How to activate Windows 8 upgrade from a new installation

Hello,

a friend of mine has the following problem:

He bought a Windows 8 Pro upgrade licence, but did a complete new installation. But now he can't activate Windows 8. He is owner of a valid Windows 7 key, but there is no option to validate your Windows 8 licence, if you did a new installation. Former Windows installations asked you during the installation for a valid CD/DVD of a former Windows version, but this is not the case. So how can he activate his Windows 8 now?

Begging MS for assistance is the only supported way, apart from a reinstall of the base qualifying license, and doing the upgrade properly.


telephone activation (operator calls)
Open the Charm bar
in Search type
SLUI 4
and hit the Enter key
follow the instructions, but when asked which service you require by the telephone ansafone, do NOT reply - this should force an operator to respond, who can deal with you

He tried slui 4, but he doesnt get a phone activation window, just the normal one to activate over the internet. Also, I am curious. I bought the offer for 29,99 directly from Microsoft (digital download). But I did a complete new installation with my upgrade license and mine was activated fine, why?

So long as you start the upgrade from within the current Windows installation, you shoulld be OK - if you start from a DVD boot, or with a clean HD, then things go screwy

Hello dfgfgd,

Where did he get his copy of Windows 8 Upgrade from?
Normally, you must enter the Windows 8 product key number when you start setup to verify and activate before Windows 8 even starts installing.


When you have downloaded the Windows 8 Upgrade ISO file using the Windows 8 Upgrade Assisitant, you will be able to create a bootable DVD/USB with it to do a clean or upgrade install.
Even if you did an upgrade install from Windows 7 to Windows 8, you would still have the same thing under step 6 in the tutorial below to enter the product key number for Windows 8 upgrade.

He bought the Windows 8 Pro box in a local store for 35Euros. The weird thing is, it doesn't say "upgrade version" on the box itself, like it would be a full license, which obviously is not the case. He just deleted his hdd partitions and did a complete new installation, he didn't start the setup from out of his former Windows 7. And now he can't activate it, he was able to install it though, but now it always says, the key is not valid when he wants to activate it over the internet.

I bought mine over the internet from Microsoft itself for 29,99Euros, but I didn't install it as a upgrade too. I made a DVD copy from the ISO the setup created and deleted my paritions too and did a new installation. However, my Windows 8 was already activated after my installation. Could it be that if you buy Windows 8 over the Microsoft store/tool, the key already is activated you get, because the tool checks your current Windows installation if it is valid? And if your Windows 8 key was activated, you can install Windows 8 over and over again and again afterwards, regardless if you do a new installation?

Not sure about a pro box from a retail store. It depends on what type (OEM, upgrade, etc...) it is.


The tool (Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant) only verifies that you have a qualifying OS to be able to then purchase the upgrade copy of Windows 8. You will still have to enter the product key number you got with your purchase during the installation of Windows 8 upgrade to activate Windows 8.

This is the same as it was in Windows 7, but Windows 8 doesn't give you the option to skip entering the key number during installation. It will not install until you do.