Perhaps someone else already made a similar question like this but I dont know whatlike keywords I should use to find any like this... One of my computers has a product key to Windows 8 on its uefi/bios as an embedded one. More recently I bought a Windows 8 DVD Package and it came with a Pro product key. Every time trying to install Pro using this disc, I was never asked for a key during setup and Windows 8 (no pro) installed. Thats probably because the embedded key was always read and used. - I dont want to use the "Add Features" option for Pro afterwards - I dont want to modify the config file to recreate the disc I would just love to use the original disc to install Pro. How? Thanks.
1.Make Bootable usb stick with YOUR Windows 8 DVD Package. 2.Make EI.CFG COPY [EditionID] Professional [Channel] _Default [VL] 0 INTO New Text Document Save As EI.CFG (NOT EI.CFG.txt) & add it to sources folder on usb stick. 3.Make pid file COPY [PID] Value=Put Pro product key Here INTO New Text Document Save As pid.txt & add it to sources folder on usb stick.
And without modifying the ei.cfg stuff, directly installing PRO on that laptop is not possible. Major f***up from MS.
good for them bad for everyone else Use a USB thumb drive, then you don't have to recreate the DVD. once you have the USB built (Windows 7 USB/DVD tool) add and remove files at your leisure. You will of course need another key to activate pro unless you use Microsoft Toolkit or another KMS solution. The embedded key is core only, but you know that Also if you want the USB drive to boot into UEFI, use the Windows USB/DVD tool to make it bootable, and then format the USB drive to Fat32 and then extract the files from the Win8 iso back on the USB drive. Formating will not remove the MBR that it needs to be bootable, but formating to Fat32 will allow UEFI to boot. -edit- Ace2 is correct as well, put the ei.cfg and the pid.txt both into the sources folder
I just went through this with an ASUS laptop. First time I did a clean install and came up with windows 8 core I was pissed lol. Eventually figured out the only way to override it is via EI.CFG. Reason for this is the EFI Firmware on the machine is automatically shoving the core key at windows and throwing it into OEM channel.
Why not? What difference does it make? NONE. You can even boot into WinPE and upgrade the Recovery Image on your notebook to Pro & Restore it. If you don't want "Office Starter" or "NIS", just uninstall... You can always remove the Product key from the uefi/bios. +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | AMI Firmware Update Utility v3.02.b14 | | Copyright (C)2012 American Megatrends Inc. All Rights Reserved. | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Usage: AFUWIN.EXE <ROM File Name> [Option 1] [Option 2]... | | or | | AFUWIN.EXE <Input or Output File Name> <Command> | | or | | AFUWIN.EXE <Command> | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Commands: | | /O - Save current ROM image to file | | /U - Display ROM File's ROMID | | /S - Refer to Options: /S | | /D - Verification test of given ROM File without flashing BIOS. | | /A - Refer to Options: /A | | /OAD - Refer to Options: /OAD | ... | /A - Oem Activation file | | /OAD - Delete Oem Activation key | I haven't tried deleting the key because I've never needed too...