The Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT) user interface provides a central console for managing Windows® and Microsoft® Office 2010 activations.

Click the Volume Activation Management Tool 2.0 menu item on the Start menu.
Open the Microsoft® Management Console (MMC), choose Add/Remove Snap-in on the File menu, and add Volume Activation Management Tool from the list. On a 64-bit (x64) system, you must open the 32-bit (x86) console by issuing the command: MMC.exe /32.

The following illustration shows the VAMT user interface:

The menu bar across the top includes standard MMC menus, with the Action menu containing context-sensitive menu items. Use these menus to access all of the VAMT commands. The tree view in the left-hand pane organizes products according to their licensing status. The product list view in the center pane displays all products within a selected tree view node, including the activation status and other properties for each product. The center pane also enables users to search and add computers using various query methods. The right-hand pane contains context-sensitive menu items that are identical to what is shown under the Action menu on the top menu bar.

VAMT Tree View

The tree view in the left-hand pane of the VAMT MMC snap-in displays all discovered products, according to their licensing status, under the All Products node. In addition to products, product keys are also shown under the Product Keys node. The VAMT displays a count for each node next to the node label.

Selecting a node in the All Products tree view displays all discovered products that match the rules of that node. For example: selecting the Licensed node displays all discovered products that are licensed. The Product Key list shows only keys that you added. The KMS client keys that are embedded in VAMT are not shown in the list.

Tree view nodes

All Products. This is the parent node for all products discovered by the VAMT.
- Status Unknown. Display all products that the VAMT has not collected or cannot collect license status for. This includes any computers that have been added but whose installed products have not yet been discovered.
- Licensed. Display all products that have been activated by a valid product key.
- Not Licensed. This is the parent node for all products whose licensing status is not Licensed:
  - Out-of-Box (OOB) Grace. Display all products that are still within the initial grace period allowed by Windows, Windows Server® or Microsoft Office 2010 prior to required activation.
  - Non-Genuine Grace. Display all computers installed with the RTM version of Windows Vista® that have failed online validation but have not yet entered reduced functionality mode (RFM). Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista computers with Service Pack 1 (SP1) or a later Service Pack installed, and Office 2010 will never enter the Non-Genuine Grace state.
  - Out of Tolerance (OOT) Grace. Display all products that have had hardware or BIOS changes significant enough to require reactivation, and all KMS client products that have not renewed their activation within the 180 day activation-renewal period.
  - Unlicensed. Display all computers installed with the RTM version of Windows Vista that have exceeded the activation grace period and entered RFM, or retail editions of Office 2010 products that have exceeded the activation grace period and entered RFM. You can use the VAMT to activate these products if they are properly configured for activation and are accessible to the VAMT host computer. Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista computers with SP1 or a later Service Pack installed, and volume editions of Office 2010 will never enter the Unlicensed state.
  - Notification. Display all products that are in the notification state. This state occurs only for computers installed with Windows Vista SP1 or a later Service Pack, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, or Windows Server 2008 R2 that have exceeded the activation grace period or failed online validation, and volume editions of Office 2010 that have exceeded the activation grace period.
- Unmanaged Products - Display all discovered products that do not support activation methods managed by the VAMT. This only includes Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows Server 2003 SP1 installations.
Product Keys. Display all available product keys added by the user. KMS Client keys (GVLKs) are not displayed by default, but are loaded and stored internally.

VAMT Product List View

The product list view in the VAMT MMC snap-in’s center pane displays the status of individual products and information about each product.

To display all products under a licensing status, select the corresponding licensing status node in the tree view pane.
To display all products, select the All Products node.
To sort the list of products by information category, click the desired column heading.
To filter the list of products, type the filter criteria in the text box or click the filter icon under the column heading.
To select multiple products and perform actions against them, hold down the CTRL key while clicking each product list entry. To select multiple products that are listed next to one another, click a product and while holding down the SHIFT key, then click the next product in the list. To select all products in the view, click anywhere in the product list view and press CTRL-A.
To perform an action against selected products, right-click the items to open the context-sensitive Actions menu or choose from the Selected Items menu in the right-hand pane.
To view additional properties of a product, such as the Status of Last Action, double-click the product and the VAMT will show the Properties window.

Columns in the product list

The product list view displays attributes of each discovered product. These attributes are maintained by the VAMT and provide information about the licensing status of each product in the activation process. To define which categories of information to display, and the order in which to display them, click the View menu item in the top menu bar and then click Add/Remove Columns to open the Add/Remove Columns dialog box.

Column	Description
Internal computer GUID	ID created by the VAMT and assigned to keep track of computers during various operations.
Computer Name	(Default) – Computer name or IP address (if entered manually).
Product Name	(Default) – The name of the discovered product.
Product Key Type	(Default) – Displays the current activation type for the product.
OS Edition	The installed Windows edition.
Product Version	The specific product version number, in the format: x.x.xxxx.xxxx
License Status	(Default) – Displays the product’s last known license state: Out-of-Box Grace Licensed Non-Genuine Grace Out-of-Tolerance Grace (includes KMS client activation expired) Unlicensed Notification
Grace expiration date	(Default) – Date that grace will expire for a product. For KMS-client activated products, this represents the date that the KMS activation expires.
Status of the last action	(Default) –The last action performed on the product and the result.
Partial Product Key	The last five characters of a product key.
Product ID	The edition ID of the product.
Domain/Workgroup	The domain or workgroup of a computer.
PID	Product ID
Installation ID (IID)	The ID sent to Microsoft to get a corresponding CID. The IID is generated when retail, MAK, or KMS host key are installed.
Pending Confirmation ID (CID)	Confirmation ID received from Microsoft. Paired with the IID, these IDs allow a client product to activate.
Genuine Status	(Default) – The genuine status as returned by Microsoft activation services. Genuine status is not available for Windows XP or Windows Server® 2003.
Date of Last Status Update	(Default) – The time stamp of the last status update for a product.

VAMT Product Key List View

The product key list view in VAMT snap-in’s center pane displays the available product keys added by the user.

Columns in the product key list

The product key list view displays attributes of each product key. These attributes are maintained by the VAMT and provide important information about each product key. To define which categories of information to display, and the order in which to display them, click View in the top menu bar and then click Add/Remove Columns to open the Add/Remove Columns dialog box.

The items in the Displayed Columns and Available Columns lists show all product key attributes collected by the VAMT. Some items under the Displayed Columns list are set by default. The following list describes each item:

Columns	Description
Key	(Default) - A 25-character product key.
Remarks	(Default) - A description of the product key entered by the user when adding it to the VAMT.
Key Type	(Default) – Displays the current activation type for the product key. KMS client (GVLK) KMS host (Microsoft Customer Support Volume License Key (CSVLK)) MAK Retail OEM
Edition	(Default) – The edition of the product key.
Description	(Default) – The description of the product key defined by Microsoft.
Remaining Activation	(Default) – The remaining activation count maintained by the Microsoft online-activation server for a MAK product key. Obtaining this information requires Internet connectivity.

VAMT Context-Sensitive Menus

The VAMT snap-in follows the standard MMC menu layout:

Menu	Description
File	Standard MMC file-related operations not directly related to VAMT features.
Action	Context-sensitive menu that provides access to activation and product-key management tasks, depending on what items are selected.
View	Access to list-view column settings, user preferences, and the standard MMC customization features not directly related to the VAMT.
Favorite	Standard MMC menu not directly related to the VAMT.
Window	Standard MMC menu not directly related to the VAMT.
Help	Access to VAMT Help.

VAMT CIL File menu items

The CIL file menu items allows users to load, save, and import computer information in a single XML data file, the CIL file. These menu items are available when a node, rather than individual items in the product or product keys list, is selected. They can be found under the Action menu.

Menu	Description
Open List	Open a CIL data file.
Save List	Save or export CIL data, including products and product keys.
Save List As	Save or export CIL data under a specified name and location.
Import List	Load a data file into the VAMT and merge it with the existing data.
Close List	Close a data file.

In addition to these file menu items, the Clear All Filters menu item is always available and provides a way to reset the filter criteria.

VAMT selected items menu

The VAMT selected items menu includes the core VAMT functionality. It is context-sensitive because:

The menu does not appear unless one or more products or product keys have been selected in the list view in the center pane.
Not all of the menu items are always available. Depending on the licensing status and installed product keys, certain menu items may not be shown or available.
The menu items for the selected products differ from the selected product keys.

There are multiple means to access the selected items menu:

By clicking Action in the top menu bar.
By right-clicking one or more products or product keys in the list view in the center pane to expose the context-sensitive Actions menu.
By choosing from the Selected Items pane in the right-hand pane.

For discovered computers or products, use the Selected Items menu items to perform the following activation management tasks:

Products Selected Items Menu	Description
Update Status	Discover products installed on the selected computers and/or query the selected products for licensing status and related data. You can update product status using either current or alternate administrator credentials.
Install Product Key	Install a product key to the selected products.
Activate	This is the parent menu for all activation related tasks: Online Activate. Instruct the remote products to perform activation using the Microsoft activation server. Proxy Activate. Perform proxy activation on behalf of the remote products installed with MAK, KMS host or retail product keys. Apply Confirmation ID. Use the Microsoft Confirmation ID from a previously full-saved CIL file to reactivate previously proxy-activated products. Token Activate. Perform token activation for volume-license client products that are installed with KMS client keys and properly provisioned. KMS Activate. Perform volume activation using the Key Management Service (KMS).
Show Last Action Status	Causes the VAMT to show the Properties window for the selected products. If multiple products have been selected, this action will cause VAMT to show multiple Properties windows. You can select up to a maximum of 10 products.
Delete	Delete the selected computers and/or product(s).

For product keys, use the Selected Items menu items to perform the following product key management tasks:

Product Key Selected Items Menu	Description
Refresh Product Key Data Online	Retrieve the remaining activation count from the Microsoft activation server. This action requires Internet connectivity.
Delete	Delete the selected product keys.

VAMT Menu Options