Solved Hypothetical Installation Activation Question

Just a hypthetical: say someone installs an RTM version of Windows 8. Can they bypass activation temporarily until the OEM is released at the end of the month, and then activate Windows 8 with that code?

Damn good question....try it and see what happens is all I can say.

Well, I don't have the RTM version. Like I said... hypothetical.

You can't install a RTM version without entering a valid product code. You can't leave it blank like you can with Windows 7 and earlier. Also Activation is automatic, it won't prompt you to activate, it will just go ahead and try as soon as it gets Internet access. That's the way the RTM version I found worked. The product code I had would let me install but it wouldn't activate. The activation servers weren't up yet. It would have been blocked anyway even if they were up. I didn't get it on Technet or MSDN. The rearm was reported to work but I didn't run it long enough to have to try it.

How to bypass product key while installing Windows 8


Works great with my Windows 8 pro rtm
Open Notepad to create a file with following code structure and save as ei.cfg in Sources folder.


[EditionID]
Professional
[Channel]
Retail
[VL]
0

Thats cool, bookmarked that site too. :thumb:

With a little finagling I managed to install a copy of the RTM version. I had to do a slight modification to it so it believes it's an OEM version, but this was necessary so when I get my activation code when Windows 8 is released next week it will work. (I've pre-ordered the OEM version.) The only downside is that since I skipped activation a nag window pops up every so often, but it's something I can live with for a week.