Fix Windows Activation errors on a new Azure Virtual Desktop session host
If you’ve added a new session host to an existing Azure Virtual Desktop host pool, you might get a Windows Activation error watermark notifying you that the Windows license wasn’t found:
Activate Windows. Go to Settings to activate Windows.
When I got the ticket from users complaining about the watermark, I started brainstorming. I thought I might be able to fix this issue several ways:
License users with Microsoft 365 E5.
Manually add an existing Windows license (only possible if you’re running a stock image of Windows, not the Azure-specific Windows Enterprise Multi-Session).
Since I don’t have those E5 licenses already and I’m running the multi-session OS, it would add cost to purchase and I would need to get approval.
Instead, I found that you can check the VM license by running this command in PowerShell (change the XXX values to match your Resource Group and VM name):
Import-Module AzCLI
Connect-AzAccount
Get-AzVM -ResourceGroupName XXXresourcegroupXXX -Name XXXvirtualmachineXXX
After running that command, the string that you want to focus on is LicenseType. If it says Windows_Client, you are good to go and Azure will apply the license on the OS-level.
If it is null or displays as {}, that could be a cause for the Activation error. You can run this PowerShell command in the AzCLI (edit the XXX values to match your environment):
$rg = XXXresourcegroupXXX
$vm = XXXvirtualmachineXXX
$vm.LicenseType = ‘Windows_Client’
Get-AzVM -ResourceGroupName $rg -Name $vm | Update-AzVM
I wish Azure had a built in Troubleshooting function or feature to “quick fix” this issue, but I couldn’t find one.
Putting this here for my notes when I have to fix this issue again.
