Windows 10 Activation on PXIe-8861

[jgar1977]

Has anyone had issues trying to activate Windows 10 on a PXIe-8861 controller?

I received a PXIe-8861 four days ago and still NI has no clue on how to enable the digital license on this controller. There is none.

MS Activation Support cannot correlate the OS installation ID (Windows + R, slui 4) to valid digital license or product key. Something went amiss with the licensing of Windows 10. It seems that NI tried to save a few bucks by going with MS Windows 10 digital licenses instead of product keys.

We, users in the defense industry, cannot connect the PXI controllers to the internet for activation, we need a product key included with the device.

[Noah.B]

Hey, Sorry to hear you've been running into issues. To activate the digital license without internet you need to activate by phone by calling Microsoft and quote the Product ID (sounds like you have already done). If you believe you've been given an invalid Product ID please open up a support ticket or contact your Account Manager and we can investigate further.

[jgar1977]

Noah B.

All the tasks you described were already done before I contacted Technical Support. But, the question is why the customer has to go through the unproductive exercise of activating Windows 10? NI charges a premium for the PXIe-8861 and we, defense customers, expect that NI, an American company, would provide the controller product key knowing full well that we DO NOT connect our PXI controllers to the internet. NI instead of offering a higher quality product they decided to save a few bucks by going to digital licenses instead of providing product keys for Windows 10. NI should be mindful of the burden that they place on their customers when they place profit above quality of service. Going forward NI needs to improve their processes on how to deliver controllers with the OS activated, that is what we are paying for.

Regards.

jgar1977

[Noah.B]

Hi jgar1977,

Again, I'm sorry you had to go through this frustrating process and thank you for this feedback. I've passed your feedback along to your Account Manager and internal stakeholders. This will hopefully inform their product planning decisions moving forward.