How-To Activate Windows 8 Upgrade As a Fresh Installation? I met a few weeks ago this wonderful demonstration of poor user experience: I bought(!) all Windows releases since version 3.0. This alone is probably a sign that I’m mad and that I only get what I deserve.
Over Christmas 2012 I bought the upgrade version to Windows 8, which I’m completely eligible to and fact which was anyhow checked during the procedure when buying this upgrade.
For sure I did what you always should do and opted for a fresh install on my virtual machine (the downloaded iso-file showed this option during the installation process). This worked out without any issues, installation was fast, I didn’t meet any challenges, and activation of my new operating system went smart and fast. I have to say that I’m impressed how easy the process worked through, especially as I installed this copy on a VMware, running on my Macbook Air.
However 4 weeks later I had sadly to find out that my license key is invalid according to Microsoft and that the company is making the fantastic recommendation to re-install either Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 first and only afterwards Windows 8. Only under those circumstances my copy will end up to be compliant to their licensing model, and the now installed Windows8 will in short stop working. So they were really suggesting to throw away a well running Windows 8 copy, after having installed software for over a month? Pure madness!
I don’t find this acceptable. Why can’t they just ask to type in a valid product key of the former product you own. Do they really think that any of their customer wants to kill a running system, only to go through the installation process of 2 operating systems plus software?
No doubts, that this will take you 5 to 7 hours of your lifetime. In the best case your system will run as before, with the only benefit of no de-activation after 30 days. Thank you Microsoft!
After some research I found a solution to avoid the suggested, complete re-installation process of your operating system. Please follow the below advice to re-activate your running Windows 8 copy:
Run the Windows_Registry as an administrator in the command prompt Find the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\OOBE Change the value for 'MediaBootInstall' from 1 to 0 Open an elevated command prompt (run as admin) Run the following command: slmgr -rearm Reboot
I’m not sure if this change is legal or not, but honestly I don’t care too much. I have again to say that I am owning all licences and I’m illegible for the upgrade. I just don’t understand why I should go through the hassle of installing first a predecessor of Windows 8.
