Windows 7 activation options.

Soldato
Joined
9 Jul 2004
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Nottingham
Hi all,

I've had to reformat due to a virus/malware problems, and have downloaded the digital river Win7 64bit SP1 ISO. I purchased my copy of Windows 7 when it was first released through the student section of Microsoft for about £30.

I've just tried activating my key, and it doesn't seem to work. Its mentioning it will only work for upgrading, not for clean installations, which this is (full format).

I also read something about you can't use it for different service pack versions? Does this mean i need to download Windows 7 (no service pack) and cannot upgrade?

Thanks for any help, as i'm a bit lost in what i can and cannot do with my license key.

Nathan.
 
I hope that works with Windows 8 Update, but I suspect it won't.

I think something similar will work.

Read the comments from the OP (MS employee) below this blog post http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/...rade-to-windows-8-pro-for-39-99.aspx#comments

Not sure how it will work, but seems there will be some way to install Windows 8 Upgrade without having the underlying qualifying license on that machine - specifically mentioned in relation to those running Win 8 CP/RP and no longer have their OEM Win 7 build to upgrade from.
 
Would have liked to have seen your advice Leeroy123
i dont have a steam account, any chance you could mail me
 
Basically there are two ways to do this.

You have to make sure you did not select automatically activate when online at the start up.

The first is to install a clean copy of Windows 7 and then install ALL updates and THEN activate it. This is because if I recall Microsoft released an update which allows users to activate from clean install from upgrade media.

The other option is to follow the instructions from here (skip down to about half the page):
(edited out the link just incase broke rules actually) so as others said just google it (i.e. 'clean install windows 7 upgrade media')
 
There are a number of ways of doing it that I wouldn't call dodgy at all if you google 'Clean Install Windows 7 with Upgrade Media' and go to the top link should be winsupersuit site.

I use Method #2 which involved a simple Registry update and rearm'ing windows, rebooting then put your product key never had an issue
 
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