Just for your information: I have a VM where I always test the latest Windows installation media and where I activated the Pro version using HWID a long time ago. To my surprise, today’s installation wasn’t automatically activated, and the troubleshooter told me I should contact my administrator. I simply ran MAS 3.11 to generate the HWID again, and now it’s activated once more. Since I’ve been doing this pretty much since MAS-HWID was released, this surprised me a bit. BTW, I love this tool and would like to take this opportunity to thank the developers once again! Host OS: Windows 25H2 Enterprise 262000.8457, VMware Workstation Pro 25H2 25.0.0.24995812, Guest OS Windows 25H2 Pro 26200.8457
That is happening for me when i install 26200 or 28000 builds, it started a while back with some updated VMWare, maybe they changed things, i usually don't run VM's long enough to care and most have MAS running by setupcomplete anyway
I hadn't updated the VMware; the host does that automatically. I'm just surprised and hope it doesn't happen on real computers too, but I haven't experienced that yet.
It most likely doesn't happen on real pc's, the vmware uui can be changed but on a real pc it is not that easy. That is the same as running MAS HWID to reactivate, the question was why does it suddenly happen that VM's no longer get the HWID by default when it is the same VM.
It might have upped the hardware version of the VM. Higher hardware version means other, newer hardware is virtualized. That could indeed trigger a re-activation (hardware out of tolerance).
I tested this again: On physical hardware where MAS-HWID was enabled, I could only activate the Pro version after running the troubleshooter following a fresh install; previously, this happened automatically. I was able to activate the VM now just by troubleshooting; I didn't need MAS to do so. Before, it happened automatically. In the VM, I could only create a local user after running “oobe/bapassnro”; on the physical hardware, I was able to create one without much hassle. I reinstalled my host OS in February 2026 and am only using the VM to test whether the installation media works. Presumably, Enthousiast (as always) and Carlos Detweiller are right, and it’s because it was a newer version of VMware. I guess I just didn’t realize that activation hasn’t worked since then.
Are you using a MSA? Then this can happen. My troubleshooter is just running MAS again and mostly by setupcomplete and NEVER use a MSA for windows
What is MSA? I don't have any trouble activating Windows either, thanks to the people here who provide everything you need to do it. I'm just curious why it's not working the way it usually does.
I ran MAS TSforge on a VM of LTSB 2016 and it said that it will get ESUs years 1 thru 3 and ESUs years 4 thru 6. Is there actually an ESU offering for LTSB 2016 for years 4 thru 6?