Windows 8 System Builder 64 Bit DVD.

[moltenskull]

Ok.....Mods can lock the thread if they want to.....I have no such issues.

 

[baiju]

Are you sure? This key works with Fresh install of Windows 8(formatted previous OS)??

Yes. The key works on fresh installation and it need not be the same pc you used for checking the upgrade offer. You can use this key on any pc with fresh install.

 

[rakesh_ic]

Yes. The key works on fresh installation and it need not be the same pc you used for checking the upgrade offer. You can use this key on any pc with fresh install.

May I know if you have tried it personally on a fresh pc or formatted disk (with no other parallel disk having an OS on it) ??

The question is because if you try to intall on a fresh HDD with an already existing OS on another HDD (connected of course), it tends make a dual bootup and your win8 boot loader will be placed on your exiting OS. Which simply means that the Win8 you have installed is still an upgrade.

If you want to check what I am saying is true, all you have to do is to format your earlier disk with the old OS (obviously the C dirve) and try booting in from the newly installed win8. It will tell you to mount the HDD with the bootloader while bootup.

Note:: The lost OS and data cant be recovered and you will have to fresh install your OS again. So please be aware of this before trying it.

 

[baiju]

^^. I have posted it elsewhere, but this is what I did. I checked the upgrade offer from my office Windows 7 PC as I don't have a reliable internet at home. I burned the Windows 8 iso to pendrive and installed Windows 8 freshly on my home pc by formatting the Windows 7 partition. Then activated OS online.

 

[rakesh_ic]

okies.. hmm but it dint work for me.. It threw an error saying the key is for upgrade only. BTW, I got the key for 699/- again.. downloading the intaller from anywhere doesnt matter. all it matters is the key

 

[baiju]

May be the Rs.699/- key is for upgrade only. Mine was Rs.1999/-

 

[z3rO]

Some information on this thread is incorrect..
rakesh_ic got everything right except that the Windows Upgrade Offer has been extended to Feb 28th.. the last date to register for the $15 Windows 8 upgrade offer was always 28th Feb..

Exactly!. Regarding point 2) The 1999 key is upgrade only key and you can fresh install win8 pro on a new disk and you will have to install your already owned vista (or even a pirated copy of win7 works ) first and upgrade win8pro over it., no need for installing vista or win7 first and upgrade over it. You can freshly install windows 8 on any pc and use the key purchased to activate.

If you purchased the upgrade key, then you won't be able to activate it online. You'll see error 0xC004F061 (see at the end of this post) when you try to activate Windows 8 online, it means that you're using a product key for an upgrade version of Windows 8 and a previous version of Windows wasn't on your PC when Windows 8 was installed. To install an upgrade version of Windows 8, you must already have Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP installed on your PC.
If you formatted the drive before the upgrade version of Windows 8 was installed, you won't be able to use your upgrade product key to activate Windows 8. To activate Windows 8 using upgrade key, you'll need to install your previous version of Windows, and then reinstall Windows 8 (clean install works). For clean install, you should formal the early installation of Windows from within Windows 8 setup.

For your information, I just ran the Windows8 upgrade tool on my office Windows7 PC and bought a Windows 8 pro key for Rs.1999/. Then I downloaded Win8 pro iso from torrent and installed it on my home pc. Used the key so purchased and activated Windows online and now I have genuine Windows 8 Pro. I think you can use the downloaded iso from microsoft also for fresh installation. I didn't download it as it was showing some error. If you are lucky you can buy it for Rs.699/- as they have extended the upgrade offer to 28 Feb.

That offer didn't get extended.. The last date to register was always 28th Feb.

^^. I have posted it elsewhere, but this is what I did. I checked the upgrade offer from my office Windows 7 PC as I don't have a reliable internet at home. I burned the Windows 8 iso to pendrive and installed Windows 8 freshly on my home pc by formatting the Windows 7 partition. Then activated OS online.

You were able to activate Windows 8 online because your PC had Win7 before you installed Win8 on it and you must have formatted it from within Windows 8 setup..

For further reading----

Here's the full error message, all inside an Invalid product key window:

The following failure occurred while trying to use the product key:

Code:
0xC004F061

Description:
The Software Licensing Service determined that this specified product
key can only be used for upgrading, not for clean installations.
The 0xC004F061 error appears during the Windows 8 activation process if a) you used a Windows 8 upgrade product key but you b) did not have a copy of Windows on the drive when you clean installed.

It's important to realize that during the Windows 8 clean install process, when you enter your product key, you are not warned about the possibility that you're using the wrong key. That stage in the Windows 8 installation process just checks to see if the product key is valid at all, not if it's valid for your specific situation. That determination occurs during the activation process after Windows 8 is completely installed.
You can only install Windows 8 (clean install or upgrade install) using an upgrade license if you currently have a copy of Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP installed on the computer. True, the clean install process involves removing that operating system, but it still has to be there when the Windows 8 setup process begins. Upgrade licenses are less expensive than full licenses because you're getting a break as a previous Windows customer.

The $39.99 Windows 8 Pro upgrade offer had expired on 31st Jan. and the prices for upgrade keys of Win 8 and Win 8 Pro are $119 (₹7999) and $199 (₹12999) now.
Read about the $15 (₹699) Windows 8 Upgrade Offer here.

I got Windows 8 Pro upgrade license for ₹699 a few days ago as I qualify for the Windows 8 upgrade Offer..

Source :
Windows 8 Activation Problems
Windows 8 Install FAQ