Steps To Activate Windows 8 Pro Upgrade After A Clean Install
I did the upgrade thing to Windows 8 Pro only to have my hard drive fail. After a clean install on the new drive Windows 8 Pro would not activate. If I follow Microsoft instructions this would require installing Windows XP 32 bit then upgrading to Windows 8 Pro 32 bit and then installing Windows 8 Pro 64 bit. After I’ve seen all the inquires on the Internet, I’m sure Microsoft know about this problem, but I ran across this solution in my searches and I would like to share it with you:
1. Open Reg-edit by pressing windows-q. Searching for Regedit and select the result from the list.
2. Run the registry editor (regedit)
3. Find the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\OOBE
then…
4. Change the value for ‘MediaBootInstall’ from 1 to 0
5. Open an elevated command prompt. (Right click on regedit and at the bottom of the screen select run as administrator.)
6. Run the following command: slmgr -rearm
7. Reboot
If you already entered your key, check the activation: for me it was already activated and I needed to do nothing more.
Click this link to view other Windows 8 versions and their available features.
