Shane Nokes Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 wow, I'm pleased I went for the free key option, I not have been impressed if I'd bought it and realised 7 has the exact same one for free Not for free...but built into the price. You paid to have MCE in earlier versions that included it due to the licensing for the codecs. MS didn't include it in 8, and as a result didn't have to pass that cost on to customers. For customers who wanted it they are paying for the codecs that are included in the MCE package. In this case, it doesn't matter.. Windows 8 Pro supports Windows Media Center. It doesn't matter if it came from VLS, Technet, MSDN, etc. Windows 8 Pro retail supports it. I have not heard word regarding whether or not VLK editions do as well. I would suspect no due to the way the key changes things about the SKU...which was part of my prior point. For instance have you noticed that MS warns you about using the pack since it will mean you don't get access to anything special that the OEM's have in the store since it strips that OEM information out when you update the SKU with the MCE key? I imagine it may cause similar license issues for VLK editions as well, but cannot verify at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xendrome Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 Not for free...but built into the price. You paid to have MCE in earlier versions that included it due to the licensing for the codecs. MS didn't include it in 8, and as a result didn't have to pass that cost on to customers. For customers who wanted it they are paying for the codecs that are included in the MCE package. :s When MS gives you a key, for something that costs $10 normally.. then it's free. Like you said MS didn't include it in Windows 8 because they would have had to pass the licencing costs in the price of the full OS, And with only a hand full of people using Media Center it's not fair for everyone to pay for it. But MS is being generous to early adopters for free, for a limited time.. I'm not sure how you can say "Not for free", when at this point in time it is... if you request it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane Nokes Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 :s When MS gives you a key, for something that costs $10 normally.. then it's free. Like you said MS didn't include it in Windows 8 because they would have had to pass the licencing costs in the price of the full OS, And with only a hand full of people using Media Center it's not fair for everyone to pay for it. But MS is being generous to early adopters for free, for a limited time.. I'm not sure how you can say "Not for free", when at this point in time it is... if you request it. They said it was free in Windows 7. I was explaining that it wasn't free in Windows 7, but included in the license costs. I do agree that MS is being generous in giving out the licenses for free for the next 3 months. I was just correcting their misperception that it was free in Windows 7. :) Detection 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joni_78 Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 Finally, it took 16 hours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xendrome Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 They said it was free in Windows 7. I was explaining that it wasn't free in Windows 7, but included in the license costs. I do agree that MS is being generous in giving out the licenses for free for the next 3 months. I was just correcting their misperception that it was free in Windows 7. :) Ahhh well yes, that is true. Windows 7 had that 3rd party licensing built into the cost of the OS. I am trying to get someone to test their legit MAK activated install of Pro with a Media Center key. Will post back if I can get confirmation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dot Matrix Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 Tried with 3 email address' and still haven't gotten a key. Which is a shame, because I actually used Windows Media Centre to watch live TV in the UK using my PS3's PlayTV box ?.? Sent for a key last night, just got my key about an hour ago. That took too damn long, IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane Nokes Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 Ahhh well yes, that is true. Windows 7 had that 3rd party licensing built into the cost of the OS. I am trying to get someone to test their legit MAK activated install of Pro with a Media Center key. Will post back if I can get confirmation BTW I just did some checking and here is what I found. When you install Windows 8 Pro you use your 1st key: XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX When you do the MCE update it changes that key to: YYYYY-YYYYY-YYYYY-YYYYY-YYYYY So it does change the key that the system uses so it would likely break any sort of VLK scenario. Also in the process of this I found that all the keyfinder programs out there are now broken, or at least it appears that way. They keys do not match for Win8 or Office 2013 at all through any of the Keyfinder programs. So either they generate another key upon activation & use that, or the key is encrypted to prevent discovery for some reason. Oh and it changes the media installed type from FPP (Full Packaged Product) to CCP (Compliance Checked Product) as well. EDIT - Yeah it looks like the way the key is stored is different in Win8 as the last 5 match what I show for the key I was sent when I look at it in the System part of the Control Panel, but any key recovery tools show it differently. So that means all key tools will have to be updated in order to provide a proper key. That did confirm for me though that it changes the product key over to the one you are sent for the Windows Media Center pack and it no longer runs off the original key. Also it no longer will show you what date you activated the system. It changes it to say 'Activated on Not Available'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brlmedia Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 just got my key! welcome back wmc! although I had to reactivate my machine. odd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giantpotato Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 I finally got it installed. I can understand why they didn't update WMC, but did they really have to remove features? I just tried to set it to "Always on top" like I had in W7 and it turns out they removed that feature in W8 :/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grayscale Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 Got my key just now :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xendrome Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 Wish you could full screen it while on a 2nd monitor and not have the mouse locked to that screen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane Nokes Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 Wish you could full screen it while on a 2nd monitor and not have the mouse locked to that screen Yeah, I was hoping they would change that behavior at least...but for some reason they never have. I know there was an explanation a while back on why it does that...but to be honest I've always felt they could code a solution to it and have released it as an update. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denis W. Veteran Posted October 27, 2012 Veteran Share Posted October 27, 2012 Installed the key on my desktop just now. Thanks to an earlier post in this thread about whether a key is tied to a machine - was wondering about that. Weird observation, the build string "Windows 8 Pro with Media Center" appeared on my desktop for a few minutes before going away. just got my key! welcome back wmc! although I had to reactivate my machine. odd. Ahh, that might be the reason why the build string reappeared. I guess they redid activation in the background. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Techno_Funky Posted October 27, 2012 Share Posted October 27, 2012 I got the key, entered it but the window is stuck at "This might take a while depending on your PC ... " for last half an hour. Anybody had similar issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skilithead Posted October 27, 2012 Share Posted October 27, 2012 I just got mine this afternoon . Took almost 2 full days . I'm happy ! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane Nokes Posted October 27, 2012 Share Posted October 27, 2012 I got the key, entered it but the window is stuck at "This might take a while depending on your PC ... " for last half an hour. Anybody had similar issues. Note where it says this might take a while? I'd walk away and let it do it's thing. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noir Angel Posted October 27, 2012 Share Posted October 27, 2012 Still haven't got the key I had sent to my Gmail account :laugh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Veteran Posted October 27, 2012 Veteran Share Posted October 27, 2012 I got mine about an hour ago. Took almost exactly 24 hours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noir Angel Posted October 27, 2012 Share Posted October 27, 2012 I think it's been about 48 hours since I ordered mine. I think the one sent to my hotmail account took about 6 hours to get through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Techno_Funky Posted October 27, 2012 Share Posted October 27, 2012 Note where it says this might take a while? I'd walk away and let it do it's thing. ;) Lol!! I got tired of waiting killed it via task manager. For no reason I just went to windows update, saw that there were 2 updates waiting for a restart. I restarted and I have Media Center :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane Nokes Posted October 27, 2012 Share Posted October 27, 2012 Lol!! I got tired of waiting killed it via task manager. For no reason I just went to windows update, saw that there were 2 updates waiting for a restart. I restarted and I have Media Center :D Hmm hopefully it completed fully and didn't just do a partial install that was aborted by having done that. If it didn't complete install it can 'bork' a lot of things and cause issues later on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darrian Posted October 27, 2012 Share Posted October 27, 2012 I got my key yesterday, about 14 hours after I applied for it, but my wife and daughter's keys still haven't arrived. Edit: Of course, right after I posted that I checked my wife's email and her key was there lol. So yeah, it takes generally about a day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boo Berry Posted October 27, 2012 Share Posted October 27, 2012 I got my key finally, and a few extra keys too. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theyarecomingforyou Posted October 27, 2012 Share Posted October 27, 2012 I got my key earlier, about 24hrs after I applied for it. After adding the serial key it automatically restarted my computer without warning (losing all the webpages I was browsing) and while booting it went straight to a BSOD - it then automatically fixed the issue and restarted correctly. Finally glad to be back into Windows I launched Windows Media Center only to be told that my default resolution (2560x1600) is too high and that I should lower my resolution. Not. Worth. The. Effort. :no: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorganX Posted October 29, 2012 Share Posted October 29, 2012 When you install Windows 8 Pro you use your 1st key: XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX When you do the MCE update it changes that key to: YYYYY-YYYYY-YYYYY-YYYYY-YYYYY Currently you cannot add features to Windows 8 Pro VL. Many people are perplexed by this and MS has not provided any official response yet. Odd, considering Media Center is actually included in Windows 7 "Enterprise" Edition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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