Solved Can I upgrade my S3's Win 8.1 to Win 8.1 Pro using a Win 8 Pro key?

[jace88]

I know this sounds stupid but I can't figure it out and Google doesn't seem to give me any remotely easy options. Back when Windows 8 came out, I bought a couple of Windows 8 Pro upgrade keys thinking they would come in handy one day but never got round to using them. Now that I have Windows 8.1 on my Surface 3 I thought I may as well try using the keys to upgrade to Pro and enable BitLocker or at least set myself up for Windows 10 Pro (or whatever it's called).

Both the online key and retail box key produce an error that "That key can't be used to activate this edition of Windows." - and upon closer inspection it appears to be because that key is for Windows 8.0 not 8.1.

Is there an easy way I can do this or do I need to somehow wipe my Surface, install 8 using the Pro key and then upgrade to 8.1?

 

[bronsky]

... Is there an easy way I can do this or do I need to somehow wipe my Surface, install 8 using the Pro key and then upgrade to 8.1?

Yea, you're probably stuck doing a clean install of W8 Pro and then upgrading to 8.1 Pro. I don't think there's any other way to get there. I remember reading about this issue when 8.1 first came out.

 

[GreyFox7]

It's not really an issue, it's not supposed to work. But you don't need Pro for encryption you already have it.

maybe there's a Pro Pack upgrade ... I doubt it... but go to the store and see if they will help you out with a swap or something.

 

[k_ozz]

I did it. I just went to change product key I believe, and it worked.

 

[jace88]

I know I don't need it now for encryption since the device is encrypted but more just I want to make use of my two Windows 8 Pro keys which are genuine!

I did it. I just went to change product key I believe, and it worked.

On 8.1 using a Windows 8 key?

 

[jace88]

Interesting update for today- I tried it again but this time I entered in the same Win 8 Pro key (from the retail packaging) into the PC Info control panel application (i.e. the Desktop view style application) rather than the Metro slide in app. Beats me why this would make a difference but it seemed to accept the key and allow me to progress with the adding of new features.

 

[jace88]

I can now confirm I am running Windows 8.1 Pro on my Surface 3 and the upgrade key from Windows 8 Pro retail worked (i.e. the boxes which they sold for like $40 when Windows 8 launched).

 

[k_ozz]

Sorry for the later reply in answering your question, but I see you got it working. That was the way I did it also.

 

[jace88]

Now I just hope I get the correct Windows 10 free upgrade given I previously reserved my copy when I had the core Windows 8.1. I've tried unreserving and re-reserving so hopefully that does the trick come end of July!

 

[jace88]

Wanted to add an update, I tried to use an 8.1 Media Center key which I once used on an old PC (which was since formatted and destroyed) to get the DVD codecs (why I did this I don't know given it makes no difference in Windows 10 and I don't have a DVD drive or TV tuner) but alas the thing let me use the key but after restarting I was told my Windows key is invalid/not activated, and there was no way to roll it back. I had to call Microsoft but they were able to help me activate it manually.

(funnily enough though the guy who made me read out the installation key after I had typed it in previously for the automated system said his computer crashed and I had to read it out again!)

 

[stammie]

I just upgraded using my Windows 8 pro license, I had been using this license on a now dead machine and was surprised that the extra features were added and Windows was activated without having to phone MS and enter the long sequence of numbers,
but I then ran into an error where the Windows update service wouldn't work giving an error saying "windows update can't check for updates because the service isn't running".
In case anyone else runs into this error I fixed it by running the Windows update trouble shooter from this link
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9830262