FYI - Media Center Pack

[Ruffles]

A while back, MS was offering the "Windows 8 Media Center Pack" for free. I entered my info and got an email with the product key. I followed the instructions on my desktop and all was fine.

Today, I thought I'd try to install the same pack on my surface thinking that the product key might be like some other products that can be installed on a couple of computers. I figured the worse case scenario would be an activation error and I could just remove it.

Wrong. When you install the Media Center Pack, it changes the entire operating system sku - which now rendered my Surface as un-activated. There also doesn't appear to be any easy way to revert. The online Surface support tech wanted me to do a restore. Screw that! The Media Center license is only $10 so I figured I'd just buy it. The problem was that I got an error saying I couldn't buy product keys online in my region (I know Idaho is a little backwoods but I didn't think we were a 3rd world country or anything).

I called MS licencing support and after about 45 min. of trying to correct the purchase error, the tech, who was very polite, just gave me a new product key for free.

 

[tonyz3]

(I know Idaho is a little backwoods but I didn't think we were a 3rd world country or anything).
QUOTE]
And cue the deliverance theme music :LOL:

 

[leeshor]

lol, That's one way to do it, get them frustrated enough and all they want to do is get you off the phone. It was costing more than $10 to keep you on 45 minutes.

 

[DOTTAT]

I still have about 10 keys I submitted for and didn't use. I was surprised when I got my SP two weeks ago and was still able to use them... they were suipposed to expire jan 31st not activated before then..

 

[bosamar]

I wish MS wouldn't nickel & dime us like that. Good for you Ruffles!

 

[ximoosea]

While it is nice that they offered it for free for a limited time, I personally think this should be standard. At the very least they should have offered it long enough for most people that wanted a Pro to take advantage of it. By Jan 31st the Pro had not even been officially released.

I guess I am just upset at myself because I was not as smart as Dottat and did not think to preregister some!

 

[Tx2Stepn]

I thankfully put in for extras and ended up using them all since I upgraded 2 computers to Windows 8 while it was on sale. But it is annoying that they are after every penny possible. I'm glad to have the tablet tho, I've been waiting for someone to get it together and give me the computer functions with the tablet that I wanted...