Hello, A bit of background. At our work, we backup our Windows servers using Macrium Reflect, and then we transfer a copy of the images off-site to another location so that we're protected in a worst case scenario. The majority of our hardware is Dell, and if we restore a backup image to Dell hardware at the off-site location then the Windows activates automatically. Which is ideal. The issue that we have is that we don't presently have the same number of machines at the off-site location as on-site. So if we had to restore all of the systems in a disaster, we would need to use VM's for some of the images. However the issue with using VM's; is that when we restore the backupsets into a VM rather than directly onto physical hardware, Windows doesn't activate. I'm thinking that the answer may be (if possible) to change the Windows image from Dell-OEM to Volume channel and then we could activate using one of the KMS tools. So my questions are: 1. Is the answer here to change the 'channel' of the installed Windows installation? I've done some searching through the forums and came across this post which seems to indicate that it is possible; but if so I need some help on the details. 2. Is there another approach that I could consider. I would imagine in a full-on disaster scenario we would need to run the systems for at least a fortnight and perhaps 30 - 60 days (or maybe 90 days at most). Thanks VW