HWID vs KMS38 vs Ohook vs TSforge — Vergelijking 2026

The one-line summary

If you only read one section: HWID for Windows 10/11 Home and Pro, KMS38 for LTSC and Server where HWID cannot go, Ohook for anything Office, TSforge for the edge cases the other three cannot reach.

• HWID — permanent, hardware-bound digital licence, Windows 10/11 consumer and business editions
• KMS38 — permanent until January 2038, LTSC / IoT / Server / Education
• Ohook — permanent and offline, Office Click-to-Run and Microsoft 365 Apps only
• TSforge — offline entitlement injection, LTSC / Server / CSVLK and other edge cases

HWID — the digital licence

HWID performs the same handshake Microsoft used for the free Windows 10 upgrade: it submits a hash of your hardware and registers a digital entitlement server-side. Nothing is stored locally, which is why a clean reinstall re-activates by itself.

• Lifespan: permanent, no expiry, no renewal
• Covers: Windows 10 and 11 Home, Pro, Education, Pro for Workstations, ARM64
• Does not cover: LTSC, IoT Enterprise, Server editions
• Needs internet once for the handshake; offline afterwards
• Reinstall behaviour: re-activates automatically for the same edition
• Breaks on: motherboard replacement

KMS38 — permanent until 2038

KMS38 exploits a legitimate quirk of the Windows Server 2016 gatherosstate path: it sets the activation expiry to the maximum the licensing service accepts, which lands in January 2038. It is a lease in mechanism but effectively permanent in practice.

• Lifespan: expires 19 January 2038 — a decade-plus horizon
• Covers: LTSC 2021/2024, IoT Enterprise, Server 2016 to 2025, Education
• No renewal task, no KMS host needed after the initial set
• Reinstall behaviour: must be reapplied after a clean install
• Best choice when HWID is unavailable for your edition

Ohook — the Office engine

Ohook is not a Windows engine at all. It shims the Click-to-Run licence check inside the Office licensing component so Office resolves as licensed locally. It is the only one of the four that touches Office, and the only one that never talks to a network.

• Lifespan: permanent, no lease and nothing to renew
• Covers: Office LTSC 2024 / 2021 / 2019 / 2016, Microsoft 365 Apps, Project, Visio
• Does not cover: Windows itself
• Fully offline — no host, no port 1688, no scheduled task
• May need reapplying after an Office update replaces the licensing component

TSforge — the newest and broadest

TSforge writes entitlement data directly into the licensing store rather than negotiating with any server. That makes it the only engine that works with no network whatsoever, and the one that reaches editions and CSVLK scenarios the others cannot.

• Lifespan: permanent for the products it supports
• Covers: Windows 11 LTSC, IoT Enterprise, Server 2019 to 2025, some Office CSVLK paths
• Completely offline — suitable for air-gapped machines
• Newest engine, so it is the one to try when the other three all fail
• Verify the same way: slmgr /xpr and slmgr /dlv report the real state

Side-by-side decision table

Read down the list and stop at the first line that matches your situation — that is your engine.

• Windows 11 Home / Pro / Education, internet available → HWID
• Windows 10 22H2 Home / Pro → HWID
• Windows 11 or 10 LTSC / IoT Enterprise → KMS38, or TSforge if KMS38 fails
• Windows Server 2019 / 2022 / 2025 → TSforge, or KMS38
• Office 2024 / 2021 / 2019 or Microsoft 365 Apps → Ohook
• No internet connection at all → TSforge for Windows, Ohook for Office
• You have a real corporate KMS host → use it; that is the supported, auditable path

What 'permanent' really means in each case

The word is used loosely across the internet, so here is the precise version. HWID is permanent server-side and re-applies itself after reinstall. Ohook is permanent locally but tied to the current Office installation. KMS38 is a dated lease with a 2038 expiry and must be reapplied after a clean install. Online-KMS — which none of these four are — is a genuine 180-day rolling lease and the reason many people believe activation 'expired'.

How to check which engine your machine is actually using

slmgr /dlv is the answer. It prints the licence channel and, for KMS, the host and remaining lease. A digital licence shows as a Retail or OEM channel with permanent activation; a KMS lease shows a remaining time in minutes; Office state comes from cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus instead.

Get the current build

The current 2026 build is distributed from officialkmsauto.com as a plain ZIP — no password, no installer, no bundled software, no signup. Verify the published SHA-256 before you extract, add the folder to Windows Security exclusions, then run the executable as administrator. Everything on this page works the same whether you use the tool or type the commands yourself.

HWID vs KMS38 vs Ohook vs TSforge System Requirements & Compatibility (2026)

HWID vs KMS38 vs Ohook vs TSforge is engineered for the modern Microsoft activation stack. The tool runs on Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (all builds from 1507 to 22H2) and every Windows 11 release including 23H2 and 24H2. Both x64 and ARM64 hardware are supported, and the activator also recognises Server SKUs such as Server 2016, 2019 and 2022. On the Office side, Click-to-Run installations of Office 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024 and Microsoft 365 are detected automatically — including LTSC channels. You do not need to uninstall a previous KMS client or remove an existing product key: the script reads the current edition through slmgr and routes it to the correct activation method (HWID for Windows, Ohook for Office).

• Windows 7 SP1 / 8.1 / 10 / 11 — all editions (Home, Pro, Education, Enterprise, IoT, LTSC)
• Windows Server 2008 R2 through Server 2025
• Office 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024 and Microsoft 365 Apps
• Architectures: x86, x64, ARM64
• .NET Framework 4.6+ (preinstalled on Windows 8.1 and later)

HWID vs KMS38 vs Ohook vs TSforge Troubleshooting: Common Errors & Fast Fixes

Most HWID vs KMS38 vs Ohook vs TSforge failures fall into three buckets: antivirus interference, missing administrator rights, or a corrupted Software Protection Service. If you see error 0xC004F074 the KMS host could not be contacted — disable Defender real-time scanning for two minutes, then re-run the activator. Error 0xC004C003 means the product key is blocked by Microsoft; switch to the HWID method, which bypasses key validation entirely by binding the licence to your motherboard's hardware ID. Error 0x80070005 (Access Denied) is always a UAC issue — right-click the executable and select "Run as administrator". If activation succeeds but reverts after reboot, open services.msc, set "Software Protection" to Automatic, and restart sppsvc.exe. For Office, run the Office Click-to-Run repair from Settings → Apps → Microsoft 365 → Modify → Quick Repair before retrying Ohook.

• 0xC004F074 — pause antivirus, re-run as administrator
• 0xC004C003 — switch to HWID (no key required)
• 0x80070005 — UAC denied, use "Run as administrator"
• Activation reverts on reboot — set "Software Protection" service to Automatic
• Office not detected — run Quick Repair, then re-run Ohook