windows activation

I lost my hard drive and was trying to install Windows 8 from a Windows USB boot disk. When came time to activate I was greeted with “Code: 0xC004F061 your key can only be used for an upgrade”.  I bought the upgrade license during the launch sale but din’t know about this restriction.

Microsoft’s solution was to first install Windows 7 and then run the Upgrade assistant again to upgrade to Windows 8.  That would take too long!

Some Googling later and a solution was found. A simple registry hack. Here’s how,

  1. “Windows + r " and type “regedit” to bring up the registry.
  2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/
  3. Double click on “MediabootInstall”
  4. Change the value from “1” to “0”. Exit the registry.
  5. Hit the “Windows” key and search for “cmd” . Right click and select “Run as Administrator”.
  6. Type slmgr /rearm and hit press enter. Wait for confirmation.
  7. Reboot.
  8. Try to active again. Should work now.

Picture Guide below.

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