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Has anybody had any success upgrading a HP 2000 laptop from W8 to 8.1 with the bios installed product key?
I haven't had any problems with an 8.1 upgrade personally. What are you running into?
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Hi David
I was wondering if I could use the 8.1 ISO imagine I burned to a CD to do the upgrade. Their is no Windows 8 product key on this laptop, just a Windows 8 sticker on the bottom. I'm trying to not have to download the 8.1 update from the App's Store. Daniel.
Hi ndadl,
The answer to your problem may be "Advanced Tokens Manager". This portable tool searches out the Win OS key and this works for up to Win 8.1.
It also allows you to reinstall a Win OS without activation, the tool copies the key to wherever the Win OS expects to find it AFTER activation - neat eh!
This search out key and reactivate definately works with Win 7 and the search out the key function works for Win 8/8.1. I cannot vouch for Win 8/8.1 reactivation, because I have so far solved my problems with a Win 8 refresh.
You can download "Advanced Tokens Manager" from:
http://joshcellsoftwares.com/products/advancedtokensmanager/
and for further info. on the "Advanced Tokens Manager" avoid reactivation trick, see:
http://www.howtogeek.com/75496/how-to-reinstall-windows-without-having-to-reactivate/?PageSpeed=noscript
"Advanced Tokens Manager" is an obvious candidate for your "emergency" USB stick!
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I found the product key using magical jelly bean key finder. I can use the media creation tool to create an 8.1 ISO but MS will not accept the windows 8 product key. So I guess I will have to upgrade through the windows store with the 8.1 update. Daniel.
Daniel, what Magic Jelly Bean "finds" is NOT the Win 8 product key. I tested several of these key finders on Win 8, including Magic Jelly Bean, and none of them reported the correct product key.
Cheers... Jim
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Hi Jim
I did the update to 8.1 through the App Store yesterday. Out of curiosity I went into the change product key and entered the product key Magical Jelly Bean found. I purposely mistyped the key and was greeted with an error then I entered the correct key and it came back with your done. The thing is Jim, is I have an 8.1 ISO image burned to a CD but MS will not accept the Windows 8 product key for the 8.1 install. I think if it had been an Windows 8 ISO image it would have accepted the key. Daniel.
You are 100% correct Daniel. If the system started out as Win 8, the Win 8.1 ISO is pretty useless without a Win 8.1 product key... except for repairs of course.
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Hi Jim
So that means the App Store 8.1 update is not tied to the original product key except through the verification it uses to install the update. Daniel.
Jim Hillier said
Daniel, what Magic Jelly Bean "finds" is NOT the Win 8 product key. I tested several of these key finders on Win 8, including Magic Jelly Bean, and none of them reported the correct product key.
Cheers... Jim
Hi Jim, as stated above, I used "Advanced Tokens Manager" many times to reactivate Win 7, so I had great faith in it. After reading your post I investigated and I now have two different keys.
Piriform"Speccy" and "EnchantedKeyfinder" (a fork from "Magic Jelly Bean") agree with each other, but "Advanced Tokens Manager" run under the original Win 8 gave a totally different key. Interestingly, "Advanced Tokens Manager" run under the now updated Win 8.1, gives the same key as under Win 8.
Confusing isn't it? 
Edited add-on:
I just looked at the "Advanced Tokens Manager" site and they have the following notice:
*** WARNING ABOUT WINDOWS 8.1 COMPATIBILITY ***
*** Windows 8.1 is * NOT * fully supported. All the activation data can be saved, but only those that were activated by
* Phone * will be restored properly.
In other words, the Online activated backups can not be restored until now, * ONLY * if your OS is the Windows 8.1 –
Other OS(es) are NOT affected ! We are working to discover why.
** You can * NOT * restore the Windows 8 activation on Windows 8.1. Microsoft was made hard changes on the
Windows 8.1 activation system, so we are unable to port the Windows 8 activation to Windows 8.1 without brick the
system.
Don't you just love Microsoft? 
Moderators
Hi jayesstee
The product key I found was good for W8. The issue here is the 8.1 update and how it can be applied to a W8 PC. I see no difference in being able to update a W8 PC with either the App store update 8.1 or a 8.1 ISO image burned to a CD, as long as I use the product key that was installed with W8. But apparently MS does. Daniel.
I admit it was quite some time ago when I tested MJB and other keyfinders, not long after Win8 had been officially released for the masses. Things may have changed since then.
Hi JST - Yes, I was aware of Advanced Token Manager's shortcomings as far as Win8.1 is concerned. I think the problems arose due to MS's choice of method for upgrading Win8 to 8.1.
Daniel - Same applies for your situation mate. Once an ISO is involved, MS insists on a product key pertaining to whatever OS is included in the image, always has and probably always will. The fact that original Win8 users do not have a Win8.1 product key, because of the way the upgrade was delivered, makes it pretty tough for those who migrated to Win8.1 using that method.
Anyway, it's very nice to see a discussion twixt old mates dandl and Jayesstee here at DCT. 
Wishing you both a safe and very Merry Christmas,
Cheers... Jim
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Hi Jim
Thanks, and a very Merry Christmas to you and your family. Daniel.
Hi Jim, me too!
By joining in the discussion, we all learn so much.
Season's greetings to all who visit DCT.
Just to add more to the discussion, I recently came across this article: http://www.howtogeek.com/187525/how-to-perform-a-clean-install-of-windows-8.1-with-a-windows-8-key/
Interesting!
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