Win 8.1 Product Key Issues

[Kflyn30]

G'day,

Earlier today my Grandfather bought a copy of Windows 8.1 x64 and received the product key which he then emailed to me. I got the 'WindowsSetupBox.exe' and put in my product key but I got the message, 'This product key cannot be used when installing a retail version of Windows 8.1'.

If it makes any difference, I am downloading it as an iso for a fresh install on a new build.

Please help.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Unfortunately, MS doesn't appear to let you download the ISOs with OEM keys. Which is a problem I've been seeing a fair bit, recently. It's bloody stupid IMO, but that's life.

You'll need to get him to mail the disk, or something.

 

[13thmonkey]

It is very likely that the iso you have and the disk he has are not the same and the key is matched to a certain 'type' of disk. i.e. home premium vs ultimate, oem vs retail, europe vs US vs austrailia etc.

 

[dodger46]

G'day,

Earlier today my Grandfather bought a copy of Windows 8.1 x64 and received the product key which he then emailed to me. I got the 'WindowsSetupBox.exe' and put in my product key but I got the message, 'This product key cannot be used when installing a retail version of Windows 8.1'.

If it makes any difference, I am downloading it as an iso for a fresh install on a new build.

Please help.

Could he have bought the Upgrade? (even tho it says Retail!)
The d'load links I have below, try both and see
OEM/Retail
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?linkid=271128
Upgrade
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=262204

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Unfortunately, those programs will refuse at an OEM key. I tried, or at least did with the Win8 program and a Win8 Pro OEM key.

I'm seriously annoyed at whoever dropped DigitalRiver.

 

[dodger46]

M'soft making it harder and harder to d'load an ISO, even the generic keys no longer work, well, they're accepted only to get the 'Can't connect' message. Driving everyone into the murky world of torrents and hackers...

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Yup...

I intend to bring it up with the rest of the mods, and see if we can sort something out.

I believe MSDN/Technet publishes hashes of the ISOs, even if you can't download the actual ISOs without an account.