I just started playing around with Windows 8 (and am not too happy with it, but I’ll save that for another time). I ran into a problem with activation after a fresh install on my netbook. The install never asked me for the product key so activation failed. I knew there was a way to change the product key, but quickly became fed-up trying to find things in Windows 8. After a quick Internet search I found a method for Windows 7 (that happens to work in Windows 8 as well, thanks Darin Smith):
- Open a command prompt in Administrator mode.
- Type: slmgr.vbs -ipk <product key>
- Try to activate Windows again through the GUI or type: slmgr.vbs -ato
After I put in a valid product key, Windows activated successfully.