Clean Install with Windows 8 Upgrade

How to Do a Clean Install with Windows 8 Upgrade

​

This tutorial will show you how to do a clean install with a Windows 8 upgrade copy on an empty drive (HDD/SSD).

Windows 8 System Requirements
Windows 8 works great on the same hardware that powers Windows 7.

Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster

RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)

Hard disk space: 16 GB (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)

Graphics card: MicrosoftDirectX 9 graphics device or higher

Additional requirements to use certain features:

• To use touch, you need a tablet or a monitor that supports multitouch.
• To access the Windows Store and to download and run apps, you need an active Internet connection and a screen resolution of at least 1024 x 768.
• To snap apps, you need a screen resolution of at least 1366 x 768.

Here's How:

1. If you haven't already, you will need to either purchase a Windows 8 Upgrade from a retailer, or use the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant to purchase and download a Windows 8.1 ISO file online from Microsoft to create a bootable USB/DVD with.


2. Do a clean install or clean install with UEFI with your Windows 8 upgrade USB/DVD, and enter your Windows 8 product key number during installation.
NOTE: You can do the clean install using either a local account or Microsoft account. It doesn't matter.

   Warning

You will only be able to enter a Windows 8 or Windows 8 Pro product key.

You will not be able to enter a Window Media Center Pack or Windows 8 Pro Pack product key. These are considered to be an upgrade key and can't be used to install Windows 8. These can only be added after Windows 8 is installed, then use Add Features to upgrade to the Window Media Center Pack or Windows 8 Pro Pack.

3. When the clean install is finished, if you check in System, you will see that your Windows 8 upgrade may not be activated yet.





4. Do step 5 or 6 below for how you would like to activate the Windows 8 upgrade.


5. Activate by Refreshing the Windows 8 Upgrade

A) Refresh Windows 8, and go to step 7 below. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: You would use OPTION TWO at this link. Be sure to keep your Windows 8 installation DVD in the drive or Windows 8 installation USB connected.




6. Activate Windows 8 Upgrade using a BAT File Download

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the .bat file below, and save it to your desktop.


Activate_Windows_Upgrade_after_Clean_Install.bat





B) Right click or press and hold on the downloaded .bat file, and click/tap on Run as administrator.

C) If prompted, click/tap on Run and Yes (UAC).
NOTE: If you like, you can stop getting the Run prompt by unblocking the downloaded .bat file.

D) You will now notice a command prompt quickly open and close while applying the changes to your registry.

E) Click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)




E) Restart the computer to apply, and go to step 7 below.


7. When finshed, if you check in System, you will see that your Windows 8 upgrade is now activated with the product key you entered in step 2 above.




8. You have just finished doing a clean install with an upgrade copy of Windows 8.


That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Do a Clean Install of Windows 8 or Windows 8.1
• How to Clean Install Windows on a MSATA (SSD) Drive
• How to Install Windows 8 Using "Unified Extensible Firmware Interface" (UEFI)
• How to Upgrade from Windows 8, Windows 7, Vista, or XP to Windows 8 or 8.1
• How to Downgrade Windows 8 to Windows 7
• How to Download and Run the "Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant"
• How to Create or Download a Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 ISO
• How to Install Windows 8 on VirtualBox
• How to Install Windows 8 on VMware Player
• How to Do a Dual Boot Installation with Windows 8 and Windows 7 or Vista
• How to Create a Windows 8 VHD at Boot to Dual Boot with Windows 7 or Vista
• How to Change the Product Key Number in Windows 8 and 8.1
• How to Find Your Windows 8 Product Key Number
• How to Activate Windows 8 and 8.1 by Phone
• How to Do a Repair Install of Windows 8 without Losing Anything

 

[prosenjeet]

Brink,

Do you think this is worth giving a shot?

In my friends computer.....(win 8 installed but upgraded from Win 7 Enterprise. few hours back, activation blocked by MS... keeps asking for activation). Do you think this is worth trying?

Method I
1) remove the current win 8 pro operating system (complete formatting of C drive)
2) Use this tutorial and install Windows 8 pro upgrade as "clean install"
3) Activate win 8 pro upgrade with her genuine serial number.


Or

Method II
1) Remove the current operating system (complete formatting of C drive)
2) Install Win 7 Home Premium
3) Upgrade to Win 8 Pro using her genuine key

Brink, you may answer here or PM me (if its allowed on this forum), which ever you feel is appropriate

 

[Brink]

Little of topic:
I read somewhere that when you have the win 8 pro upgrade key and download win 8 pro RTM, they key you received with the upgrade version seems to work as a normal retail.

Do you know if this works Brink?

Hello eyesonly,

Yes, since they are the exact same edition.

There's only three types of Windows available: the "upgrade" (retail), "system builder" (OEM - retail), or "pre installed OEM" (factory - store bought computers).

http://www.eightforums.com/general-support/10837-windows-8-eula.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[Brink]

Brink,

Do you think this is worth giving a shot?

In my friends computer.....(win 8 installed but upgraded from Win 7 Enterprise. few hours back, activation blocked by MS... keeps asking for activation). Do you think this is worth trying?

Method I
1) remove the current win 8 pro operating system (complete formatting of C drive)
2) Use this tutorial and install Windows 8 pro upgrade as "clean install"
3) Activate win 8 pro upgrade with her genuine serial number.


Or

Method II
1) Remove the current operating system (complete formatting of C drive)
2) Install Win 7 Home Premium
3) Upgrade to Win 8 Pro using her genuine key

Brink, you may answer here or PM me (if its allowed on this forum), which ever you feel is appropriate

I'd say give method 1 a try first to hopefully avoid having to install her Windows 7 first.

If it wont activate online or by phone, then use method 2.

 

[Egore]

Hello, I just built my first pc and I bought the upgrade version of Windows 8 by accident... I thought I had windows installed but then got the error messages when I tried to activate windows. I am not connected to the internet yet on my new gaming pc, so I tried to refresh windows to get it to activate. But when windows came back on it still wasn't activated are you able to help me?

 

[Brink]

Hello Egore, and welcome to Eight Forums.

Since you are not connected to the internet, you could also activate by phone instead from within the installed Windows 8.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/24636-activate-windows-8-phone.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[Egore]

Hello Egore, and welcome to Eight Forums.

Since you are not connected to the internet, you could also activate by phone instead from within the installed Windows 8.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/24636-activate-windows-8-phone.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Thank you! I didn't realize that it would just activate so easily!

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome.

 

[Enigma]

Hello, I just built my first pc and I bought the upgrade version of Windows 8 by accident... I thought I had windows installed but then got the error messages when I tried to activate windows. I am not connected to the internet yet on my new gaming pc, so I tried to refresh windows to get it to activate. But when windows came back on it still wasn't activated are you able to help me?

First, do a clean install of Windows 8. Then do the following steps:

1. Run the registry editor (regedit)
2. Find the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\OOBE
3. Change the value for 'MediaBootInstall' from 1 to 0
4. Open an elevated command prompt (run as admin)
5. Run the following command: slmgr -rearm
6. Reboot
Now you can activate.

I posted that much earlier in this thread. It's what I did and it worked fine. Much easier than all the other methods I've found (like Refresh, etc.), and quicker.

 

[Brink]

First, do a clean install of Windows 8. Then do the following steps:

1. Run the registry editor (regedit)
2. Find the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\OOBE
3. Change the value for 'MediaBootInstall' from 1 to 0
4. Open an elevated command prompt (run as admin)
5. Run the following command: slmgr -rearm
6. Reboot
Now you can activate.

I posted that much earlier in this thread. It's what I did and it worked fine. Much easier than all the other methods I've found (like Refresh, etc.), and quicker.

Yep, that's the same as using the .bat file from step 6 in the tutorial on the first page.

 

[KJTLS]

Hi Brink! Great site, just joined!

My issue is that I have a decommissioned company computer with Windows 7 Enterprise on it. I want to do a full wipe of everything on it to remove all the company programs etc...and I purchased a Windows 8 Pro upgrade DVD.

Can I use this same method after I wipe the hard drive? I wasn't sure if Windows 7 Enterprise would cause any problems, or if this method will still work perfectly for me.

Thanks!

 

[Brink]

Hi Brink! Great site, just joined!

My issue is that I have a decommissioned company computer with Windows 7 Enterprise on it. I want to do a full wipe of everything on it to remove all the company programs etc...and I purchased a Windows 8 Pro upgrade DVD.

Can I use this same method after I wipe the hard drive? I wasn't sure if Windows 7 Enterprise would cause any problems, or if this method will still work perfectly for me.

Thanks!

Hello KJTLS, and welcome to Eight Forums.

Yes, you will be able to do a clean install using the same method in the tutorial with it.

 

[KJTLS]

I just read back a page or two, will I have the same issue that prosenjeet

had? Or will it work just fine and activate?

I guess I'm just a little confused on how you said the keys won't be blocked, but she may not be able to activate with her windows 8 product key.​

 

[Brink]

No worries. That was a different circumstance since Prosenjeet was also inquiring about upgrading from instead of just a straight clean install.

 

[KJTLS]

OK, I think I follow. So if I completely wipe the drive, then the "upgrade path" doesn't really matter. Upgrading implies keeping your old info, clean install gets rid of the past, regardless of what version was on it.

 

[Brink]

Correct. Upgrade would be to upgrade from your current installation to Windows 8 in an attempt to keep your files, settings, and programs from the current installation to Windows 8.

You wouldn't be able to upgrade since Enterprise is a volume license and Windows 8 Pro is a retail license. A clean install would be the only option.

 

[ICit2lol]

Shawn maybe I have asked already cos I cannot find where I did but I sort of read this two ways now a)I can install 8 just using the upgrade or b) I need to purchase the OS using the upgrade.

Could you clarify please as I think b) is more likely the answer.

 

[Brink]

Hey John,

Well, it's yes to both really.

If you wanted to purchase a Windows 8 upgrade copy online for an ISO download and product key, then you would need to do so from within a qualifying OS. You could also upgrade your current Windows to Windows 8 using the Windows Upgrade Assistant as well.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/11885-windows-8-upgrade-assistant-download-run.html​

If you already have purchased Windows 8 and only have a product key, then you could download the ISO to create installation media with.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/18309-windows-8-upgrade-iso-download-create.html​

If you already have a Windows 8 key and installation media, then yes you just do a clean install using the tutorial on the first page if you like.

 

[ICit2lol]

No Shawn I just have the upgrades not the full version I have one on the laptop that had 7 on it anyhow and it flies I just want to try it on the Sandy bridge as it has much better hardware specs than the laptop.
The upgrades were really quite cheap at $53 in the Office Works store for the first then the ratbags scorched it to $68 within ten days but still cheap I suppose.

Plus now I have the Stardock8 running it is just like 7 only goes like a bullet

 

[Nahar]

Thank you very much

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Nahar, and welcome to Eight Forums.