Clean Install Windows 8 pro Upgrade

[NTCTZEN]

I hope this thread helps others who were contemplating buying the upgrade license but haven't bought it yet because of the lack of clarity on whether a person can do a clean install using the license they'd buy for $39.99.

Well the simplest answer is yes you can. You can either do it by the registry workaround to change MediaBootInstall from 1 to 0 @ HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/

But the cleanest method that I have tried this weekend with success, is what I want to recommend to all fellow Neowin members.

Buy the license key using the upgrade advisor application.You don't need to download the ISO file. Download a legit ISO of Windows 8 Pro (MSDN/Technet) from your favorite torrent and install using the license key you just bought. Not only you will be able to install it but Windows will activate without any trouble.

I hope this makes frontpage so more and more people know they can do a clean install and how!

[Detection]

The upgrade install asks if you want to wipe the drive anyway

[NTCTZEN]

Yes, but how do you install on a clean hard disk, one that doesn't have any Windows installed?

[+DKAngel Subscriber²]

i bought via upgrade assistnat, said install later, downloaded the upgrade iso from ms burnt it and put a new hdd in, put the iso in and put my key in, and it installed and i never had windows on there to start with

[Detection]

Yes, but how do you install on a clean hard disk, one that doesn't have any Windows installed?

You didn't mention that in your post, but yea the registry trick is the easiest and doesn't involve downloading from torrents and hoping your ISO is genuine / having to check the hash

i bought via upgrade assistnat, said install later, downloaded the upgrade iso from ms burnt it and put a new hdd in, put the iso in and put my key in, and it installed and i never had windows on there to start with

Did it activate ok without hacking ?

[Swift-R]

I did the same, the email Microsoft sends you comes with a way to download Windows 8 and save it into an ISO file. Just boot with it on a pen drive or so and voil?!

[Shane Nokes]

i bought via upgrade assistnat, said install later, downloaded the upgrade iso from ms burnt it and put a new hdd in, put the iso in and put my key in, and it installed and i never had windows on there to start with

That's because the other HDD that you didn't take out already had Windows on it.

I've explained that in multiple threads. It scans all hard drives in the system. ;)

[Mike-Mat]

@Shane - This is the information I've been searching for. My system has XP/64 and I want to install Win 8/64 Upgrade onto a new Hard Drive. So you're saying I can leave the old HD in there and just do the install onto the new HD. As long as the old HD is there to verify the old OS, the Win8 Upgrade will install. Then afterwords I can copy any data files from the old HD to the new C: drive and then reformat the old drive or remove it. Is all that correct.

Thanks,

Mike