[Fix] Windows 8 Genuine Product Key doesn’t Work for Windows 8.1 Clean Installation

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1. I once upgraded windows 8 to 8.1 through store… but later refreshed it to windows 8. but when downloading from store I found the place where it is downloaded and saved a copy of that folder. Now after I heard the release of 8.1 update 1 i’m trying to upgrade to windows 8.1 again. I’m running windows 8 Single Language and my 8.1 setup is also SL edition. Can I use the pro keys from the KMS Client key list (generic key list) to upgrade from windows 8 to 8.1

2. how to obtain generic keys from windows setup folder can you explain

3. i have dell inspiron 3537, it came with win 8. i formatted my c drive and installed win 8.1 pro with generic keys. but now if i try to activate it with win8 keys it gives me this error:0xC004C003

4. I recently did an update/upgrade from win 8 to 8.1 through the store. My computer was preloaded with win 8 and has the OEM on the motherboard. It will not activate online and it will not accept the OEM win 8 key. Is there any way to fix this other than calling the nearest Microsoft number to get another key? I really don’t want to have to do that as I can’t understand the local accents on the phone, it would be ever so painful to have to do it that way.

5. PLEASE CAN SOME GIVE THE PRODUCT KEY FOR WINDOWS 8.1 PRO BUILD 9600

6. @ COBBIE; Go to the following link and you’ll get an original key for your windows 8.1 Pro build 9600 its official and free; technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj612867.aspx

   GCRJD-8NW9H-F2CDX-CCM8D-9D6T9

7. Its interesting to see the many problems people are having with activation. I must say i had the same when i was foolish enough not to see if my hard drive would be “large” enough for win 8. So, i went and bought a new clean hard drive and had to do a clean install. Admittedly, then i also had a problem with the activation. I phoned microsoft and told them that i suspect “they” or it thinks its being loaded twice and that it may be the reason. After the lengthy call and with nothing to hide, we sorted it out. its activated and i successfully upgraded to 8.1 after a lon long download. My question im asking myself is whether its worth trying to upgrade to 64 bit by starting all over since i have a valid disk. The package i bought includes both 32 and 64 bit but only one key no. 4gigs ram, intel pentium duel core 5300 and whatever else you need to know to tell me whether my system will accept 64bit. I have absolutely no idea whether certain abilities of the bios are required and if so what are they? the only benefit from what i have found so far if one goes for 64 is that it utilizes the ram better. I wonder whether its really worth it. just over 3 of my 4gigs ram is used currently but i wouldnt say the computer is unacceptably slow. What other benefits are there in 64bit?

8. hi vishal, i need your help. i got this windows 8 copy during the promotion when they gave it out for some 800 bucks for upgrade from windows 7, now ive got a new laptop, and i installed this as a fresh copy. during installation it accepted my key and installed the copy but when i entered the key, it said that this key s nt valid for a fresh installation, and only valid fr upgrade. please help me out.?? shud i contact microsoft(if yes then how) or is there sumthing i m nt doing right??? email me as soon as u can bddy…thanks in advance..!!

9. ^^ When you try to activate Windows, you get an option to activate via phone. Call that number and you can generate an activation code.

10. hi..
    I tried intall installing many windows 8 product keys but it says the product key i’ve supplyed failed so which on is the correct on please supply me.

11. PLEASE CAN SOME GIVE THE PRODUCT KEY FOR WINDOWS 8.1 PRO BUILD 9600 Enterprise evaluation edition

12. I Just Add the Serial Key And It Write ” Thanks For Activating Windows ” And After It Asks To Activate It It’s Like That He’s Not Activated yet ..

13. Hi Vishal,
    Thank you for what you do, your article on how to transfer files from ssd to hdd for windows 8 were awesome. However, Same steps do not work for windows 8.1. My primary question is all the work arounds are for people who bought windows 8 as retail version. I bought windows 8.0 disk when someone custom built computer for me. Now when I try to use the workaround methods, it says “this key cannot be used for retail version” which is apparently what they have on update site. Do you know any solution to this? Once again thank you for your time and effort.

14. hi sir I have windows 8
    product key but it not work my edition what I do ?

15. please help my win 8:1 pro was fully activated prior to installing that wmc under add new features i found a key that activated wmc in add new feature since my original that came with the disk refuses to work when i reboot wmc caused my windows 8:1 pro to deactivate i did know this was going to happen somebody please help the correct way to to get my 8:1 pro back thanks

16. I did a clean installation of Windows 8.1, but does not accept the serial key of windows 8

17. Dear VG,
    Will windows 8.1 pro ISO installation erase all previous installed program from windows 8.1 pro ? MS officer will install win 8.1 pro ISO, but I forget ask him those question?

18. ^^ Why do you want to reinstall Windows 8.1 Pro? Are you facing any problem?

19. Hi VG. Just wanted to add that you don’t need to revert back to a OEM partition reset to windows 8 and reinstall windows 8.1 from the Windows Store.. There are those who find places to get windows ISO disk for single language one way, but now you can get your USB setup disk made for you by Microsoft FREE without supplying a key for the download.

    For Starters you will need these things for Single language users.

    Windows 8.1 Single Language Generic Key
    Y9NXP-XT8MV-PT9TG-97CT3-9D6TC

    and Have your OEM single language windows 8 key on hand too.

    How to Use=
    Run your windows 8.1 Single Language OS setup iso/disk/dvd, and when it asks for a KEY, use the Generic key. After you complete the setup of drivers and user profile and reach desktop, now is the time to use your Windows 8.0 Single Language Key to activate windows 8.1.

    Before, and still now, Microsoft had the Windows 8/8.1 setup upgrade page for retail users, where you have to download your windows 8/8.1 using a key and creating an ISO or burning it do a dvd, and I think making a USB drive of your choice.

    Now for windows 8/8.1 users, you can download and Create installation media for Windows 8.1, as the Microsoft page says here: (FREE and NO KEY is requested) been there, done that.

    windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media

    Click the [CREATE MEDIA] button(Purple), and download and run the Tool. It will install it in your user-Temp folder. what is odd is it browses you to a folder for a Windows.iso file creation, but I have never seen a Windows.iso file when I was done making my USB setup disk. However, I did find a Hidden ESD folder, on C drive which matches the exact layout of my USB drive. This windows media creator tool is very picky, as checks your USB drive for 4GB size and my KINGSTON 4GB listing 3.98xxxxx Gbytes was not enough for the size of less than 3 gigs on my USB, so I had to use my USB 8.1GB drive(PNY). What is stupid about this program is that I thought it would make an ISO for me to burn as it says that, but it doesn’t check to see if you don’t have a Blank DVD in a drive, nor does it check to see if you even have a DRIVE on your computer, which I don’t, so my download was wasted for nothing, except, I ended up finding a winpayload.esd.decrypt file in the TEMP folder with 4 indexes in it using DISM.

    Since the files are laid out like an ISO disk on the USB drive, anyone with that experience should know now they can just copy the files to the smaller USB drive that the stupid program would not accept in the 1st place, like I am going to do. LOL

    At the start of the program it asks for a Language choice, a OS choice, Various kinds including PRO versions, and a 32 or 64 bit option. Very simple, then it steps to the folder place to create an ISO, which I don’t see why, cause when it is done, there is not ISO in the folder you choose. ..

    The TEMP folder, contains the extract programs to do all this an XML file that gives you ever language and every download link for ESD FILES which I tested to see if they started a download and they do. Also there is a KEY in the XML file, which means the programs use it to decrypt the ESD file on it’s final process, which is my guess. Anyway, I do know as much as I am all over the web, I have not seen anyone post this stuff. I found it by chance on the MS website while jumping around there stupid site looking for something else. LOL

20. Pls when I use the generic key it’s displaying “that key can’t be used to activate this edition of windows.please try a different key

21. Thanks man, I hope this works!

    I’m using the Windows 8.1 generic key to go along a USB installation flashdrive I’m creating using the official Windows tool, for Windows 8.1. I only have an original key/installation of Windows 8, so kind of bizarre Microsoft never released the same USB installation flashdrive tool for W8…

    So I’m thinking I can use this next time my PC goes tits up, and install W8.1 with the USB, entering the Generic key. Then once I’m ‘inside’ I can activate the installation using my original Windows 8 Pro key, am I right?

22. i need product key for windows 8,can somebody help…

23. I followed the instructions above. I have an HP Pavilion dv7 running MS Windows 8.1 Pro. I was using the computer and had no issue with the product key. Then after having numerous problems with the computer and slow running speed I decided to wipe and install windows again. I created an ISO USB boot tool and followed the instructions on the screen. Like the original poster, I received an error when trying to use my product key (which is on the bottom of the computer on a sticker). So I followed the method above and used a product key from: technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj612867.aspx

    Windows 8.1 setup successfully however it says “Activate Windows Go to PC settings to activate Windows”
    I went to the settings page and entered my product key and received a message:
    “Windows can’t activate right now. Try activating Windows later. If that doesn’t work, contact your system administrator.”
    and in red below that:
    Windows can’t activate. Try again later.

    Any suggestions? I appreciate any help or advice you can provide.

24. KMS keys are not working any more 🙁 It didn’t work for me 🙁 It still says this key can not be used for retail version. I have an OEM key, i want to make a windows 8 bootable for it to make a clean install. Please help

25. Upgrading from windows 8 to 8.1 i have gotten the blue screen of death saying something about kernel trap error and now i get a quick blue screen, it attempts to reboot a couple of more times before going to system repair, which then says undoing the changes and fails there. so then i am left with a big paperweight. checked compatibility and only one thing came up so i removed it ( it was only a game ) all updates are currently installed including 2 optional updates just installed which i will reboot here shortly and try again. I’m stumped now any help would be appreciated.

26. so with all current updates installed including hidden and optional install still fails removed everything I can possible remove hardware wise and still issues.

27. was using windows 8 pro with media centre was activated but up on upgrading to 8.1 any key I enter it refuses and asking for a key.

28. 1. If you are going to install Windows 8.1 using a USB drive, transfer the installation files to the USB and then proceed to step 2. On the other hand if you need to create a DVD, open the ISO using a utility such as MagicISO so that the structure is not affected.
    2. Browse to the /sources folder.
    3. Look for the ei.cfg file and open it in a text editor such as Notepad or Notepad++ (preferred). If the file doesn’t already exist, create a new text document and rename it as ei.cfg
    4. Now amend the file depending on the version which is included in your particular copy and the version which you want to install. For Professional edition which will be the best bet for most of the users, paste the following context into the ei.cfg file. Make sure that anything that already exists in the file should be cleared first.
    5. [EditionID]
    6. Professional
    7. [Channel]
    8. Retail
    9. [VL]
    0
    10. Save the file and run the Windows 8.1 setup again. The setup will not ask for the Product Key anymore.
    This is not a hack or anything illegal. The configuration above is supported by Windows installer and is well documented by Microsoft and can also be used on some other versions of Windows as well.

    Note: For those getting the key entered does not match. A simple way to fix that and make it more universal is to leave the space after Edition ID blank.
    I.E
    [EditionID]

    [Channel]
    Retail/OEM
    [VL]
    0
    Or: maybe
    [EditionID]
    Home
    [Channel]
    Retail
    [VL]
    0

    I did the more universal option and left the space after Edition ID blank and it worked OK.

29. I’ve got an interesting problem.
    I bought an ISO copy of Windows 8.1 with the KEY. Totally legal.
    I burned the ISO to disk and installed it. This was a totally clean install, new hard drive. The Op Sys ( 8.1 ) wouldn’t accept the key. The seller insists that I have the correct key, I confirmed by sending the key to him to compare.
    Now i had to activate the operating system and it allowed activation without accepting the KEY.
    I know MS penalizes you if your key is not in the op sys. I am guessing I am probably on the 30 day trial timer.
    I actually use XP, 8 and Linux Op Systems, because one system cannot do the things I need to do with them. I have a Win 7 machine but even though it seems to be stable, the programs are changed from what I was used to with XP. Somethings are ok but some, I can’t figure out why the heck they made those dumb changes in operation.
    Just thought I’d comment because of the KEY problem…..

30. hello,
    can i have a license key for my windows 8.1 pro?
    i have this one but it expires on the 27th of September