HP Windows 8 downgrade to Win 7 HP 8300 SFF - No Win 7 OEM sticker.

[Luke_Aust]

Hi,

We purchased 2x HP 8300 SFF PCs with Windows 8 pre-installed.  It came with Windows 7 recovery disks, so I could load Windows 7 which means it is licensed for it.  However, we have our own custom Windows 7 image onsite for PCs and I would like to continue to use this.  The problem however, is the new PCs do not come with any Windows OEM license keys, they only have a Windows 8 logo on the side. 

Is there a way I can find the Win 7 license?  We are looking at buying another 30 workstations in the next couple of months, and I do not want to run up each one individually.

Thanks

Luke

[lasvegaswireman · Accepted solution]

Luke,

With the introduction of Windows 8, Microsoft requires major OEM computer manufacturers to embed the Window product key in the BIOS. These computers no longer ship with a COA affixed containing the product key.

This is an HP consumer products forum and as the HP Compaq Elite 8300 Business Computer is a business class computer, you may wish to ask your question in the HP Enterprise Business Community. You may also consider contacting the HP Business Support Center.

The fact the HP 8300 SFF computers shipped with Windows 7 Recovery Disc may allow you to use the HP OEM preactivation product key and HP OEM certificate. If the Recovery Discs are the same version as your "custom image"... that is to say "if your image is Win7 Pro, the recovery discs must also be Win7 Pro"... you can attempt to use the proceedure I have posted below;

1) Download and unzip ABR Beta With Windows 7 Support. Here is the main page to ABR for Windows Vista. Please follow the "How to use it" section for information and instructions on how to use it. These steps apply to Windows 7 as well. Perform the "activation backup" on each computer and save the recovered key and certificate in seperate locations for comparision. (This pulls the original factory HP OEM preinstalled key and OEM certificate from your factory installed OS) Compare the keys and certificates from each computer, are they all the same???Please report back with your findings.

2) Download and use RWEverything to determine the OA/SLP/SLIC version in the computer's BIOS. Refer to this MyDitigalLife webpage entitled "How to Check or Verify PC Motherboard BIOS SLIC Version is SLP OA 2.0 or 2.1 for OEM Activation" for information on how to use and decipher the information. (Windows 8 use OA 3.0 and this is where the problem may occur) Please report back with your findings.

3) If you don't already have a copy, download your version (the version that was pre-installed on your HP computers) of Windows 7 from Official Windows 7 SP1 ISO from Digital River. Using the built-in Windows 7 CD/DVD burning software, burn the downloaded Windows 7 ISO to a DVD.

4) Install Windows 7 from your new "Windows 7 " disc or your image, following all prompts as needed. Don't allow Windows to try to auto-activate. Run ABR "activation restore" to "install" the previously backed up product key and certificate. Verify that Windows is activated, repeat "activation restore" until Windows 7 is activated. (This "installs" the original factory HP OEM pre-installed key and certificate from your factory installed OS to your clean Windows install. This HP OEM key and HP OEM certificate, along with the BIOS is what allows your HP computer to be factory pre-activated.)

5) Install all needed drivers for the computer. These can be found on HP support page for your computer or you can find newer drivers on the various component manufacturers websites... Intel, NVidia, AMD/ATI, Ralink, Realtek, etc.

6) Image the Windows installation and deploy on the remaining computers.

Please send KUDOs

[Luke_Aust]

Hi and thanks for the post.  This worked perfectly. I exported the keys using ABR (they both had the same CD key) and RWEverything came back with v2.1.

I loaded up our custom Ghost image and imported the keys back and voila, Windows is activated.

Thank you for the assistance.

Luke

[Tony2886]

Hi,

Having a very similar problem but with 10x new HP Pro 3500's trying to deploy with a server based image - Do I need to run ABR on all of the new PC's prior to deploying the image to extract the key and certificate?
 if so this seems like a very long winded extra amount of effort, thank you HP... not!

[lasvegaswireman]

Tony2886,

Please create at least one set of HP Recovery Discs, if the computers didn't already come with them.

Assuming the Pro 3500's came with Windows 7 Pro and have a v2.1 SLP/SLIC;

What type of server based image are you trying to deploy??? If it is based on a VLK or the like, there is no need to use ABR.

If the server based image contains no product key, then you will need to run ABR to recover the OEM SLP key and certificate off of one computer only.

The HP Pro 3500 Desktop Computer is a business class computer and as such, your questions may be better answered in the HP Business Support Forum.

Please see HP Business Support Center - Get help from HP to contact HP with your support questions.

Please click the white KUDOS star to show your appreciation

[Tony2886]

Hi Frank thanks for the very quick reply

We are using the Windows Deployment Services with an image we have created from one of the machines problem is that we had to wipe one of the Pro 3500's to test it and so lost the recovery partition/license key. Going to run ABR on another of the machines with the hope that it is a volume license for registration purposes.

Kind Regards
Tony

[lasvegaswireman]

Tony,

I guaranty that the key isn't going to be a "VLK" volume license key. What it will be is a OEM SLP key. This key will provide SLP activation on HP computers with a BIOS that has a v2.1 SLP/SLIC table. This key requires the use of a matching OEM SLP certificate. All of your Pro 3500's will have the same key/cert. combo.

1) Download and unzip ABR Beta With Windows 7 Support. Here is the main page to ABR for Windows Vista. Please follow the "How to use it" section for information and instructions on how to use it. These steps apply to Windows 7 as well. Perform the "activation backup" on each computer and save the recovered key and certificate in seperate locations for comparision. (This pulls the original factory HP OEM preinstalled key and OEM certificate from your factory installed OS) Compare the keys and certificates from a couple of computers, are they all the same??? Please report back with your findings.

2) Download and use RWEverything to determine the OA/SLP/SLIC version in the computer's BIOS. Refer to this MyDitigalLife webpage entitled "How to Check or Verify PC Motherboard BIOS SLIC Version is SLP OA 2.0 or 2.1 for OEM Activation" for information on how to use and decipher the information. (Windows 8 use OA 3.0 and this is where the problem may occur) Please report back with your findings.

3) Install Windows 7, following all prompts as needed. Don't allow Windows to try to auto-activate. Run ABR "activation restore" to "install" the previously backed up product key and certificate. Verify that Windows is activated, repeat "activation restore" until Windows 7 is activated. (This "installs" the original factory HP OEM pre-installed key and certificate from your factory installed OS to your clean Windows install. This HP OEM key and HP OEM certificate, along with the BIOS is what allows your HP computer to be factory pre-activated.)

4) Install all needed drivers for the computer. These can be found on HP support page for your computer or you can find newer drivers on the various component manufacturers websites... Intel, NVidia, AMD/ATI, Ralink, Realtek, etc.

5) Install all company required software and updates.

6) Image the Windows installation and deploy on the remaining computers.

Please click the white KUDOS star to show your appreciation

[lazario]

Compare the keys and certificates from each computer, are they all the same???Please report back with your findings.

Yes, we have simlilar situation, 10 HP Desktop desktop that came with Windows 8 but downgred it to Windows 7 , we create a disk image of first and clone the other nine, can you confirm if is it ok that all computers, same, model, batch and invoice share the same Windows OEM ID and Windows KEY  too ?  This was what our vendor told us, we weren't able to confirm with HP yet. Is there something like a Gold Key here ?

Thank you

[PCjaken101]

This problem is usually because of the updates are not all installed before the upgrade can be installed through the windows store.
More info is in this post. http://heresjaken.com/your-windows-8-1-installation-couldnt-be-completed-installation-error/
But all you need to do is install the updates befors you install the upgrade