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Hello Windows wiz's, I have decided to torture myself and install 8.1 instead of 7, just for kicks.
I have a laptop with the win 8 pro sticker but no key, which I believe should be embedded in the motherboard. I lost my recovery partition from Toshiba and I want to do a clean 8.1 install.
I can't download from MS because I don't have the product key, is the only way to do it just get an image of 8 and then upgrade to 8.1. Can I install directly 8.1? Is there any reliable site to get an image of 8.1? I see some blogs offer some download links. I prefer the idea of installing 8.1 directly instead of doing the upgrade, it's not clear to me if 8.1 is a service pack or also a stand-alone installation. Is there any reason to prefer 8 to 8.1?
As far as I'm sure Microsoft has purposely only made 8.1 freely accessible to winddows 8 users if they upgrade from their windows 8 system. Even though windows 8.1 is sold on the market separately I doubt your win 8 product key would work with it if you were to clean install win 8.1. Your best bet is to upgrade from win 8 to win 8.1. So right now your laptop has no OS on it and neither do you have the product key for win 8 pro?
both of those statements are incorrect. OP, see
this link (never tried it myself). once you have your key, i'd track down a W8.1 ISO (matching your edition, i.e. core or pro), which'll use a generic key to install -- then you can use yours to activate once windows is installed.
Nice, it works and it lets me see a lot of other juicy information too! Thank you very much for pointing this one out, I will be adding this to my arsenal of must-have tools. :thumbsup:
Here's what I've been using so far and its also free; Magical Jelly Bean can read the Product Key from Windows 8 PCs.
KeyFinder | Magical Jelly Bean
I was in this same dilemma a few months back and finally figured it out. Yes you can install Windows 8.1/8.1 Pro on a PC that originally came with Windows 8/8 Pro and its actually very easy. The hardest part comes in finding the correct .iso files. Yes, technically Windows 8.1 is a stand-alone installation. I prefer Windows 8.1 over 8 for several reasons; enhanced search, enhanced modern UI features, enhanced File Explorer, optimizations to AMD APUs, and probably some others I cannot remember. For me, it just flows better and I recommend 8.1 over 8 any day.
I created this guide for the Acer Aspire V5-122P Owners' thread who's PC came with Windows 8 and wanted to perform a clean installation of 8.1 instead of upgrading through the Microsoft Store:
Here's what I do when I encounter a Windows 8 PC with a corrupted or missing OS and i have to get it back to working condition or if I want to install Windows 8.1 on a 8 PC:
1. Create a FAT32 Secure Boot enabled USB installation on an 8 GB flash drive or installation DVD (Windows 8/8 Pro installer)
2. Create a FAT32 Secure Boot enabled USB installation on an 8 GB flash drive or installation DVD (Windows 8.1/8.1 Pro installer)
3. Reset UEFI/BIOS to factory defaults to make sure UEFI and Secure Boot are enabled (to satisfy Windows 8/8.1 OS requirements)
4. Install Windows 8/8 Pro using the FAT32 Secure Boot enabled USB installation on an 8 GB flash drive or installation DVD (Windows 8/8 Pro installer), the OEM Product Key is automatically used to install and activate Windows 8/8 Pro
5. After Windows 8/8 Pro has been installed, install Magical Jelly Bean, or use RWEverything to extract the Windows 8/8 Pro Product Key and write it down
6. Next, install Windows 8.1/8.1 Pro using the FAT32 Secure Boot enabled USB installation on an 8 GB flash drive or installation DVD (Windows 8.1/8.1 Pro installer), in most cases you will have to use one of the following generic installation product keys (these keys are used simply for installation, your OEM Product Key will be used to activate):
a. Windows 8 (Core):
334NH-RXG76-64THK-C7CKG-D3VPT b. Windows 8 Pro:
XHQ8N-C3MCJ-RQXB6-WCHYG-C9WKB
7. After Windows 8.1/8.1 Pro has been installed you will have to remove the generic installation product key and input your OEM Product Key:
a. Open Command Prompt (Admin) by pressing;
Windows Key + X + A
b. First we’ll need to remove the installation key by typing;
slmgr.vbs /upk
c. Next we’ll activate Windows 8.1 with your OEM Windows 8 Product Key by typing;
slmgr.vbs /ipk XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
d. Your clean installation of Windows 8.1 has now been activated
Go over my guide a few times and what I just posted here, this is basically the gist of it.
I just want to be able to download windows 8.1 to upgrade manually rather than download through the store on all PC's. The ISO I have for 8.1 won't let me do this.
what's the error? your key has to match the ISO edition, but it doesn't sound like you've gotten that far yet. if you have a pro key, i have a pro ISO that i've used to clean install W8.1 over twenty times.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
