Setup Installation :: Embedded Product Key (8.0) For 8.1 Install
Nov 6, 2013
So, I have purchased some computers from Dell and they have Windows 8.0 Professional from the OEM. So, it was very easy for me to use my MSDN media, reinstall Windows 8.0, and it simply detected and used my Windows 8 embedded BIOS key. From there, I would make any adjustments needed, run sysprep, and grab an image. This allowed me to use that image on any of the Dell's that I purchased with Windows 8 and all was great.
Then, along comes the free upgrade to Windows 8.1. I took one of my Dell's, and laid down a clean windows 8.0 image. Then I ran the Store "free" upgrade to Windows 8.1. All was well. I then cleaned up the temporary files and whatnot and tried to run Sysprep only to be greeted with an error that said, "I cannot validate your OS installation". Did some research and found that you aren't supposed to run Sysprep on a machine that you ran an "upgrade". Instead, you are supposed to install from scratch.
Ok, let's do that. Grabbed the 8.1 ISO from MSDN, put it onto an installable USB key, started the install and it now prompts me for a key. It won't detect or use the embedded 8.0 key that is on the box. So, I cannot actually clean install Windows 8.1 with the embedded OEM key, even though I can freely upgrade to 8.1.
I'm not going to take my new Dell computers, lay down the clean 8.0 image and then upgrade each of them manually via the store to Windows 8.1. This takes way too long.
I'm not going to use my MSDN keys to install onto these machines, because I don't want them to activate these keys. They aren't the legit keys for these machines. These machines have legit OEM Windows 8 keys and 8.1 is a free upgrade to 8.0, so it seems like these legit keys would work. I paid dell to have a valid OEM license on the computer, that is what I want to use.
Any way to get 8.1 Pro to install clean, on a machine with an embedded 8.0 Pro key.
How I can go about installing 8.1 on a blank hdd using my embedded product key. I hate using the manufacturer recovery because there is a slew of bloatware that I need to get rid of.
We got a nice Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook and all it needed was a hard drive. Now.. here's the problem.. I'm good with a screwdriver or a soldering iron but software isn't my strong point.
It's a genuine Windows 8 machine and as I understand it, it will have the genuine COA embedded in the bios right? Now I've tried installing Windows 8.0 64bit OEM which I believe is the correct uk ISO, and I've tried the Pro version also but with both, neither seem to pick up the embedded COA and therefor do not activate.
Am I correct in thinking that it might be because I have to use CSM mode in the bios to get it to recognise my installation media? If I had a UEFI version would it make any difference?
I have a dreamspark account and in that I am provided with the Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry Pro . So, I was thinking if there are any differences in that one and also would I be able to use it like a Home User?
I am also getting the Server 2012 Datacentre Edition. So which one should I go with? I plan to use VM's in the future though.
I already have a Windows 8 Pro USB installer setup but I don't think it can be used to do a repair install for my Windows 8.1 Pro upgrade. So I'm trying to create a new USB installer setup specifically for Win 8.1 Pro. However, the Windows 8.1 setup window is not accepting the 8.1 Product Key that I extracted from Belarc, ProduKey and WPkey. Is there a way to get around that issue so that I can create the Win 8.1 USB installer?
When I try to use the tutorial,I get as far as the Product Key entry.
The install was an original 8 I downloaded when it first came out.
I then installed 8.1, probably from the Store.
I recently downloaded and install 8.1 Media Center Pack.
Had a real problem with activation.MS Support finally had me go to where there was a long activation string and then he gave me a new Product Key, which is now on the machine and Activated.
When I get to the "Product Key" page and enter the Media Pack key, "This product key didn't work. ....."
I want create dual boot with windows 7 home basic 64bit and Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry Pro 64bit. I also want install visual studio 2013 with update 2.
About my laptop:
SONY VPCEH3AEN i5-2450m, Windows 7 home basic 64bit, 500GB HD, 4GB ram, NVIDIA 410M.
I get Microsoft developer account via dreamspark.com there is all so available free Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry Pro 64bit and Visual Studio Professional 2013 with Update 2 RC. I don't have knowledge in develop app and in OS installation but I decide just try to develop some app for windows 8 and wp8.
I have following question:
1. my laptop can support to run dual boot with Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry Pro 64bit and windows 7 home basic?
If support dual boot,
2. what is size of Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry Pro 64bit ? i seen this is 3GB download file. if 3GB can i download in disk and install by restart computer?
3. I can able to do install Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry Pro in my unallocated logical partition?
If able to install in unallocated space,
4. i can able to do install Visual Studio Professional 2013 with Update 2 RC in Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry Pro 64bit?
5. what is size of Visual Studio Professional 2013 with Update 2 RC?
6. i can able to do access my Windows 7 home basic files in Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry Pro 64bit?
7. what is difference between Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry Pro 64bit and Windows 8 pro 64bit? I don't know anything about Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry Pro 64bit.
I bought 8 Toshiba Laptops for my company on 3rd Feb 2013 from Dubai . The laptops details as follows
Model: Thoshiba Laptop SC850 B560 i3 OS: Windows 8 single language
No DVD's and product key given at the time of purchase so how to get windows 8 single language software to re-install and the key for the same. As the OS were pre installed. This is to avoid future issues that may come up like software failure etc.
[ I need to download Windows 8 single language OS, product key for the same OS which is preinstalled- I can provide serial number if needed]
My company gave me a Windows 8 Enterprise product key, which I'm trying to use to upgrade a version of Windows I'm running. I visited this link -- Upgrade Windows with only a product key - Microsoft Windows Support, clicked the "Install Windows 8" button, ran the setup file that downloaded, and when prompted for the product key, entered it, only to see the message.
The product key cannot be used to install a retail version of Windows 8.
Is there another ISO I should be using? Ultimately I'm trying to get an ISO for use with my VMWare Fusion 6 install running on my Mac (10.9.1). I'm confident the product key given to me by my company is legit, but it obviously isn't a retail product key, probably some kind of corporate key or the equivalent.
I've bought Windows 8 when it was first released, but reinstalled Windows 7 again. Now I want to install Windows 8.1, but I get an error saying my product key is invalid. I've tried multiple product keys (We own multiple computers, two of which have Windows 8 installed), but I get the same error with all of them.
Edit: Because none of my product keys don't work, I can't install Windows 8 to further install Windows 8.1.
At the beginning, when I have started to setup windows 8 ,everything goes okay until the product key, I get an error message saying 'We couldn't verify the product key. Check the installation media'
And I had tried to install windows 8 on another PC with having same product key then I have noticed the product key has worked on that Pc! and not working on my PC.
So I have tried several times to enter lots of keys. why my PC is not verify any product keys?
Ive used pirated bootables with preinstalled product keys in the past but am now on the straight and narrow, wanting to add my product key to my legitimate copy of windows 8. This way I wont have to worry about having it written down, losing it or entering it incorrectly, since it will be automatically entered for me. How I can add the product key to my bootable image?
I' am currently using a custom made laptop which I had to repair due to an hardware failure. After I got the PC back I reinstalled Windows but the product key I had wasn't working properly any more. Knowing that after an hardware change this is not an uncommon problem, I just used the option "Activate by phone" and everything went fine.
Unfortunately the last day I got the blue screen with the error 0xc0000021a, which I know is caused by misconfigured system files in the computer. Moreover this error is really similar to the error I got prior the hardware failure (0xc00000e). So I figured that maybe the Windows 8 installation I have (I purchased before Windows 8.1) has some problems, and maybe I can solve them by reinstalling directly Windows 8.1, instead of reinstalling Windows 8 and then upgrading it from the store.
The problem is that when I launch the Windows 8.1 set-up program to create a media for recovery, when asked for the product key mine doesn't work. I think this has something to do with the hardware change and with the fact that I used the "activate by phone" option, but my Windows version is legit and I paid for it, and therefore I want to be able to reset my computer if I need to (like now).
I tried to reinstall windows on a second hard drive, but it won't accept my product key, assumedly because I am already using it for the current windows installation on the first hard drive.
How do I transfer my license to allow a reinstallation on the second hard drive? That's the best option, so I can go back to the first drive if I want to.
Second option: If I wipe the current windows partition clean, will that enable me to reinstall on the second hard drive?
I'm using DISM to create a custom image, we use a vlk licence key to install but this isn't being accepted on the answer file. Its definatly a valid key and being entered correctly). I'm just getting the error 'The unattended answer file contains an invalid product key' Is there anything i can do to get around this?
I recently purchased a MSI GT70 laptop that came preinstalled with Windows 8. Rather than try and uninstall all the bloatware, I was planning on just doing a clean install. Little did I know that Microsoft had changed the game when it comes to authentication on Windows 8 with the bios linked product keys.
The Windows 8 usb drive that I used previously to install Windows 8 on other computers does not work, I believe that is due to it recognizing it as a RETAIL version trying to be installed on an OEM system. Searching around, it seemed other people had success with using an .ISO from TechNet or MSDN and the installation automatically pulling the product key information. The .iso I used was sourced from the Microsoft store download.
After booting to the disk, I received this error: The product key entered does not match any of the Windows images available for installation. Enter a different product key.
I tried manually adding the PID.txt file with the product key I pulled from pkeyui (cross checked with showkey.vbs and RWEverything) but that resulted in the same error. For this notebook, the product key and MSDM are identical, whereas I read other people were finding two different product keys. One nestled deep in the bios and the other being what you see when you run Belarc Advisor etc.
Burning the .iso to a DVD and then starting the setup inside a session of Windows 8 resulted in a different error: this product key cannot be used to install a retail version
So once again back to the issue of using a retail .iso with an OEM product key to try and do a clean install. As far as I know you can't download an "oem .iso" but I'm not sure how to get the retail .iso to play nicely with the product key I have.
So exactly how does one do a clean install of an OEM windows 8 build on a laptop that comes preinstalled with windows 8? If I can't sort this out, I may be stuck with rooting out the bloatware.
I just got a new laptop, a Lenovo X230, for which I paid extra to have the OS on it as Windows 8 Pro.
So--now I have it, and Win 8 Pro 64 is installed and activated on it. I am a legal owner of Win 8 Pro.
However, I would like to do a clean install of Win 8 on the computer, to have it free of bloatware, etc. (In fact, I would like to set up a multi-boot with Win 7, and perhaps even triple boot with Xp as well. (I have installation media and my product keys for XP and 7 though, so those are not really a problem.)
The computer came with no discs at all. There is a procedure to make recovery disks. I may do that, but I think those will be to restore the computer to how it came from the factory, and therefore not usable for a clean install.
I don't see my product key for Win 8 anywhere. Not on the computer, not on any kind of card that came with it, etc.
I looked at the tutorial here for clean install of Windows 8, but it requires an install disc and product key. I have neither, although I am a legal owner of Windows 8.
Is there a way I can create (from my installed Windows 8) a win 8 install disk, that can be used for a clean install? Or a link to download one? Is there a way I can get my product key?
2. Install a Windows 8 clean installation 3. Install all drivers 4. Turn-Off Internet 5. Restore the Activation using Advanced Tokens Manager.. Failed 6. Restore the Activation again.. Success 7. Update all O.S. using the Windows Update.. Success
How to install Windows 8 without Product Key and Restore the Activation?
I am trying to upgrade from windows 8 pro to windows 8.1 on a samsung laptop. The download completes and installation starts.
After a while the following message appears "you cant install windows on a usb flash drive with setup"
I am not actually trying to install to a flash drive. I contacted Microsoft and after 5 hours they said that I should connect to the internet with a cable and not by wireless in order to solve the problem (this didn't work of course and I had told them that it was an install problem and not a download problem).
Until very recently i was running Windows 8 with a 240 GB Sandisk SSD as a primary and a 2 TB Western Digital Green HDD as a storage. I decided to set up a RAID 1 setup so i purchased a second 2 TB HDD and installed it.
My intent was to run windows 8 off the 240 SSD as a primary and have a RAID 1 setup for my 2TB HDDs.
I learnt that my data configuration was set to AHCI. I decided to do a complete clean install and change the sata configuration in BIOS to RAID.
After successfully creating a RAID volume using my 2TB HDDs i proceeded to install Windows off my primary. I am however having difficulties in that it will not allow me to install windows on either drive.
My laptop originally had Windows 8 installed on it on an SSD and an HDD. I have since wiped the drive clean. But now, I need to get Windows 8 back for work. How can I replicate the original layout with Windows 8 being put on both a SSD and a HDD. The nature of my work involves a lot of CAD software usage for projects as well as research and the like. As such, I would like for such software to be located on my SSD for faster speeds.
I have a Kingston SSDNow V200 128 GB SATA III 6 GB/s 2.5-Inch SSD I was using on my old Dell Precision 370. I now have a new Lenovo IdeaCenter K450 running Windows 8 X64 and I want to install the SSD in it.
This is what the drives look like now:
I want to clone the 1st 4 partitions plus the C: partition. I can reduce the size of my existing C: so everything will fit on the 128GB SSD. Anything I need to watch out for? I would think that cloning the existing setup should work. I will connect the SSD to the lowest SATA port, where the 2TB drive is now and move the other two drives up by one SATA port.
I am using bootcamp to run windows 7 on my mac. I recently used the windows 8 upgrade assistant to purchase windows 8. I received a product key and an .iso file but I decided to wait until a upgraded. Today my windows 7 crashed and I am unable to boot windows 7 anymore and i have a 'Missing Operating System' error. I have tried to recover windows 7 without success. So my question is: Can I install windows 8 on my mac through bootcamp by using a purchased upgrade key and if so how would i do it? I only have the windows 8 pro upgrade key which I had a backup of before the crash and i do not have the .iso file. Also would I still be able to use the upgrade key even though I am unable to access windows 7?
I'm running Windows 8.1 on an UEFI system, clean installed from my USB-key created with Rufus. But when I try to boot with this USB-key on my older PC (which does not have UEFI), then before installing Windows it says that there is no HDD or partition Windows can be installed in? I can then boot again with USB-key select rep. PC, start cmd, change the HDD to GPT, then Windows can be installed, but then it can't boot from the HDD!!
How do I make a bootable USBkey with Windows 7 or Windows 8 that can be installed on an ordinary MBR HDD? I need to make it on my system running GPT SSD.
I have tried this:
CMD (elevated) diskpart list disk select disk (selected my USB) clean create partition primary active assign exit
and then copied my windows 8 dvd onto it.
It will boot, but Windows will only install on a GPT HDD.
I was able to start the install of 8.1 Preview directly from the downloaded .iso file. Just double clicked on it to open in Windows Explorer then double clicked on setup.exe and off it went. This only works from a booted Windows 8 system (not sure about Windows 7).
[URL] .....
Didn't need to create a bootable flash drive or DVD.
I have recently purchased Windows 8 Pro Upgrade and for Christmas I will be getting my first SSD.
I want to do a clean install of 8.1 via USB, is this possible with the Windows 8 Pro Upgrade key? I have read through numerous tutorials and think I've got it right but just want some to clarify this will work.
Download the 8.1 ISO Use the generic key to run the installer Setup the PC Open PC Settings Change Product Key enter Win 8 Pro (upgrade) key and activate
Do I then need to do the reg edit and command prompt changes? Regedit - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE Command prompt - slmgr /rearm Do I have this right or am I missing something?
Tried numerous times to install the update but keeps hanging when at "Applying PC Settings". It usually stops at around 84%, eventually the screen will go black only showing the cursor then finally it shows the bsod. The bsod says: driver power state failure.
