Hi Everyone. I have limited time to do an OS rebuild and need help! I have an HP Compaq Pro 6300 SFF computer that was shipped DOWNGRADED to Windows 7 Professional. It has the Windows 8 Pro sticker on it and there's another sticker that says "Windows 8 Pro Downgrade to 7" or something of the sort. I would like to use Windows 8 now...is this possible? Is there a Windows 8 key embedded into the machine that I'm entitled to use if I want? I cannot (for the life of me) find the HP Recovery Discs and the recovery partition has Windows 7 on it. What can I do to install Windows 8 and activate it, if it's possible. Is there an OEM image I need to use and not the MSDN untouched ones? Do I have to use Windows 8 media and NOT Windows 8.1 media? Can anyone help? Thank you so much for your time in advance!!!
My GF downgraded her W8 Lenovo to W7 by contacting Lenovo & they sent her a free disk or Dl, I know it was a free downgrade though. You might contact HP if you want all the HP drivers & apps.
To answer the question from my experience, all HP that I have run across that where downgraded to 7 still have the Win8 key embedded. Running a win8 disk will pull the key from the bios and install. Whether that key is accepted and activates I don't know as I never went that far. -ed Following ElDiabl0's post will let you see if the key is embedded in that system.