You can configure computers to use the KMS service without configuring DNS for auto-discovery. This is called “direct registration”. Direct registration overrides DNS auto-discovery.

To manually configure a computer to use NCSU’s KMS service, log onto the computer as an administrator and enter the following commands into a command prompt that has been opened with the right click option of “Run as administrator”:
cscript c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -skms kms.ncsu.edu:1688
cscript c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -ato
Note: The slmgr.vbs script gets installed as part of Windows Operating Systems since the release of Microsoft Vista and Windows Server 2008. It resides in the C:\Windows\System32 directory.

As of February 25, 2022, Owners of Windows Server 2022 will need to use the kms host name of: kms-2022.oit.ncsu.edu.  Taking the above set of instructions, using a command prompt opened with Administrative privileges, the lines would be:

cscript c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -skms kms-2022.oit.ncsu.edu:1688
cscript c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -ato

cscript c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -dli

NOTE:  cscript c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -dli  or cscript c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -dlv allows you to verify that the activation was successful and to confirm which KMS host your system is associated with.

Troubleshooting

See the Troubleshooting KMS Activation page for more information.