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Levels Down, Not Up, Facebook Interest How to Do a Clean Make Better Eye Brush Your Teeth How to Share Your Wifor Better Quality Lists Instead of Liking Install of Windows Contact and Before Breakfast (or Fi Network with (http://lifehacker.com/5993784/equalizeThem Without Losing Your Remember People's 30 Minutes Afterward) Friends, No Password your-sound-levels(http://lifehacker.com/5989430/addFiles, Names with One for Typing down-not-up-forpages-to-your(http://lifehacker.com/5983652/howSimple (http://lifehacker.com/5991833/brush(http://lifehacker.com/5835743/howbetter-quality) facebook-interest-liststo-do-a-clean-install-of(http://lifehacker.com/5992815/makeyour-teeth-beforeto-share-your-wi+instead-of-liking-them) windows-withoutbetter-eye-contact-andbreakfast-or-30network-with-androidlosing-your-lesremember-peoplesminutes-after-forusers-with-a-qr-codesettings-and-tweaks) names-with-onestronger-healthierand-barcode-scanner) simple-trick) teeth)

WHITSON GORDON (HTTP://WHITSONGOR DON.KINJA.COM)

2/15/13 10:30am (http://lifehacker.com/5984278/howto-do-a-clean-install-ofwindows-8-with-an-upgradedisc)

(http://whitsongordon.kinja.com)
TIP OF THE WEEK (/T

How to Do a Clean Install of Windows 8 with an Upgrade Disc (http://lifehacker.com/5984278/how-to-do-aclean-install-of-windows-8-with-an-upgrade-disc)

88,790 (http://lifehacker.com/5984278/howto-do-a-clean-install-of-windows-8with-an-upgrade-disc) 72 (http://lifehacker.com/5984278/howto-do-a-clean-install-of-windows-8with-an-upgrade-disc#replies)

Like 153

Sometimes, you just need to do a clean install (http://lifehacker.com/5983652/howto-do-a-clean-install-of-windows-withoutlosing-your-files-settings-and-tweaks). Unfortunately, the Windows 8 Upgrade doesn't always allow for that, throwing you an error when you try to activate after a clean install. Reader uncommoner

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How to Do a Clean Install of Windows Without Losing Your Files, Settings, and (http://lifehacker.com/5983652/howTweaks to-do-a-cleaninstall-ofwindows-withoutlosing-your-filessettings-andtweaks) (http://lifehacker.com/5983652/how-to-do-aclean-install-of-windows-without-losing-yourles-settings-and-tweaks)
There's nothing like a fresh install of Windows to clear your mind, but it comes at a cost: you have to set everything up again, just the way Read (http://lifehacker.com/5983652/howto-do-a-clean-install-of-windows-withoutlosing-your-files-settings-and-tweaks)

(http://lifehacker.com/people/uncommoner) shows us a workaround for this issue. If you do a clean install using the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant, you should be finebut if you've already formatted your drive or you're moving to a new drive, you can't do a "clean install" without installing an old version of Windows first. It'll let you install Windows 8 cleanly,

but when you go to activate, you get an error 0x8007007B, saying your product key can only be used for upgrading. If you get that error, here's how to fix it: 1. Press the Windows key and type
r e g e d i t

. Press enter to open the Registry Editor. 2. Navigate to

H K E Y _ L O C A L _ M A C H I N E / S o f t w a r e / M i c r o s o f t / W i n d o w s / C u r r e n t V e r s i o n / S e t u p / O O B E /

and double-click on the

M e d i a b o o t I n s t a l l

key in the right pane. 3. Change the key's value from 1 to 0. 4. Exit the Registry Editor, press the Windows key again, and type
c m d

. Right-click on the Command Prompt icon and run it as an administrator. 5. Type

s l m g r/ r e a r m

and press Enter. 6. Reboot Windows. When you get back into Windows, you should be able to run the Activation utility and activate Windows as normal, without getting an error. Obviously, you could use this trick for evil, but it has its legitimate place tooif, say, you're upgrading your hard drive and want to do a fresh install on it, or if you formatted your drive before upgrading. We haven't had a chance to test it ourselves, but it's been well documented around the net (http://www.guidingtech.com/16405/probable-fix-activating-windows-8-clean-install/), so we're confident it should work for you if you're getting this particular error. If you give it a shot, let us know how it works for you in the discussions below! Thanks for the tip, uncommoner (http://lifehacker.com/people/uncommoner)! How to Do a Clean Install of Windows 8 with an Upgrade License (http://lifehacker.com/5983652/?post=57326393)
Every week, we receive tons of reader tips, often in response to tips we've posted. Our Tip of the Week (http://lifehacker.com/emailable-tech-support) showcases our favorite tip from you that improves upon something else we've shared, shows us another way to do something, or otherwise deserves more attention than our regular tips roundups. Got a tip to share? Post it over at our tips forum (http://lifehacker.com/tips) or send it to us at tips@lifehacker.com (mailto:tips@lifehacker.com).

Discuss

18 discussions displayed because an author is participating or following a participant. 5 additional replies awaiting review.

30 participants basketcase7 (http://basketc Another round of hacking a legitimate OS install to get it to "activate" correctly. I really hope this Linux gaming revolution takes off soon.

4 participants King Antonius (http://ninja_in So... is there an easy way to take the downloaded version of the upgrade and do this? It's not currently saved on any kind of external media, can it be?

2/15/13 11:26am (http://lifehacker.com/another-round-of-hacking-a-legitimate-os-install-to-get-465264179) 2/15/13 12:17pm (http://lifehacker.com/so-is-there-an-easy-way-to-take-the-dow