# Windows server 2016 Activation stuck at 10% for over 12 hours

[https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/dfd6273d-2baa-4ca0-b216-28e521327cfb/windows-server-2016-activation-stuck-at-10-for-over-12-hours?forum=ws2016](https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/dfd6273d-2baa-4ca0-b216-28e521327cfb/windows-server-2016-activation-stuck-at-10-for-over-12-hours?forum=ws2016)

The problem each time was that the **Windows License Manager Service** was not running. By default the service is set to **Startup Type: Manual (Trigger Start)**. I believe **dism.exe** is failing to trigger the service to start, thus halting the process. Simply starting this service, while **dism.exe** was stuck at 10%, resolved the issue 100% of the time.[![Sign in to vote](https://i1.social.s-msft.com/globalresources/Images/trans.gif?cver=0001 "Sign in to vote")](https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/Account/Login?ReturnUrl=https%3a%2f%2fsocial.technet.microsoft.com%3a443%2fforums%2fen-US%2fdfd6273d-2baa-4ca0-b216-28e521327cfb%2fwindows-server-2016-activation-stuck-at-10-for-over-12-hours%3fforum%3dws2016%26prof%3drequired "Vote as helpful")

I started another thread and got an answer that helped in my case:

I needed to press enter a couple of times in the cmd window to wake the process back up.

I did this after starting the services again and it then proceeded to completion!