Microsoft seems to be giving out pirates free Christmas gifts as a they are accidentally allowing users to fully and legally (not ethically) activate Windows 8 Media Center Edition.

The blunder/loophole works like this - to promote Windows 8, Microsoft not only offered cheap Windows 8 product keys but also topped it with some nice icing by offering free Windows 8 Media Center Upgrade Pack till January 31 2013. Now, the problem is these free Windows 8 Media Pack keys can be used to activate a fully-functional, activated genuine copy of Windows 8 without paying anything !!

A Microsoft Key Management Server (KMS) is a legitimate service offered under Microsoft Volume Activation 2.0 solution which is used to activate volume licensed Microsoft products. The KMS allows automated activation of Microsoft products for organizations within their own network, eliminating the need for individual computers to connect to Microsoft for product activation.

The internally hosted KMS server activates client computers for a period of 180 day, once a machine is activated it will attempt to communicate with the same KMS server every 7 days to renew it's activation resetting it license counter back to 180 days. If the KMS activated client is not able to re-communication to the KMS after 180 days, the machine will become unlicensed and go to it's 30 day grace period and notify the user of this change. If the machine is not activated against the KMS after the 30 day grace period it will enter a reduced functionality mode until it is able to connect to it's KMS or is changed to a MAK license key and activated with other methods.

While being a legitimate service from Microsoft for volume licensing and activation of genuine copies of there software's, KMS activation process has been exploited by pirates since Windows XP and is is still done. KMS activation is also the only working pirated crack for Windows 8 as all available Windows 8 activators are based on this method.

Working KMS Activator Crack For Microsoft Windows 8

While the Microsoft Windows 8 Upgrade Key is intended only for upgrades from earlier Windows versions to Windows 8, there could be valid genuine reasons when a user would like to do a clean installation of Windows 8. If a user tries to do a clean install activation using the upgrade key they are shown the error below and no activation occurs. Luckily, if a user owns valid license key for previous Windows version they can use a simple registry hack (I assume legally) which enables them to bypass this activation error message.

Invalid Product Key

"The following failure occurred while trying to use the product key:
Code:
0xC004F061

Description:
The Software Licensing Service determined that this specified product key can only be used for upgrading, not for clean installs."

Microsoft offered super cheap Windows 8 Pro upgrade keys and users have been asking whether they can perform a clean installation and activate Windows 8 using the upgrade product key, and the answer is "No" and "Yes" !!

Confused!, well Microsoft will detect whether you upgraded or clean installed and block users from activating using the upgrade product key showing the error as below. But, users can still get the product key working by doing a little registry hack which will enable them to activate - this is not fair (or legal I guess).

After installing Microsoft Windows 8, the very first thing you should be doing is to activate your copy using an genuine product key. Microsoft Windows 8 activation procedure is similar to Windows 7 and all you need to do is to supply the activation application your correct product key and have an active internet connection.

Microsoft Windows 8 will automatically prompt a user via "Action Center" notification as soon as an active internet connection is detected after installation, all a user needs to do is to follow onscreen instructions (as also shown in images below) and complete the procedure which hardly takes few minutes for online verification of your product key with Microsoft licensing servers. Without activation of Windows 8, users are restricted to use all features of the operating-system like Personalization and are nagged from time-to-time.

While Microsoft Windows 8 setup assistant utility provides and excellent way to download and create operating-system bootable installation media (CD/DVD/USB/ISO), it does not provide any means to use an existing .ISO file for creation of these bootable media options.

To create an bootable CD, DVD or USB setup disk from an previously downloaded and saved Windows 8 ISO file follow the steps demonstrated below.

Offering Windows 8 at cheap prices is definitely a step Microsoft should consider to beat piracy and the recent rush to grab low priced Windows 8 Upgrade offer should testify for that. However, no matter how cheap it gets there still will be users wanting to get things for free, and for them their will always be a hack or crack to bypass copy protection and activation procedures.

Unlike Windows 7 doing an activation crack on Microsoft Windows 8 is much harder as the operating-system features newer technology to detect and protect illegal activations. Like every other software out there pirates always find a way to beat the protection allowing mass pirating, and once again this has been done for Microsoft Windows 8.

The KMS Activator for Windows 8 is still the prominent method to crack Windows 8 and use it illegally, another variant of the same method seems to be out now as Windows.8.Activator.K.G.v1.11.2012-Genial7
which not only hactivates but also changes some files to make your computer look activated on all relevant screens.

Many of you must have grabbed your Windows 8 Pro license at super-discounted price before Microsoft started validating upgrades. If you only purchased the activation key to benefit from promotional pricing, and don't want to migrate from your current OS and install Windows 8 now - it is an good option to have the Windows 8 Pro installation media prepared for later usage.

In this tutorial we will see how to download and create Windows 8 Pro Retail installation on external media like bootable cd/dvd or other removable disk.

Here is an opportunity, every Windows user should benefit from. Microsoft is offering existing Windows 7 users an chance to upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for just $14.99. The catch is even users with pirated copies of Windows 7/XP are able to grab this promotional price and upgrade to Windows 8 at this super-cheap price of $14.99. The WindowsUpgradeOffer registration website and the associated Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant utility is not doing any validation and anybody can use the PromoCode to get an genuine activation key for Windows 8 pro directly from Microsoft at this price.

Now, you should not miss this opportunity because MRP of retail Windows 8 Pro version is $169.99 and under this promotion users can grab it for just $14.99 until Jan 31st 2013. Even if you don't have any plans for an immediate migration to Windows 8, users get to download the ISO and create Windows 8 bootable media for later usage.