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Oddity Installing from BIOS OS Key

lupi

lupi

Lifer
Just swapped out a hard drive in a laptop for a SSD. Initially I attempted to installed using a USB ISO for Win 8 I had just created. Could not get it to work, kept giving me a no valid product keys for image found error.

While heading to the Google to attempt to find a solution I came across someone write up on using win 10 and downgrading and followed their link to a "univeral" win 8 ISO which I put on the USB and it installed 8.1 just fine.

The laptop came with and has only had win 8 installed and from what I read the BIOS key would only work with a win 8 install. Just wondering if any else has come across this before?
 
lupi said:
Just swapped out a hard drive in a laptop for a SSD. Initially I attempted to installed using a USB ISO for Win 8 I had just created. Could not get it to work, kept giving me a no valid product keys for image found error.

While heading to the Google to attempt to find a solution I came across someone write up on using win 10 and downgrading and followed their link to a "univeral" win 8 ISO which I put on the USB and it installed 8.1 just fine.

The laptop came with and has only had win 8 installed and from what I read the BIOS key would only work with a win 8 install. Just wondering if any else has come across this before?
Click to expand...

Regular, generic install media will not read an OEM embedded bios key. You can pull the key using other software and manually type it in if you want. If you want it to just automatically "work" you need to use the appropriate OEM supplied OS install disk.

Win 8 vs 8.1 keys are also wonky. They are considered two separate products entirely, with two separate key algorithms. Windows 8.1 install media will not accept a regular old Windows 8 key, you *have to* do an installation of Windows 8 and then upgrade it to 8.1.

Working as intended, albeit typical Microsoft chicanery.
 
If you're interested in Windows 10 you can use the Windows 10 v1511 media creation tool and it will activate with a Windows 8 OEM bios key. Keep in mind this is a new feature with v1511 and it will not work with older versions of Windows 10.

I just did this myself when I replaced an Acer Windows 8 laptop's dead HDD with a SSD. Windows 10 activated itself without issue.
 
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