Activating Microsoft Windows 8 Pro with media center for free with legitimate key!

Any tool to backup the entire WMC ? what if i plan to format my pc and need to activate again ? I really want to backup the license so i don't lose any counts or something. Is this possible and if yes how ?.

Secondly, what if i use a exisiting retail key from WMC (so installing WMC instead of pro) ? can i replace it with the one microsoft has send me ?

 

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Alright thanks for the info but will windows 8 add the wmc after restoring ?
second question is about DVD Integration. Can i use my stuff to reinstall windows 8 pro with mc with that tool ? or do i need to re-activate ?

 

Dear Everybody!

I reinstalled my win 8 pro retail (previously activated by phone) this way:
1. reinstalled win 8 pro retail with this key: -CRYQH
2. with the slmgr.vbs /upk command I removed the product key
3. I boot up with puppy linux, and overwrite the store folder with the backup

4. start windows normally it is activated - that's okay, but there is no product key shown - will this cause any activation problem in the future, for instance if I want to upgrade to WMC?


Thanks in advance...

 

Anyone having issues activating windows with a prowmc key using the data.txt method on a install wmc dvd media? Getting Windows isn't not able to activate at this time... tried two different connections.

 

This trick doesn't work anymore, confirmed by many forums.

Some said you can still activate by phone but when I tried, first it worked but then when I go online, I got "this windows is not genuine" about 2 hours later and activation status back to "not activated"

I guess they already patched the hole

 

This one is for the MDL seniors.

I had installed Windows 8 Pro 32 bit on my laptop.
Activated using KMS nano.
Then got the "genuine activation" done by using the legit key for WMC upgrade.

This one worked and activated Windows 8 on my system.

3 days ago, I formatted my system and installed a Windows 8 Pro 64 bit.
Activated using KMS Nano. It worked till here.

Now, I tried activating using a DIFFERENT Key for WMC Upgrade.
After the RESTART -This method HOWEVER DOESNOT ACTIVATE WINDOWS 8 ANYMORE.

Have also tried using the same WMC key that I used for 32 bit install.

Tried this nearly 7 times now.. But still wont work..
I keep getting this error 0xC004C4AA
hxxp://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/activation-errors

PS: I have synchronised my clock,time zone b4 activation

 

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Hmmm, I reinstall Windows 8 often (I'm still testing a lot of DISM stuff, activation, etc), and the current version I'm using is Windows 8 Enterprise.
I made a 7-in-1.wim that also includes "pre-activated" ProWMC images (using data.dat and DISM's Set-Productkey), so now I wonder if that version is still working (sorry, I'm a little confused as to what is still working, and what isn't).
If all of those versions don't work anymore, I have no need for them anymore, and it's back to a plain old 2-in-1.wim (Just Enterprise 32-bit and 64-bit).
I'll let you know how the test went in a couple of minutes....

 

Dont seem like a SERVER issue..
The loophole seems to be fixed NoW
Will have to stick to KMS Nano activation.Until things get clearer...(Got until June 2013)

 

Yep, activation failed. Well, it's been a lot of fun learning about data.dat etc. etc, but it looks like all this trouble was for nothing
I'll stick to Enterprise, and will spend another few hours rebuilding my 2-in-1.wim.

[EDIT: I'd like to add that I used an "ultra-clean" data.dat in my 7-in-1.wim, created in a VM, using /ckms afterwards]

 

As per the site


Activation error
Unable to activate Windows 8 Pro with Media Center. (Error code: 0xC004C4AA)

What it means and how to fix it

You might see this error after you used the Add Features to Windows 8 app to upgrade your current edition of Windows. The Windows 8 Pro with Media Center edition can only be activated on PCs that had Windows preinstalled, or Windows was purchased on the Windows website or at a retail store. To fix the problem, you need to install Windows with the product key provided to you in an email or with the DVD. If you think you have received this message in error, contact a Microsoft Customer Support representative.

SO THEY HAVE FIX THIS HOLE IN WINDOWS 8

 

So, it's been fixed?

All of us who activated theirs and backed up the activation are safe then?

 

well i did some tests on vmware and yes when i used a data.dat file that had been activated with a free key and then replaced the data.dat file on my test systems it activated using another free key.... done 7 tests now all with new keys are all worked...

 

So it doesn't matter if the precursor to such successful free-wmc-key activation was kms activation? The data.dat is "retail-lized" anyway?

I suppose if someone had one retail key, they could use it once, followed by free-wmc-key activation and then that data.dat would be good to go for export to another system without any history of kms. If that sort of thing would work. But I doubt they have much limit to sever side testability, and will add more robust checking sooner or later.

 

I doubt very much if that would last long considering retail keys are individual it would not take them long to figure out the data.dat file has been used on more than one machine.

 

OK, I'm a dumbass, but could you please repeat exactly what you did here? Here's what I *know*:
- I used a clean data.dat (W8ProRetail-KMSactivated-/ckms) and put in in an AIO. This does not work anymore (can't use the free upgrade key anymore). So this is a data.dat *before* the permanent activation
- I have an ATM backup of a *permanently* (at least that's what I thought at the moment) activated Windows ProWMC (*after* useing the key), so I guess the data.dat from this one could warrant another testrun?

But maybe I don't understand exactly what you did. Could you give me a step-by-step?

 

But the free-wmc-keys are individual too, and he's saying to take the data.dat from a system already activated using an individual free-wmc-key and use it over and over.