Question About Windows 8

So I know some of you are in love with Windows 8, partly due to the cheap ($40?) upgrade cost.

HOWEVER, I know once you upgrade, it kills your Windows 7 etc. license key, so you cannot re-install and use that older Windows license. So, what if you need to do a clean install of Windows 8? All you have is an upgrade, and there are no full retail versions of Windows 8 for sale.

 

base OS/system drive image

you might also want to take a look at this thread:
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=334847&highlight=ei.cfg#11

 

Brandonn2010,

You have been misled. I have two Win8, Win7, two WinXP, Ubuntu, DOS and a few WinPEs on the one drive.

You can clean install Win8 to an empty drive....

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=334847&highlight=ei.cfg#11

 

Are you sure that is the case? It would seem quite unlikely that it actually does. If that actually is the case, I would make a full system backup immediately after the upgrade so you could restore it if needed. Which is a really good idea anyway regardless of whether that is correct or not.

 

However, that is a "hack" to allow a fresh install, and MS has been known to fix that with patches. So there is no way to do a fresh install without tinkering.

But it is confirmed it won't kill your old license?

 

After some searching I have not been able to confirm anything positively (no links on Microsoft's site) but what I am seeing in general is what I suspect has always been the case. If you upgrade your OS with an "upgrade" version, you are not legally allowed to then use that previous license at the same time as the new OS. However, if you wish to downgrade back to that previous OS on the same machine it should not be a problem, as I really doubt they would go to the trouble of actually invalidating that license in their activation system. The customer backlash would not be worth it. Even if they were able to reliably pull that off, I would expect that a call to them would get the situation cleared up.

 

You can install Win8 without "tinkering" if you have an empty Windows folder in a partition that Win8 can "see" during the install. No OS needs to be in the Windows folder.

 

An upgrade key DOES NOT mean you need to have a previous OS to install the new upgrade OS. It simply means that the key was purchased by first verifying you owned the previous OS.

I have always done clean installs with upgrade DVDs

 

Where that has always been true I have read that is the one thing that has changed with Windows 8. I know you have installed it so you should know if that is the case. My installs are from TechNet so I cannot verify. The only thing I am sure of is that you cannot install without entering a key, at least not any retail versions. There seems to be a lot of misinformation out there. If anyone can find anything on Microsoft's site I would like to see it. If I find it first I will post it.

 

xxJackxx,

Yes, you can do the install without entering a key. Moontan and I have provided a link on how to do it.

 

although I have upgraded to Windows 8 pro With Media center that was a good read, thanks for that ronjor!