Windows 8 64 bit upgrade

jibber4568

New Member
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6
Hi was hoping someone might be able to let me know if there is a way to do this.

My current PC was built about 10 years ago. With it I purchased a legit copy of Windows Vista 32 bit

Last year I took out the option to upgrade to Windows 8 at a discounted price.

I am now in the process of building a new PC and obviously this will now be 64 bit.

Is there anyway I can install a fresh copy of windows 8 64 bit based upon my current product key without having to purchase a fresh new copy of the OS?

Thanks.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8
Sure. You have to do a clean install though - you can't upgrade 32bit to 64bit. You may as well get the 8.1 ISO and do a clean install of that. You can install it with the generic key and activate it with your upgrade key.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro Prieview x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    MacBook Pro Core2Duo
    CPU
    T7600
    Memory
    3
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon X1600
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Internal
    Screen Resolution
    1440 x 800
    Hard Drives
    40GB
    Keyboard
    Apple
    Mouse
    Apple
    Internet Speed
    Varies
    Browser
    Various
    Antivirus
    Defender
Sure. You have to do a clean install though - you can't upgrade 32bit to 64bit. You may as well get the 8.1 ISO and do a clean install of that. You can install it with the generic key and activate it with your upgrade key.

Thanks for that. What do you mean by the generic key?

I have the key that was sent to me when upgrading to Windows 8.

Is the generic one my original Vista one?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8
Sure. You have to do a clean install though - you can't upgrade 32bit to 64bit. You may as well get the 8.1 ISO and do a clean install of that. You can install it with the generic key and activate it with your upgrade key.
He'll have call MS to re-activate in his new built PC since the key is currently tied in with his 10 year old PC unless it has not yet been installed.

Thanks for that. What do you mean by the generic key?

I have the key that was sent to me when upgrading to Windows 8.
I don't think you'll need it. at the step when they ask for the key, click on skip and after the Windows installation, click on activate and enter the upgrade key.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1x64PWMC Ubuntu14.04x64 MintMate17x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Brewed
    CPU
    I7 4970K OC'ed @4.7 GHz
    Motherboard
    MSI-Z97
    Memory
    16 GB G-Skill Trident X @2400MHZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual HP-W2408
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200
    Hard Drives
    256 GB M2 sm951, (2) 500GB 850EVO, 5TB, 2 TB Seagate
    PSU
    Antec 850W
    Case
    Antec 1200
    Cooling
    Danger Den H20
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance Mouse MX
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    35/12mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
When you install 8.1 you have to put in an 8.1 key to install it. They are in this thread http://www.eightforums.com/installa...1-update-1-win-8-upgrade-product-key-iso.html

These are called generic keys as anyone can use them to install but they will not activate Windows. It is not your Vista key - this is of no use to you now (unless you want to re-install Vista for some reason I suppose).

Once you have installed you must use your 8 upgrade key to activate it. (The upgrade key is a retail key so you can install on a different PC if you want to incidentally).

Make sure you put in the correct generic key (Core or Pro) when you install 8.1.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro Prieview x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    MacBook Pro Core2Duo
    CPU
    T7600
    Memory
    3
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon X1600
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Internal
    Screen Resolution
    1440 x 800
    Hard Drives
    40GB
    Keyboard
    Apple
    Mouse
    Apple
    Internet Speed
    Varies
    Browser
    Various
    Antivirus
    Defender
Nope - ?"official"....seems to be a VL version (i.e without WMC) not supposed to be available to the general public.

Does your key not work with the Win8/8.1 setupbox swap thingy?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    PC-DOS v1.0
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    IBM
    CPU
    Intel 8088, 4.77MHz
    Memory
    16K, 640K max
    Graphics Card(s)
    What's that?
    Sound Card
    Not quite
    Screen Resolution
    80 X 24 text
    Hard Drives
    dual 160KB 5.25-inch disk drives
However as it says in that link....

warnsmall.png
Warning
To get a 32-bit Windows 8.1 Update ISO, you must run this in 32-bit Windows.

To get a 64-bit Windows 8.1 Update ISO, you must run this in 64-bit Windows.

You can use your upgrade key to get the 8.1 x64 ISO but you'll have to do it on a computer with x64 bit windows installed. If this is impracticable and you decide to get it elsewhere make sure you check the hash. To do this you can use this program HashTab tool to quickly find file hash information to get the properties of the ISO - The SHA1 should be this (from the link in post #5)


Windows 8.1 with Update
(multiple editions) (x64) - DVD (English)
Release Date: 4/2/2014
File Name: en_windows_8.1_with_update_x64_dvd_4065090.iso
Languages: English (en-US)
File Size: 3924 MB
SHA1: 4652DC6EBFEBE02C6A63E167C36E3FAEDFB93999

MS don't make it easy to download an ISO unfortunately - you have to jump through all sorts of annoying hoops. It is worth it though - I did it and that cheap upgrade key was a real bargain.

 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro Prieview x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    MacBook Pro Core2Duo
    CPU
    T7600
    Memory
    3
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon X1600
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Internal
    Screen Resolution
    1440 x 800
    Hard Drives
    40GB
    Keyboard
    Apple
    Mouse
    Apple
    Internet Speed
    Varies
    Browser
    Various
    Antivirus
    Defender
However as it says in that link....

warnsmall.png
Warning
To get a 32-bit Windows 8.1 Update ISO, you must run this in 32-bit Windows.

To get a 64-bit Windows 8.1 Update ISO, you must run this in 64-bit Windows.

You can use your upgrade key to get the 8.1 x64 ISO but you'll have to do it on a computer with x64 bit windows installed. If this is impracticable and you decide to get it elsewhere make sure you check the hash. To do this you can use this program HashTab tool to quickly find file hash information to get the properties of the ISO - The SHA1 should be this (from the link in post #5)


Windows 8.1 with Update
(multiple editions) (x64) - DVD (English)
Release Date: 4/2/2014
File Name: en_windows_8.1_with_update_x64_dvd_4065090.iso
Languages: English (en-US)
File Size: 3924 MB
SHA1: 4652DC6EBFEBE02C6A63E167C36E3FAEDFB93999

MS don't make it easy to download an ISO unfortunately - you have to jump through all sorts of annoying hoops. It is worth it though - I did it and that cheap upgrade key was a real bargain.



Just done exactly this on my work machine :)

Cheers
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8
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