Ummm partially correct. It was mostly to put new features in when the Surface 2 was announced so that it was easier for 8.1 to link up with the Surface 2. We are not talking a major change licensing wise from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1.
Major licensing system has not been changed. Was no reason for but what they did was to bring in some new V6 for KMS which I assumed to come sooner or later.
Pretty much and now we have the activation people here griping over that fact. As of now there are 3 main ways to activation or get around the activation system: 1. KMS Activation 2. Loader Activation 3. Cracking the Activation It isn't too hard to understand why people do not like the third option because cracking is scary lol. And there probably will not be 1 or 2 out until we start seeing some OEM products that come with 8.1 or Server 2012 R2 on them. And saying you can crack it is tantamount to heresy.
so, why not take the server2012R2 and use slic 2.X./ daz loader which is a little bit uncomfortable but reasonable. W7 times went this way for years with a slic 2.1
The loader only supports Server 2012 as that still uses OEM SLP. As there's no OEM dump for Server 2012 R2 yet the loader doesn't support it, but when it's released I might add support if I don't need to make any drastic changes. What I can say right now though is that the same limitations will be in place, so it won't work for everyone. At this point most people seem to be waiting for KMS methods. Personally I'm not doing anything though as I don't use Windows 8.x as my primary OS and I own a legal license, so I've not got anything to worry about there. I would never recommend users to hacktivate their systems as it becomes a giant mess to clean up for others at some point. It's just that often people will install 1 thing over another and then they'll complain when something doesn't work. I even had to create an application to fix WAT for Windows 7, but even then there were a few systems that were so messed up that they needed a repair install/format.
the majority here do, except maybe most of the beggars and leaches. It isn't about getting Windows/Office/whatever for free, for many of us.
I should say that it is a legal license, but a friend gave it to me back when the keys were being sold by Microsoft for cheap. I don't think I'd buy a key myself as Windows 8 does nothing for me that Windows 7 can't already do. That plus I've got all of my stuff setup on Windows 7 already and I prefer the start menu on desktop PC's, so there's little reason for me to "upgrade" just yet.
I guess I'm adventurous as I updated to Server 2012 Datacenter but I had my own retail key in order to make ti happen. The main issue with going the hacktivation route is the following: Edition Upgrades may not work Windows Update may not work for restarts All licensed features may not work Well its not an entirely a mess if you knew from the get go that it was hacktivated lol. Thanks for clearing up the Loader portion @ daz. My form of a bump lol
When the Russians put up the hactivation by replacing with the Preview dat files, many people in PCBeta installed it and thought they have a activated copy, at least upto Jan 2014(LOL). Later, they found out that it was impossible to input the KMS client keys, leaked win8.1 keys, generic keys, then everybody started re-installing, and the thread about this "tool" was locked for good.