Filtering out Windows Activations When Imaging from Test MDT Share or Task Sequence

The environment I work in entails using MAK activation instead of KMS. This means that we have a set number of MAK activations given by Micorosft. One of the issues is that you can use quite a few when needing to build a new image while working through problems. 

In my environment, we do have SCCM, but we use MDT for imaging. We have two MDT deployment shares, one for testing and one for production. I use a PowerShell script to activate the Office and Windows licenses. My test task sequences are exactly like my production task sequences when they are synchronized after testing. I don't like to have any differences in them. To stop my test shares from activating every time I image, I came up with the following solution. 

In the task sequence(s) used to activate windows and/or office, I implemented a Task Sequence Variable condition under the Options tab. In the Variable field, enter DEPLOYROOT. The conditions field should be equals. Finally, the Value field should contain the UNC path to your production MDT share. This will stop the task sequence from executing when building from your test build share. 

Although I have not tried this, if you have only one deployment, I think you can add a Task Sequence Variable Condition to the task sequence where you defined TaskSequenceID for the Variable, equals for the Condition, and the name of your production task sequence for the Value. This should stop that TS from executing if run from the test TS.