Problems activating Windows 8 / Changing the Product Key

Last updated on March 30th, 2023 at 05:19 pm

I thought it was time I started to test Windows 8, I’ll keep my opinions to myself on it for now but one of the many things that does not seem to work very well on it is the Windows Activation.

Every time I tried to activate Windows it failed and I couldn’t find a way of inputting my own MAK code.

So, the only way I could find to make it activate successfully was to change my Windows 8 Product Key using a command prompt and then activate it. To do this, do the following:

Click Search and type in CMD. Before you click on the command prompt program, right click on it which will give you the option to run in administrator mode:

 slmgr.vbs -ipk YOUR_PRODUCT_KEY  

You should then get a message that your product key has been changed.

From here, you can then click search again, type in Windows Activation, run the program as normal and it should then activate.