FYI: Another old (2015) info found while rambling the web: Reset every 30 minutes after loading the valid product key from evaluation license key. OS. Windows Embedded 8 Standard Via "slui 4" to key in the OEM product key, the product key is accepted. Under 'System', the "Windows activation" showed "Windows is activated", Product ID: 00227-20010-00864-AAOEM. Via "slmgr /ato"cmd, the Error: 0x80072EE7 On a computer running Microsoft Windows non-core edition, run "slui.exe 0x2a 0x80072ee7 to display the error text. Via "slui.exe 0x2a 0x80072ee7" cmd, it showed "You can also contact Microsoft by phone to help resolve this problem" and the description showed "The server name or address could not be resolved". In addition, under c:\Windows\debug\wlms.txt, it showed the following text every 30 minutes. 2015-11-05 15:03:27, Info WLMS Windows Embedded Licensing Monitoring Service is starting. 2015-11-05 15:03:27, Info WLMS Entering ServiceMain. 2015-11-05 15:03:27, Info WLMS Reporting service status as 2 2015-11-05 15:03:27, Info WLMS Reporting service status as 4 2015-11-05 15:03:30, Info WLMS The license is not an evaluation license. eval to production image not supported. It will shutdown soon. 2015-11-05 15:18:33, Info WLMS The license is not an evaluation license. eval to production image not supported. It will shutdown soon. 2015-11-05 15:33:35, Info WLMS The license is not an evaluation license. eval to production image not supported. This computer will shut down 2015-11-05 15:33:36, Info WLMS Service received the control message 5 2015-11-05 15:33:36, Info WLMS Reporting service status as 3 2015-11-05 15:33:36, Info WLMS Exit event fired. Stopping service. 2015-11-05 15:33:36, Info WLMS Reporting service status as 1 2015-11-05 15:33:36, Info WLMS Exiting ServiceMain. 2015-11-05 15:33:36, Info WLMS Windows Embedded Licensing Monitoring Service is exiting.
Use my SKUwitch then activate as Win8. The only addition to the above is to remove the WLMS service. Or your system will reboot after 180days, no matter if activated or not.
No other edition files except EmbeddedEdition.xml exist under C:\Windows\servicing\Editions, so this method can't work.
I'm not here to kidding other users, I was the first to publish this method and it works. Windows couldn't care less of what's inside servicing other than.... well, servicing
Sorry, I forgot I had tried this method before with Professional SKU and it works, But with EmbeddedIndustryE SKU, it failed to work. The problem is, using Professional SKU will change the branding image to Windows 8, Not the original Windows Embedded 8.
Who cares of industryE? It's the same of a cleaned enterprise + adds a bunch of troubles. (say no in place upgrade to fix problems) WES8 makes sense because the componentizzation... Just replace the relevant dll in \branding