Clean install with Windows 8 Pro upgrade media

[jumanji]

In a moment of weakness, I ordered the retail Windows 8 Pro Upgrade Media from an online vendor and I received it yesterday with both 32bit,64bit media and Key.

I made a Custom install with the 64bit media on a 80GB partition created and formatted with Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit Windows 7 Disk Management - a clean install with DELL OEM Reinstall Disk - on my Dell lappy.

Since it was an upgrade media, I followed Brink's tutorial refreshing it after the first install. Everything went on well and Windows 8 Pro activated without any hitch.

After reading that many users who had bought the media from the vendor were able to do a clean install even on a new HDD, I decided to try it.

So I reformattedd the partition and installed the Windoes 8 Pro and what a surprise! It activated automatically without any hitch and what more now I have a dual boot system with OEM Windows 7 & and Windows 8 Pro.

I also observed, when I followed Brink's tutorial and installed Win 8, the windows.old folder contained 1.32GB files and with the later clean install though there was a Windows.old folder it was empty.

The media purchased from the online vendor is distributed by a Microsoft authorised distributor and replicated in Singapore.

EDIT: OMG, I posted this Windows 7 forum, instead if eight forum. :huh:

 

[Lovus]

Is this a sharestory or what ?

 

[jumanji]

No, I was only wondering whether full retail version keys had been erroneously released as upgrade keys. ( There were only one or two buyers here who were unable to activate a clean install while most reported successful activation on a clean install)

 

[Brink]

Hello Jumanji,

If that OEM Windows 7 was your qualifying OS for the Windows 8 upgrade, then you're supposed to no longer have the Windows 7 activated as per the Windows 8 upgrade EULA.

It would be nice to have it activate on the first install for an upgrade instead of having to do step 5 or 6 below.

Clean Install with Windows 8 Upgrade

 

[jumanji]

Yep Brink. I am aware of it. When I made that exprimental install I was prepared for the no activation message, try it for 30 days and put the discs in cold storage till I acquire/build a new PC. I have many idle previous versions Windows.)

But the question is whether the Windows 8 Pro installation searched my lappie and took that Windows 7 as the qualifying entity and proceeded to activate it. The other question is if it were so, why should it happily allow me dual boot now? It should have allowed me to boot only into Windows 8 discarding that Windows 7 even if present.

And also many other users had installed the Windows 8 Pro on new PCs with virgin hard disks and activated without any hitch. ( I have no new PC and so I installed it on my lappie where only I had space.)

I am still confused.

 

[gregrocker]

Shawn may know for sure but it sounds familar since Win7 installer when booted does indeed scan the HD for any other OS to pass flag allowing use of Upgrade version key during install. If it doesn't see an OS then it errors, requiring install without key then do the workaround(s) afterwards.

This is the first I've seen about Win8 working the same as Win7 this way. I thought it had a completely different scheme. Is the bat file the same workaround, Shawn?

 

[Brink]

The new OEM Windows 8 PCs have the product key number embedded in the UEFI/BIOS firmware. Windows 8 will auto detect this key and activate during installation.

BIOS-embedded Windows 8 product keys - reinstall troubles?

Otherwise, you would normally need to enter your Windows 8 product key during installation.


As far as I know, Windows 8 only checks for a qualifying OS when you either do a upgrade install or using the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant to purchase and/or install the Windows 8 upgrade.

 

[jumanji]

Today I wiped away the windows 7 and Windows 8 Pro partitions on my lappie making the HD clean and installed Windows 8 Pro. It did not activate.

" The following failure occurred while trying to use the product key.
Code: 0xC004F061
Description: The Software Licensing Service determined that this specified product key can only be
used for upgrading, not for clean installations "

So it is now confirmed that when installing Windows 8 Pro on a different partition it does take the existing OS as qualifying for upgrade and activates.

But it is still a mystery why it activates when that PC contains a qualifying OS still operational. Microsoft could have easily denied activation since all the machine information does reach it in the activation process or is it not?.

I also read the EULA while installing the Windows 8 Pro this time and it certainly says that it is an upgrade media and in-lieu of the qualifying OS which the users should desist using after the upgrade. So a dual boot this way, though it gets activated is certainly going against the EULA and one should only use the System Builder version for dual booting.

(Needless to say that I restored my OEM Windows 7 back on its saddle.)