If you know anyone who works for a college or school system, see if they get any kind of discount. My problem was I had an Enterprise version, and they were taking forever to make 8.1 ISOs. But I was able to buy a legal product key for $15 maybe 19.
Windows 8.1 Product Key and Activation
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Anonymous
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
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
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Anonymous
2015-07-26T22:16:10+00:00 -
Anonymous
2015-07-30T23:59:54+00:00 I was upgrading from Windows 7 Ultimate. When it came to entering the activation key, my Microsoft Product Key would not validate. I followed the instructions for Phone activation. The robot could not verify my installation ID. I stayed on the line and spoke with a Microsoft rep. She advised me that this is a server problem that they expect to have repaired in 48 hours. it is 20:00 EDT on Thursday, 7/30 right now. This means I need to cool my jets until Saturday evening 8/1.
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Anonymous
2015-08-03T15:30:21+00:00 So, what happened?
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Anonymous
2015-08-03T16:34:47+00:00 I have the product key after running belarc advisor, but it still will not activate for me.