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

For me I think I will stick with win8 activated with upgrade key and wont install the WMC key as I don't use it anyway

 

What we are trying to achieve here is to activate many système using one paid for key and many free WMC key. Perso I do not care about the WMC feature.

So yes if you only have one system youre all set

 

What we are trying to achieve here is to activate many système using one paid for key and many free WMC key. Perso I do not care about the WMC feature.

So yes if you only have one system youre all set

 

Big Whoop! How many times a day do you boot your machine? On top of that I have an ssd boot drive and yes win7 with SSD beats it hands down. Seriously is that the best thing you could find about it? If so that says a lot about it. BTW 30 seconds sounds slow, there are others that have less than 4 second boots and shut downs.

 

A high performance car can reach 0 to 60 mph in 2.4 secs.
And you are asking seriously is that the best I can find?

Another member also said the same thing.

Please open up your mind and look at the bigger picture.

 

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Disable hybrid shutdown & then check speed..

 

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Yes it should.. but more importantly if you backup your activated data.dat you should always be able to return to activation by following the steps of the guide (for replacing data.dat) to replace the data.dat with your backup should you become deactivated where you would not need to do a complete reinstallation of the operating system.

 

Is it possible to use the backed up data.dat from a x86 build for a new installation of x64 on the same PC with same WMC serial number?

Ditto a new x86 build on a different but similar PC with the same motherboard? (the MAC addresses were cleared as part of a SLIC 2.1 BIOS update for Windows 7)

 

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Yesterdays test was a fail but did figure out how to do upgrade with full retail ISO using upgrade key.

 

Sounds intrusting. I tried before to upgrade pro to wmc with free key received from m$ but failed & only "upgrade only key(W.Z.T)" worked. Hope you will share procedure soon.

 

So it looks like, based on all I have read on this thread and based on my experiments, the so called life activation with a free WMC key is unfortunately a dream?

The fact that we can activate but cannot reach the genuine state means that at any time M$ can come with a WGA patch that would immediatly deactivate all non genuine W8 WMC systems.
Is this a correct assumption.

 

Alright people, i'm back on MDL after some quality time with windows 8. In case anyone's interested, here's what did the trick:
1. installed win 8 pro MSDN (untouched iso) using -CRYQH as a key when asked.
2. added wmc using the "get more features with a new edition of windows", entered -QGJXW as product key.
3. did all windows updates - i think this is irrelevant to the activation process
4. went offline, ran cmd, stopped spp service.
5. replaced original data.dat with the one from whazzupsuperfly
6. installed my own wmc key via slmgr /ipk
7. went online and tried to activate: 0xc004c4aa error
8. went offline again, stopped spp service again (this might still be inactive since before, so again irrelevant)
9. replaced data.dat again
10. installed my own wmc key again with slmgr /ipk
11. That's all folks! Activated and stayed that way after machine reboot.

Thank you to all the forum members who helped and shared their knowledge with us all. You guys are priceless!
Ps. Merry Xmas Guys & Gals!

 

Here's my story...

I had an activated copy ( kms/wmc key ), then I installed the "bypass metro" utility and my activation broke. I didn't save the "data.dat" file and I couldn't do anything. I was getting that specific error about invalid key etc.

Then, I just downloaded a random data.dat from here ( Pro MWC x64 ), I replaced it in the proper folders, I reinstalled my key ( /ipk xxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx ) and it just worked... My copy became fully activated and I didn't need clean re-installation or something.

 

this thread should be closed.....one wga update your windows will be flag as not genuine!

 

If they do that, no problem. I'm going back to Win7. Yesterday I was ready, but as I said, it worked and the time on Win8 has been extended.

With "Bypass Modern UI" & "Start8" -it's like I'm using Win7 anyway.

 

Alexthegreat: My thoughts exactly. That's why I'm doing as much testing on Windows 8 as possible, while there are still some activation methods available
Then if it all goes to hell, it's back to Windows 7 and "old faithful DAZ"!