How To Verify or Check your KMS/MAK Product Key

Hello, my name is Scott McArthur. I am a Senior Support Escalation Engineer in the Windows group and today’s blog will cover a common question we get involving product keys. Many times you may have a product key but you need to find out what type of key it is. We will use the VAMT 2.0 tool to accomplish this task. VAMT 2.0 can decode the following types of keys:

  • MAK keys
  • KMS keys
  • Retail keys
  • OEM keys

To determine what type of key you have do the following:

1. Download the Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT) 2.0 and install it

2. Click Start, All Programs, VAMT 2.0, Volume Activation Management Tool 2.0

3. Click the Product Keys option

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Figure 1. VAMT 2.0

4. Enter your Product Key then click Verify.

5. VAMT 2.0 will connect to the internet and verify what type of key you have. For example(I removed my product keys)

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Figure 2. VAMT Product Key Output

The following describes the column headings
Key Type: CSVLK, MAK, Retail, OemCoa, etc… Note: CSVLK is a KMS host key
Edition: The editions (Standard, Enterprise, etc…) the key is valid for
Description: More detailed description of the key
Remaining Activations: This column is only valid for MAK keys

Some Common Keys

Windows 7 Home Premium OEM Key
Key Type: OemCoa
Edition: HomePremium
Description: Windows 7 Home Premium OEM:COA

Windows 7 Ultimate Retail Key
Key Type: Retail
Edition: Ultimate
Description: Windows 7 Ultimate Retail

Windows 7 MAK key
Key Type: Mak
Edition: Enterprise;EnterpriseN;EnterpriseE;Professional;ProfessionalN;ProfessionalE
Description: Windows 7 All Volume Editions Volume:MAK

Windows 7 KMS Host Key
Key Type: Csvlk
Edition: Enterprise;EnterpriseN;EnterpriseE;Professional;ProfessionalN;ProfessionalE
Description: Windows 7 All Volume Editions Volume:CSVLK

Windows Server 2008 R2 MAK_B
Key Type: Mak
Edition: ServerStandard;ServerEnterprise
Description: Server 2008 R2 Std and Ent Volume:MAK (MAK_B)

Windows Server 2008 R2 KMS_C
Key Type: Csvlk
Edition: ServerDatacenter;ServerEnterpriseIA64;ServerEnterprise;ServerStandard;ServerWeb;ServerHPC
Description: Server 2008 R2 DC and IA64 Volume:CSVLK (KMS_C)

Windows Server 2008 R2 KMS_B
Key Type: Csvlk
Edition: ServerStandard;ServerEnterprise;ServerWeb;ServerHPC
Description: Server 2008 R2 Std and Ent Volume:CSVLK (KMS_B)

Entering all your keys into VAMT 2.0 is a good way to save your productkeys and be able to reference them easily. VAMT 2.0 is a powerful tool that you can use for many other activation functions. For more information on VAMT 2.0 click Help to see the included helpfile.

Scott McArthur
Senior Support Escalation Engineer
Microsoft Enterprise Platforms Support