Thanks, you have been really helpful. One more quick question - Is there an slmgr command that can be run to verify/differentiate between an install that has only the eval key (followed by the 20 min reboots) or has a fully activated key?
Yeah, the TechNet article linked in my previous post describes how you can check the installed license ("How to Determine Your Image's License Details").
Sorry, I should have read that first. Thanks for that, and the toolkit key. One last, final question: After installing WES7 using the toolkit, can the device then be sysprep'd using an unattend.xml as normal?
I'm not sure about sysprep, haven't done much with it on Embedded yet. Better check the MS documentation.
Weirdly this seems to vary for the x64 version. I just installed it on a VM and a physical machine (Minimal Configuration, slight tweaks to add network, firewall etc) and on either machine at no point during setup did I get offered the chance to enter the key (or most of the OOBE stuff like Computer name, etc). I should clarify this was with the trial "IBW" iso not the Toolkit itself. The same options on x86 did show the OOBE stuff.
No, OOBE will prompt for a key hen installing using IBW (i.e. booting from the "runtime" DVD). Not sure if an image built with ICE will prompt for a key, but in that case it's easier to just provide the key in the answer file. Entering a key after installation using slmgr will cause the 20-minute reboots. In other words, if the Windows logo on the logon screen and winver says "evaluation edition" it's too late.
WLMS is the service that gets installed when you use an evaluation key That's what checks for the license change and performs the reboots, and removing it will indeed stop the OS from rebooting. I don't know if there are any other checks though that might switch the OS to non-genuine at some point, so I just did a reinstall using a non-eval key to be safe.