I was playing around with my computer experimenting with Windows 8 and I managed to get to this state which I thought was impossible: Does this really mean my PC is activated with the generic key? If this is the case and I can reproduce it, I'll share how I got to this state.
your screenshot is too small can't see anything and give more info on how you try to activate it......
I'm not sure if my replies made it to you. I never actually entered a key so I'm assuming that is the key.
Using ambidav's instuctions I modified my WIM but did not replace DATA.DAT. In Disk Manager I created and mounted a VHD file. Using Imagex, I applied my custom WIM to the VHD. Using BCDBOOT I added a boot record to boot to the VHD. During the OOBE setup refused to accept my free WMC key so I skipped entering the key. Once I got to System Properties it said it was activated. I was expecting it to fail but I wanted to see how hard it would be to repair.
I was unable to reproduce this procedure but still have a working install. If anyone wants any specific information from this install just ask.
Applying a Windows 8 .wim image to a new drive is the manual way of producing a Windows To Go installation, it certainly worked up to the Release Preview, on USB flash, external hard drives and SSDs. Although only supposed to be part of Enterprise - which has an executable specifically to do the job, pwcreator.exe - the Professional and WMC versions can be cloned onto other systems, which will appear to be activated for now. However, it is likely that in the new year, when many of the Windows 8 beta and trial periods are due to end, and the honeymoon low cost upgrade offers end, Microsoft will begin to invalidate cloned Windows 8 installations outside the Software Assurance VLSC scheme or Technet/MSDN accounts. "My Windows says it is not genuine" will be heard from all around, and the answer will be to go out and buy a genuine retail version. People who "upgraded" their Windows earlier versions with Windows 8, without sufficient backup to be able to restore their earlier versions may also be in a difficult position.