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Windows 8 refusing to activate

M

Mark R

Diamond Member
I bought a bunch of Windows 8 pro licenses as part of the initial launch online discount.

Most of these have been installed on various PCs, but I've still got a couple of spares and have been trying to build a Win 8 VM for experimenting.

However, I can't get it to activate. The key is definitely legit and has definitely never been used before.

It fails to activate online. I've tried things like slmgr /rearm, but I still get the "unable to activate" message.

I've tried the phone activation several times. I dial and enter the code number it gives me, but I then get a message "contact your volume licensing center", before the call disconnects.

Do the license keys time out?
Are they not licensed for VMs?
Was microsoft mistakenly providing volume keys? This was the discounted home program, not a VM. The license e-mail came from digital river on behalf of MS.
 
are u sure u installed the retail version of win 8 core and not win 8 pro or win 8 single languge or win 8 volume license edition/

u need win 8 pro
 
Sounds like your SKU is not Pro version. Double check that your ISO is Pro. If it is then double check the keys are dead accurate in whatever manner you copied them.
Try to get a live person on the phone, I think if you keep hitting 0 repeatedly during phone activation, the computer takes you to a person. They should beable to verify it's authenticity and that it is for Pro version.
 
Mark R said:
I bought a bunch of Windows 8 pro licenses as part of the initial launch online discount.

Most of these have been installed on various PCs, but I've still got a couple of spares and have been trying to build a Win 8 VM for experimenting.

However, I can't get it to activate. The key is definitely legit and has definitely never been used before.

It fails to activate online. I've tried things like slmgr /rearm, but I still get the "unable to activate" message.

I've tried the phone activation several times. I dial and enter the code number it gives me, but I then get a message "contact your volume licensing center", before the call disconnects.

Do the license keys time out?
Are they not licensed for VMs?
Was microsoft mistakenly providing volume keys? This was the discounted home program, not a VM. The license e-mail came from digital river on behalf of MS.
Click to expand...

I'll second HeXen; if you're getting the "contact your volume licensing center" message it would appear that your "Pro" keys may be VLK and not retail. As the keys were supplied via Microsoft's partner Digital River, if it's their mistake and you have your receipt/s, you shouldn't have any problem getting the correct keys that you paid for. To verify your exact key version and release channel, you can run your key against this online PIDchecker.

.
 
I'll third the idea of you somehow receiving some form of volume/MAK key. Digital River should be distributing retail keys.

And to answer the rest of your questions, the Windows Personal Use License allows using both Windows 8 Core and Pro editions in a VM. So that's not the issue. Similarly while MS does have the ability to issue keys that expire, they've only used it once to distribute Win8 Media Center Pack keys; no other keys have ever been expired in such a fashion.
 
HeXen said:
Sounds like your SKU is not Pro version. Double check that your ISO is Pro. If it is then double check the keys are dead accurate in whatever manner you copied them.
Try to get a live person on the phone, I think if you keep hitting 0 repeatedly during phone activation, the computer takes you to a person. They should beable to verify it's authenticity and that it is for Pro version.
Click to expand...

An even better option would be to chat with an MS representative and have him or her verify what product key you have. They can have it identified for you.

http://answerdesk.microsoftstore.com/msusa/en-us/answerdesk
 
Didn't have time to look at it yesterday.

Booted up the VM today, and it was all activated and running fine. No idea what happened. I didn't touch it after the aborted phone activation.
 
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