If a machine has 8.1 home, and I have Win 8 Pro Full disc/key, is there a way to

Techs screwed up my friends computer by reinstalling Win 8.1 home on it without a license key. I have an unused version of 8.0 pro, wondering if there is a way to finagle this at all without a complete backup/reformat/reinstall?

Thanks

Take it back and have them do it right.

Is it possible to recover a windows 8.1 key from a Manufacturer recovery image?

Basically, tech support reformatted my computer and re-installed windows 8.1, but did not save my original activation key. I still have the recovery partition with the recovery image, and a tech told me there may be a way to recover the key from that image without reformatting again. Is this possible?

He also said something about "one key recovery?" but not sure what that is

I merged your duplicate threads... please keep the exact same subject to one thread.

As I said earlier, they screwed it up, take it back and have them do it. This should not be your problem.



As far as 'one key recovery' I googled that and came up with these hits: https://www.google.com/webhp?source...2&es_th=1&ie=UTF-8#q=one key recovery&es_th=1

It appears to be some kind of program that can grab your key out of an OS...

if its a newer machine the serial is saved in bios and it will automatically detect the key and adjust the install to what ever serial is in the bios.
E.G. you have a windows 8.1 pro key from a previous isntall its saved in the bios, install windows 8.1 home it installs when you go to activate it it will search bios, find serial it goes oh this is pro, it will automatically make itself windows 8.1 pro.

wagex said:

if its a newer machine the serial is saved in bios and it will automatically detect the key and adjust the install to what ever serial is in the bios.
E.G. you have a windows 8.1 pro key from a previous isntall its saved in the bios, install windows 8.1 home it installs when you go to activate it it will search bios, find serial it goes oh this is pro, it will automatically make itself windows 8.1 pro.

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That might just be the solution to my problem! Thank you!

In my experience you cannot install Windows 8/8.1 without a license key. Unlike with earlier versions of Windows it won't let you proceed with the installation until you enter it. This is why you can't use an upgrade version of 8/8.1 to do a clean install like we did with earlier versions. Check in Contorl Panel>System to see if Windows is activated. If so, use a key miner to retrieve the key. If it's showing that activation has not occurred I would suspect that what has actually happened is that the techs used a pirated version of Windows 8.1 or reused one they had already used on another machine so that the key was already in use and would not activate.

trents said:

In my experience you cannot install Windows 8/8.1 without a license key. Unlike with earlier versions of Windows it won't let you proceed with the installation until you enter it. This is why you can't use an upgrade version of 8/8.1 to do a clean install like we did with earlier versions. Check in Contorl Panel>System to see if Windows is activated. If so, use a key miner to retrieve the key. If it's showing that activation has not occurred I would suspect that what has actually happened is that the techs used a pirated version of Windows 8.1 or reused one they had already used on another machine so that the key was already in use and would not activate.

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my full win8 isntall let me skip, iirc. i cant remember, i do know i got a full install then went to activate windows it pulled the bios key and changed my pro version to a starter version that was on the laptop.

You install 8/8.1 without a key or Microsoft account by being off the network while doing the install.
If there's no "skip" button, just hit Next without entering a key. That's what I've done in the past.

wagex said:

my full win8 isntall let me skip, iirc. i cant remember, i do know i got a full install then went to activate windows it pulled the bios key and changed my pro version to a starter version that was on the laptop.

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I just experimented with several versions of Windows 8/8.1 both OEM and Retail and they would not let me proceed with the install if I did not enter the correct product key. "Next" button was grayed out in every case.

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ATMINSIDE said:

You install 8/8.1 without a key or Microsoft account by being off the network while doing the install.
If there's no "skip" button, just hit Next without entering a key. That's what I've done in the past.

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Did not work for me. See post immediately previous to this one.

trents said:

I just experimented with several versions of Windows 8/8.1 both OEM and Retail and they would not let me proceed with the install if I did not enter the correct product key. "Next" button was grayed out in every case.

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Did not work for me. See post immediately previous to this one.

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i said pulling it from the bios not entering the wrong key.

I don't follow all this "pulling it from the bios" stuff you guys are talking about. I've never seen any computer bios that has the OS key encoded in it. Do you mean the restore partition on the hard drive instead of the bios? Now it is also true that some OEM versions of Windows won't activate the key unless they are installed on the machine they shipped with but I would think that is a matter of some file being included in that version of the OS that checks the machine's ID against what is found in that file on the OS disk. Maybe I'm all wet here. We're talking mass produced computers by HP, Dell, etc. rather than one custom built from OEM components, right?

newer motherbaords have uefi bios, said bios will store windows 8.1 serials, almost every OEM pc that comes with windows 8.1 or 8 doesnt have a sticker on it why? because the key is embedded in the bios. and iirc if you have it enabled on a new motherboard, it will put the key in there when doing a fresh install on a non oem custom pc.

So what your saying is that since I've installed an OEM version of Windows 8.1, that key should now be embedded in my motherboard's UEFI, so if I need to reformat, I won't need to use the key again?

i dont know, if you have what ever the option is in the bios enabled, it might be secureboot or something idk for sure, i just know that if it was an OEM pc dell, hp ect, and it has no serial stick that it was in there.

but yes if it is inedeed saved into uefi then you will not have to put the key back in i dont think.

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this seems to explain it pretty good.
http://dellwindowsreinstallationgui...tall-of-windows-8-1/windows-8-1-installation/

So is this parameter hidden from the user in bios? Doe this mean that on an OEM computer you cannot upgrade from so Windows Home Premium to a Windows Pro version of the same generation of OS? And what about if you want to move from say, Windows 7 to Windows 8.1. Will the encoded in bios key prevent you from doing that? If you clear the CMOS does it erase the key information? I have lots of questions about how this works. And I've never been crazy about the move to UEFI bioses either.

trents said:

Another reason not to buy an OEM computer.

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I fail to see why storing the key in the UEFI is a reason against OEM. It's literally giving you a Windows key and not letting you lose it...

Not if it won't let you upgrade and that seems to be the issue the OP was having.

For starters, theres a "builder key" that lets you install windows with it. It's a blank slate cd key, running windows as a trial version basically. After 30 days it will simply start asking for your registration key.

Im not familiar with pulling a key from the bios, I'd love to see how thats done.

*note* -> you do NOT have to format, uninstall, or do anything other than this. You dont even need a dvd or usb to do this, it will run off your hard drive.

As for using a windows 8 pro cd key, thats just not possible on home edition (it will give you an error); HOWEVER there is an easy fix for this. Go download windows installation media, get 8.1 pro, and you can reinstall it from your hard drive, you do not need anything further.

the cd key you will use is

B478Q-FNMXX-FKYT6-D6FC8-HMGTD

Remember this is a BUILDER cd key, it will disable in 30 days.


Once everything is installed (should be fast, simply an "upgrade"), you will goto your windows menu, click the magnifying glass and type in "cmd". RIGHT CLICK and hit "run as administrator"

A black box (your command prompt program) will show up. All you need to do is type ->

slmgr.vbs -ipk 00000-00000-00000-00000-00000

the "0000"s are your cd key. Hit accept and it will regedit your cd key into your registry and MBR. From there, simply copy/paste your old data files from "windows.old" into your new folders and remove windows.old if you wish.

This is how you fix it, but ED is correct, you really should just take it back and make them do it properly.

we actually bought an oem pc for one of our workers here it had wind 7 and win8 on it well windows 8 will never be used so i logged in on windows 7 and used a utility and it pulled the key from the bios which i used to isntall win 8.1 on a pc at home. please note that win 8 is not longer accessible said work pc. i cant remember the name of the software, but im pretty sure you can delete they key from the bios as well.