Windows 8 Activation - Unable To Change The Product Key
From the archive (2013). Written for the tools of the time, so some details may be out of date.
Recently had an issue with my own laptop where Windows 8 wouldn’t activate. I was pretty sure the product key was wrong, but there isn’t any way in the GUI to change the product key like there was in Windows 7.
After some searching I found a MS article that explained how to change the product key in a few different ways.
“Change product key” link is not available in Windows 8 or in Windows Server 2012
Using the Slui.exe 0x3 from a Run dialog allowed me to change the key and successfully activate. Using the slgmgr.vbs /ipk would work as well, but the slui.exe was new to me so I used that method.
Hope this helps someone else that runs into the situation.