Windows 8 - What version do I have?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Deleted member 651465
  • Start date Start date

Deleted member 651465

Deleted member 651465

Hi guys,

I had Windows 8 Pro for Christmas, and I'm in the process of installing.. however, I cannot activate as it tells me that my version is only suitable for upgrading :mad:

It says nothing of upgrade on the box, so I'm a bit miffed, however as I have opened the box I'm shafted either way. It allowed me to install from a blank SSD, so you'd think if it was an upgrade disc they'd warn you then!

EDIT: There's a workaround, if like me, you ended up with the Pro upgrade disc.

Activate Windows 8 Pro Upgrade


Windows 8 users who noticed that the operating system can’t be activated after the installation may want to try the following workaround that worked to activate when installing Windows 8 using an upgrade on a clean PC.
  • Open regedit by pressing Windows-q, entering regedit and selecting the result from the list of hits.
  • Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/
  • Change MediaBootInstall from 1 to 0
  • Go back to the start screen and enter cmd there.
  • Right-click Command Prompt and select to run it as administrator.
  • Type slmgr /rearm on the command line and hit enter.
  • Reboot Windows now.
  • Run the activation utility afterwards, enter your product key to activate Windows.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
dasyad said:
I thought clean install from upgrade media just worked out of the box this time round?
Click to expand...

yes you can do a "Clean" install using the Win 8 upgrade media (USB or DVD), u just may need to phone activate or if your installing to a drive that had win visa or 7 on it just format or delete the main partition, don't delete/format the System Reserved partition because if you do it won't activate by itself, u would need to either phone activate or do a reg workaround

@ EVH, was it the £49,99 one? if so, it's the upgrade version
 
Last edited:
It's quite the faff, and really makes me not look forward to replacing my own hard drive next month, though I know of the regedit solution, I think it may be easier to just do a quick install of 7, then drop 8 ontop as a clean install..

They don't half like making hoops for people to jump through eh?
 
The Regedit worked a treat, however I am shocked that they allow you to clean install with an upgrade disc and not warn you of activation problems.

I do own a copy of Windows 7, but I'd rather not have to install it just to overwrite it all for Windows 8, especially with a SSD.

I panicked last night and thought I'd wasted an hour :p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom