be run as an administrator. To do this, go to Windows 8 Start (click on the Windows key), locate the Command Prompt shortcut on your tiles (or search for it on your Apps) and righ-click on it.

2. The option to Run as Administrator appears on the bottom toolbar as shown in the following screenshot:

3. Once the elevated Command Prompt opens type the following command and press ENTER:slmgr.vbs /ipk “Your 5×5 Product Key”

For example:

4. After you press ENTER you will receive the following confirmation message within 10 seconds:

5. Once you receive this confirmation message you may proceed to activate Windows 8 using Microsoft’s activation servers online.

Filed under: Errors, How to, Windows | Tagged: , , , , , , |

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88 Responses

  1. Thanks SQL Joe! | vicberggren.com, on August 25, 2012 at 7:00 pm said:

    […] Windows 8 Activation Error: DNS name does not exist. Share this:ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInStumbleUponRedditEmailPrint Filed Under: Windows Tagged With: Windows 8 Leave a Comment Cancel Reply […]

    Reply
  2. nishil, on August 27, 2012 at 3:58 am said:

    I DONE THIS WAY BUT PROBLEM IS NOT SOLVED

    Reply
  3. My Gripes with Windows 8 so far | The-IT-Blog, on August 31, 2012 at 3:58 am said:

    […] Activating Windows 8 with my MSDN copy was just hideous in the fact that you cant just enter your key you have to run a script, if end users are having to do this I can see it being a nightmare for Microsoft essentially all you have to do is run cmd as admin and type “slmgr.vbs /ipk with-your-lic-key” so see below more over at sqljoe’s blog here […]

    Reply
  4. jvrcanales, on September 10, 2012 at 6:39 am said:

    Great ¡ ¡ work form me ¡ ¡

    Reply
  5. André Prando, on September 21, 2012 at 6:04 pm said:

    It worked for me BUT… how do I “proceed to activate Windows 8 using Microsoft’s activation servers online” ???

    I tried to proceed in my system,,, but happened that error again.

    Reply
  6. niknoxe, on October 1, 2012 at 5:33 am said:

    Thx, just worked fine!

    Reply
  7. Dennis Rice, on October 9, 2012 at 8:43 am said:

    Worked perfect here for my MSDN key, thanks Joe. Does seem like a pain, but could be that they are trying to prevent folks from using MSDN for production by making activation difficult.

    Reply
  8. James, on October 12, 2012 at 3:10 pm said:

    You’re a rock star! Thanks for making this Mac technician’s day that much easier!

    Reply
  9. Jorge, on October 14, 2012 at 11:47 am said:

    Thank you for this post. It worked flawlessly for me as well

    Reply
  10. tomtom, on October 29, 2012 at 4:36 pm said:

    Thanks. All works as described.

    Reply
  11. Redman, on October 31, 2012 at 2:56 pm said:

    Thanks a lot. Ran into this issue & the above solution worked flawlessly.

    Reply
  12. ScottB, on October 31, 2012 at 4:15 pm said:

    F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C!!!
    Thank you!

    Reply
  13. Windows 8 Activation Error: DNS name does not exist Error Code: 0x8007232B « Sadissa B.'s Blog, on November 4, 2012 at 5:58 pm said:

    […] Windows 8 Activation Error: DNS name does not exist Error Code: 0x8007232B. […]

    Reply
  14. Windows Server 2012 Activation Error | dave.harris.net, on November 7, 2012 at 4:19 pm said:

    […] was a bit of an issue, and it was a legitimate version of Windows. Thankfully this solution worked […]

    Reply
  15. Ajay, on November 13, 2012 at 1:06 am said:

    same error for me too. When i open windows activator and select the option “win 8 install/uninstall”, a cmd prompt will appear asking to hit y. if i hit y, the page will disappear and no change occurs.
    pls anybody help me………..

    Reply
  16. Gavin, on November 21, 2012 at 11:57 am said:

    thanks for this

    Reply
  17. elizabeth darroch, on November 23, 2012 at 8:37 am said:

    no joy error code oxcoo4coo3

    Reply
  18. myrocode, on December 1, 2012 at 10:39 am said:

    thanks! worked!!!!

    Reply
  19. Chris, on December 6, 2012 at 5:51 pm said:

    The Best! works like a charmed!

    Reply
  20. Activating Windows 8, on December 19, 2012 at 11:44 pm said:

    […] quick search yielded this page at “SQL Joe’s Blog” which explains that activation is failing because I have a KMS key installed.  This makes sense […]

    Reply
  21. rahul, on December 21, 2012 at 11:50 pm said:

    0x8007007B this error shows wt i do, i tries to run in cmd as administrator bt above err shows pls give me sollution

    Reply
  22. H08X, on December 27, 2012 at 6:32 am said:

    Great, worked like a charm, with MSDN key

    Reply
  23. Grant, on January 5, 2013 at 10:50 pm said:

    Thanks Jose! Windows 8 immediately recognized the new msdn key and activated it. Quick and painless … after reading your tip!

    Reply
  24. Steve, on January 22, 2013 at 3:29 pm said:

    Great post, glad I found it. Worked perfectly.

    Reply
  25. Steven Ward, on January 28, 2013 at 10:51 am said:

    I entered the cmd ‘:slmgr.vbs /ipk “Your 5×5 Product Key”” and did not need to activate as it now says windows is activated -( I entered the windows code when I installed windows )

    Thanks for your help

    Reply
  26. MAtt, on February 10, 2013 at 5:44 pm said:

    Once I change the Product key in the cmd prompt and get a success message…do I need to do anything further to Activate?

    Reply
  27. echo, on February 16, 2013 at 9:36 am said:

    hi joe…same probleom with the same error! i did all the steps that u wright – got succsess message – restart but nothing! same error “DNS Name does not exist” cant activate! help???

    Reply
  28. echo, on February 18, 2013 at 1:36 am said:

    ok…i solved this problem of DNS error (although the slmgr command did nothing also) after than i got KMS error says that unable to contact the KMS! after along hours i found some bach file somewhere in the net, i operate it and now my win 8 says that is activated BUT…the action center keep telling me that i need 2 activate windows. Someone know Y? how can i check windows is really activated?

    Reply
  29. Lakmal, on February 19, 2013 at 3:57 am said:

    received the confirmation message but NOT proceed to activate Windows 8 using Microsoft’s activation servers online,

    what do i have to do ?
    please help

    Reply
  30. Rajini, on February 22, 2013 at 10:20 pm said:

    it solved issue…. Thanks….

    Reply
  31. Thor, on February 28, 2013 at 12:38 am said:

    A great Thank You from Denmark too. It worked as you described.

    Reply
  32. Arthur, on March 6, 2013 at 9:55 pm said:

    Thank you; worked like a charm! Great post, thank you for the picture walk through

    Reply
  33. Holger Scholz, on March 20, 2013 at 3:06 am said:

    Great, when you miss the vbs script try this command:

    >slmgr -ipk xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

    Reply
  34. Kishore K Barik, on March 20, 2013 at 3:00 pm said:

    SUCCESSFUL IN WINDOWS 7. WORKED LIKE A CHARM..THANKS

    Reply
  35. Windows 8 – DNS name does not exist error when activating | My blog, on April 10, 2013 at 9:40 pm said:

    […] As it turns out, this is due to downloading the ISO for Windows 8 from an MSDN or TechNet site (most likely TechNet in this case) and within it’s settings, there is a default CD Key which expects a KMS server on your internal network to activate. More information and background can be found on this blog. […]

    Reply
  36. MacKenzie, on April 19, 2013 at 6:40 pm said:

    Thanks!!! it works perfectly less than 2 minutes

    Reply
  37. Windows 8 Noob – Day #1 | Michele Leroux Bustamante, on May 6, 2013 at 8:38 pm said:

    […] this blog post which instructed me to open the command window as administrator and run the following command to […]

    Reply
  38. fabian, on May 27, 2013 at 12:55 am said:

    “Error: 0xC004F025 Acceso denegado: la accion solicidata requiere privilegios elevados” QUE PEUDO HACER?

    Reply
  39. Windows 8 Activation Error: DNS name does not exist Error Code: 0x8007232B | Spinbase, on June 5, 2013 at 10:36 am said:

    […] LINKBACK: https://sqljoe.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/windows-8-activation-error-dns-name-does-not-exist-error-code… […]

    Reply
  40. How-To: Activate Win 8 RTM–MSDN/VL copy | The-IT-Blog, on July 18, 2013 at 9:05 am said:

    […] Type “slmgr.vbs /ipk with-your-lic-key” so see below more over at sqljoe’s blog here […]

    Reply
  41. monu, on August 1, 2013 at 3:16 am said:

    this step is completed but again same problem plz rply me solve this problem

    Reply
  42. Shawn Teliwa, on August 5, 2013 at 7:33 am said:

    Thanks for this useful information.I will try follow your steps to activate my win8 pro as it keeps telling me my Dns servers cannot be located on my local drive and I cant activate via phone as the link does not show

    Will let you know of how I go with your steps.
    Cheers.

    Shawn
    PNG

    Reply
  43. Johan van Soest, on August 9, 2013 at 9:04 pm said:

    Thank you for this helpfull tip.

    Reply
  44. Maha, on August 13, 2013 at 3:33 am said:

    Thanks for the info. I have the same problem but with a further issue, my windows copy came with a new laptop so I don’t have the key – it’s encrypted somewhere in the BIOS as I understood and the activation should have worked automatically.

    Any information on how to deal with this?

    Reply
  45. masi, on September 24, 2013 at 5:44 pm said:

    i did the same but my problem has not been solved 😦 i am receiving this error:
    access denied: the requested action requires elevated privileges

    Reply
  46. Carlos, on September 28, 2013 at 10:55 am said:

    It worked great for me. Thanks for the tip.

    Reply
  47. memol, on October 10, 2013 at 3:54 pm said:

    I did the same and I got the same message but still I can not activate my product key. It would be really nice if you can help me?

    Reply
  48. talismania, on January 11, 2014 at 4:55 pm said:

    Thanks, simple good directions that worked.

    Reply
  49. Rithesh, on January 12, 2014 at 5:09 am said:

    i had legitimate windpows 7, but for a change i installed windows 8 pro N ..m not sure whether its legitimate also i dont have product key…i tried to use hacked key from google, but later received error: access denied: the requested action requested action requires elevated privileges. .

    Reply
    • Rithesh, on January 12, 2014 at 5:12 am said:

      i had legitimate windpows 7, but for a change i installed windows 8 pro N ..m not sure whether its legitimate also i dont have product key…i tried to use hacked key from google, but later received error: access denied: the requested action requested action requires elevated privileges.

      also its not asking to buy or try another key..i can only try installing key from cmd and getting this access denied error message…any help on this?

      Reply
  50. TMS, on February 5, 2014 at 11:54 am said:

    After spending 30 minutes on the phone with Microsoft being transferred around from one person to another who did not have a clue about how to resolve the issue am very thankful for this post.

    Reply
  51. Mandy, on February 12, 2014 at 10:59 pm said:

    Thank you so much! This worked perfectly and helped me fix my laptop. I cannot even express how appreciative I am of this.

    Reply
  52. Ashish Prakash, on April 27, 2014 at 7:25 am said:

    It really worked, thank u very much.

    Reply
  53. NIhar, on April 27, 2014 at 11:00 am said:

    I do that but my windows not activated

    Reply
  54. Siddharth, on May 6, 2014 at 12:09 pm said:

    it showed me message succesfully key installed but how to activate by Microsoft’s activation servers online.

    Reply
  55. krishna, on May 20, 2014 at 5:26 pm said:

    was looking for a solution for over a week and worked liked a charm.. thx a lot

    Reply
  56. Bryannt, on May 22, 2014 at 5:34 pm said:

    I did this and then rebooted it and tried to activate windows but got the same error message? someone please help!

    Reply
  57. chris, on May 25, 2014 at 5:15 am said:

    Very clear and explicit, worked fine thanks v much

    Reply
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    […] Windows 8 Activation Error: DNS name does not exist Error Code: 0x8007232B […]

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