Windows 8 Upgrade Program May Now Require Windows 7 Key

[ThisIsMe]

Why does everyone keep asking if this will invalidate their windows 7 product key? Does no one read the terms of service or even the highly condensed versions all over describing what an OEM product license is, or even understand the reason why it's called a special upgrade program which is being offered at a major discount?

If you buy a computer with a discounted OEM copy of windows preinstalled you are getting the discount for the software by agreeing that you will not use the software on any other computer and understand that the software is now legally bound to that computer. It's to this end that they offer this discounted upgrade for those OEM license owners because it extends the terms of use to the upgrade as well. So basically neither the original windows 7 product key nor the newly installed windows 8 product key may be used on any other system. They can however continue to be used to reinstall the corresponding version of windows at any time on the pc they were purchased for.

To add to this, purchasing any upgrade license renders the product key that is being upgraded useless as long as the upgrade is being used. The point to this is that you're not buying a new full license to use however, you're buying an upgrade license at a discount because you have already purchased a full copy of a previous version and want to extend the functionality and lifespan of that product with the latest offerings.

 

[universal remonster]

[citation][nom]Pherule[/nom]You forgot to tell us more about this nifty change.[/citation]

I didn't know if it would be concidered a hack and against forum rules, though it is just changing a value. Plus I got thumbed down just for sharing my experience so I'm doubting anyone cares... but since you asked =) In regedit, go to

hkey_local_machine/software/microsoft/windows/currentversion/setup/oobe/
change MediaBootInstall value from 1 to 0
Then open command prompt with 'run as administrator' and type
slmgr -rearm

after a reboot Windows 8 will be activated using your upgrade license key.

 

[web11]

Windows 8 is actually pretty good despite all the hate it gets here at tom's. It does need some getting used to tho. I plan on upgrading my personal computer to 8 but will leave my work laptop running windows 7.

 

[shriganesh]

I am not dumb enough to upgrade to windows 8 that soon! I am just getting to love my Windows 7. May be after an year or 2.... May be..

 

[mynith]

Using windows 8 on a non-touchscreen device makes no sense. I didn't even particularly like windows 7, or any version of it, for that matter. For me, OSX (up to Snow Leopard. Everything after that has seen that OS go down the shitter, so that's basically a dead end) and Kubuntu are my favourite operating systems. True, not all games are available for Linux, but it does everything I want it to do, and it does it well. I still dual-boot with Win7, but here's hoping, some day in the foreseeable future, that will no longer be necessary.