Can I use an oem windows 8 key to activate windows 8.1?
2014-05
Chathu
I have a windows 8 core oem key & I obtained an windows 8.1 iso from windows 8 upgrade site using a retail key. (Because the setup doesn't accept oem keys) After i do a clean installation with a generic key will I be able to activate using my oem key? That downloadable iso is a retail iso version :(
Chathu
No problem. I was able activate using my windows 8 OEM key after a clean installation with windows 8.1 ISO.
Robert Koritnik
I've just bought a Lenovo ThinkPad and it came preinstalled with Windows 7 but had Windows 8 Pro license. I just used the Operating System Recovery Disk Windows 8 Pro DVD to install/recover OEM Windows 8 Pro and it worked albeit a long process with many restarts and some bloatware along the way.
On my desktop I'm already using Windows 8.1 and I kindda got used to added features that Windows 8 lacks (login to desktop, quasi Windows menu etc.). I would like to do the same on this laptop as well.
Question
If I install Windows 8.1 on my ThinkPad while subsequently repartition my disks including my mSATA SSD cache that this machine uses. I can download ExpressCache later from Lenovo's site to enable SSD caching on Windows 8.1.
The question is whether I'll be able to restore back to OEM Windows 8 using DVD media if something goes rotten with Windows 8.1 and won't work as exected? Will those DVDs to restore OEM OS work after repartitioning my disks?