Windows 8.1 Product Key and Activation

Anonymous
2013-11-22T04:35:23+00:00

About a week ago, I downloaded Windows 8.1 from MS Store. This was an upgrade for Windows 8 which came installed on my new HP PC.

The download was successful and Win 8.1 installed. However, Win 8.1 did not get activated and I keep getting a reminder screen to Activate Win 8.1.

This Activate Screen asks me to enter a Product Key. It gives me an error code of 0xc004c003 which states that the activation server has blocked my product key. It also gives the last five(5) characters of the blocked product key.

Well, I never entered a product key during the upgrade so I'm not sure where the product key came from.

I did a web search for the last five characters of the product key and it appears to be all over the web.

I used an application that showed the last fifteen(15) characters of the product key in my PC for Win 8.1 and they match the product key that I found all over the web.

It's no wonder that MS has blocked this key.

My question is. How do I activate Windows 8.1 since I have no product key.  MS Store did not provide a key with the download.

Dennis J. Ferrier

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Licensing and activation

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-09-06T18:01:38+00:00

    At Shenan Stanley: somchai yang repeated the original question from 2013 for some reason.

    I agree that no product key needs to be entered.  The Windows 8 OEM key might be buried in the BIOS/motherboard and a free program such as Bel-Arc should dig it out.  It is locked to that PC.

    If you finally get Windows 8.1 activated then its possible to upgrade to Windows 10.

    It's no longer a free upgrade.  I learned that is indeed free if you "require" Assistive Technologies

    including keyboard shortcuts, the magnifier, Cortana, etc.

    Excludes Windows RT & Enterprise:

    https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/windows10upgrade

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-09-06T17:02:49+00:00

    You should have a product key from your purchase of Windows. 

    If Windows came pre-installed on the computer, contact your system manufacturer for support and/or get the product key off the sticker on the machine or it could be embedded in the BIOS.

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-09-06T16:52:35+00:00

    Can you provide product key code to activate windows in pc settings Windows license

    will expire 09-14-2017 Upgrade to windows 8.1 07-2016

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-07-09T01:54:20+00:00

    Comprehend: phone activation is just another way to activate your Windows __ OS License *if* you cannot activate online.  There is no 'web page' that you can use to activate using.

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-US/help/15083/windows-how-to-activate

    Glass houses, stones, all that...

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  5. Anonymous
    2017-07-07T23:27:54+00:00

    Had this with my daughters machine, the number is that of HP. Had you downloaded the update from HP then it would have worked. 

     I did that and the machine then got a different number when I went to check it. 

      So it is something to do with HP's block numbers.

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