Windows not activated

[yugiohlover26]

So I wanted to wipe everything on my computer because it was running slow and kept on blue screening because of some virus I probably downloaded so I clicked 'remove everything and reinstall windows' in PC Settings -> Update and Recovery. I had windows 8.1 at the time but when I reinstalled windows it put me on windows 8.1 Pro for some weird reason. Also, there was the watermark on the bottom right of the screen showing that is was a test build. Later, I learned that windows wasn't activated. I lost where my old cd key was, but I don't think it would even work because it was a different windows version... How can I revert back to Windows 8.1 and have it activated?

 

[clutchc]

Are you sure that one of the early installation screens wasn't one that had several Win versions available? You might have hurried past it and left it on the default which was Win 8.1 Pro. The Win 10 installation disk has those options, so I imagine Win 8 might too.

 

[USAFRet]

If you had Win 8.1 Home, and installed Pro...yes, it will show as Unactivated.

You need to do a full wipe and reinstall of Home.