Just having the files on your system does not activate it. You need them to overwrite the old data.dat and tokens.dat in the %windir%\system32\spp\store\2.0\ folder
Thank you, I guess I expressed myself wrong. I exactly followed the instructions with mounting the install.wim overwriting the original data.dat and tokens.dat with my own files. I now found out that I used a delta wmc converted iso which activated thru means of my free WMC key.
The folder "mount" is for DISM to extract the wim files to as you could see from the DISM command(it's just like the imageX command "apply"), so that DISM could apply changes, the wim is on F; because DISM cannot act on a wim when it's in the ISO, other things you need are the *.dat files and you WMC key. If you install it in VM, you definitely need to phone activate, if you install on VHD on same machine, then it depends if windows determines based on device check if you are still on the same machine.
I tried serveral times, it's impossible to activate WMC Update offline! Bought Windows 8 Pro Update and installed + activated WMC within the free giveaway period. However the store files from Windows 8 Pro WMC Upgrade doesn't activate Windows 8.1 Pro WMC Retail. Doing the same process converting Windows 8 Pro Retail to Windows 8 Pro WMC with dism worked flawlessly. Same Hardware, same Machine, what the heck?
As far as I can tell, only some people have succeeded with using their Windows 8 token backup to activate Windows 8.1. This applies both to Pro-only and WMC-upgraded installs and ISOs. Noone seems to be able to figure out yet why it's working for some people but not for others, even when all the required conditions are met (e.g. retail activated Pro).
Try to use the *dat files I provided, have not seen a failure so far, if you use your own *dat files, it may not be accepted by win8.1 as a legit activated format. I've seen in a number of occasions, people thought their *.dat files are from retail activation, but win8.1 had decided this is not the case.
Hi murphy78, MAK keys have a limited number of activations .... is it true?, And Retail keys few activations are allowed then ....
They're not that limited. You can activate a MAK key till the damn cows come home. The only problem here is that they changed the SPP and only allowed backward support for 8.0 retail and oem keys. So if you had a *shared* VolumeMAK key, you'd need to wait for someone to *share* one for 8.1
Given how complicated these activation topics are, I'm sure there are people out there who confused their type of activation and are failing because of that. However, there are also those with genuine retail keys whose win 8 tokens are not accepted by win 8.1 For example, I have a pro retail key that activates online and over the phone fine, both in win 8 and win 8.1. Same with my wmc key. Yet when I take tokens from win 8, they don't work in win 8.1. Naturally, you have no way of knowing if I'm doing things correctly. However, I have a lot of experience with activation topics, so I am confident that the issue is not a simple mistake (like copying the wrong file or in the wrong place).
There is a limit on how many machines it can activate(usually one); there is no limit on how many times you can activate with the key. I believe in this case people is using a MSDN key(it's a general believe that MSDN key =retail key). Tks to BTOR (post#94), it is not the case:
Hi Faikee, I have a question that might be off topic, sorry about this... Question is: could a key from Microsoft be the same as windows 8.0 and windows 8.1? Cause the key showed in the first page ends with the same key I have from MS, my key is ligite and a would like to know if was stolen so I can call MS and report it. I know u have nothing to do with it cause all the pics u got in first page are from the link you posted there. Thank you in advance Faikee
What's the limit on TechNet keys these days ? I know they started only giving out 2-3 keys, but not sure if there was a limit put on their activations or not ? iirc it used to be something like 10 machines per key ? Unlimited activations per machine ? Something like that ?
They are limited I had a MSDN Windows 7 Professional or Enterprise (MAK) key few years back 500 activations used it 3 times only, then used a pid checker not saying what one next time I checked in VAMT I had 17 activations left
If you mean the WMC key, it's my key from MS free offer, and LOL, you're the 3rd guy with the same 5-digits end-set. (The first set is 3H686 ) Keys issued by MS are recorded, there won't be a duplicate, if you find your key is used by another person, it's either stolen or from key-gen, you can report to MS.