There seems to be little information about the way the activation system works in Windows 8, especially for consumer versions of Windows (Core/Pro, not Enterprise). I already know that Microsoft now requires you to enter a key before even starting the installation process, and that it tries to connect to the Internet and activate this key as soon as possible.

Sometimes, though, you don't have an Internet connection when installing Windows 8. What then? Can you install Windows? Can you use it? What are the limitations? How long can you keep your copy of Windows usable without activation?

DzinX

Posted 2012-11-02T22:32:49.700

Reputation: 4 010

This nicely carries on the discussion from here and here, but IMO needs a longer test to confirm if the user experience degrades significantly after some time. BTW, did you try and move the date forward?

– Karan – 2012-11-03T01:10:31.773

1I installed without a key, and no nag screen yet, but there are weird issues like when I install 7-zip (worked in enterprise trial) it does not integrate into the context menu or set file associations, and I cannot make it, more testing. – Moab – 2012-11-03T01:36:54.340

PeaZip installed just fine, not sure what the deal is with 7-ZIP. – Moab – 2012-11-03T01:55:58.543

I linked to this question in my question, I am sure there will be interest in both as time goes on.

– Moab – 2012-11-03T02:16:09.640

@Karan: yes, I changed the date both in Windows (2 years forward) and in BIOS (another 2 years). No immediate effect. – DzinX – 2012-11-03T07:47:18.733

Windows 8 Enterprise? – qwertz – 2013-07-21T08:13:26.237

Answers

With all the uncertainty and doubts, I decided to conduct an experiment. I installed a clean Windows 8 Pro copy (a copy that I own and with a key that wasn't used anywhere yet) on a computer without Internet access. Here's what I found.

You don't have to activate Windows 8

It is true that the installer requires you to enter a valid Windows 8 key before you can continue with installation.
However, the key isn't activated at install time and the installation goes just fine without Internet connection (or calling Microsoft).
After the installation finishes, you can create your local account (connecting Microsoft Accounts is unavailable because there's no Internet connection) and you land in the Start Screen, which isn't any different from the Start Screen of an activated copy.

Don't expect your life to be easy, though. Microsoft will try to encourage you to activate your copy of Windows 8.

Reminders and Limitations

The first reminder you'll get will probably be an Action Center tooltip in the Desktop Mode:

You can safely ignore this tooltip and nothing bad will happen.
Another reminder you'll probably see quite often is every time you open the PC Settings screen. When you do, you're greeted with a new section:

Again, you can safely ignore this and click any other settings section on the left-hand side of the screen. Except that...
Personalisation settings section is disabled:

The disabled settings include:
- Your lock screen wallpaper and apps
- Start Screen colour and background
- Your account picture
The message says:

You need to activate Windows before you can personalise your PC.

I heard there are some workarounds for this, but as this was not a part of my experiment, I will not describe them here.
Every couple of hours, you'll see a full-screen activation request:

To dismiss it, you have to click Go to PC settings and then you're back to the screenshot from point 2. Still, you can exit this screen normally, with Win or Win+D, or any other way you like.

I wasn't able to pinpoint the exact frequency with which this overlay appears, but it's certainly more than 5 hours and less than 7 hours, so I guess it appears every 6 hours.
When you try to enter a command to show the status of activation:
```
%windir%\system32\cmd /c slmgr/xpr
```
You get a not very informing message, saying that Windows is in Notification mode:

EDIT: As vhanla notes in the comments, if you run:
```
%windir%\system32\cmd /c slmgr/dli
```
you'll see:

Name: Windows(R), Professional edition
Description: Windows(R) Operating System, RETAIL channel
Partial Product Key: XXXXX
License Status: Notification
Notification Reason: 0xC004F009 (grace time expired)

But even though the grace time is already expired from the start, Windows continues to work correctly.

So... I guess that's it. There are no other differences from the activated copy of Windows 8 Pro that I found. Of course, because I didn't enable Internet access, online-related activities like installing new apps from Windows Store or obtaining system updates obviously don't work.

TL;DR

You can install Windows 8 Pro without an Internet connection
Windows 8 Pro without activation is usable
There is probably no time limit for activation of Windows 8
You'll get occasional reminders to activate, but they are safe to ignore
The only thing that's disabled is Personalisation Settings screen.

DzinX

Posted 2012-11-02T22:32:49.700

Reputation: 4 010

You don't need to specify %windir% at the beginning of the line. Because C:\Windows is part of the Path variable. Any idea what the "gr" in "slmgr" stands for? The "slm" alone stands for "Software Licensing Management". – Samir – 2014-09-09T16:07:00.987

I suspect this is like it's been for a while, wherein eventually it'll start locking down functionality and complaining a lot, but you're talking months and months. – Shinrai – 2012-11-02T22:35:08.767

Maybe. But if so, don't you think there would be some indication of this somewhere? A counter, anything? Right now I'm quite positive nothing like this will happen. – DzinX – 2012-11-02T22:37:37.420

I don't know of a counter in Windows 7, but it certainly starts to nag you like crazy after 4 months or so. – Shinrai – 2012-11-02T22:40:33.193

@Shinrai: Win7 had a 30-day countdown timer, but could be rearmed 3 more times for a total of ~120 days. Win8 OTOH is officially not supposed to have any grace period as per MS. – Karan – 2012-11-03T01:08:28.450

System Restore is Disabled (greyed out) while un-activated. (Windows 8 PRO Full RTM)

I also noticed Auto Play settings are all set to "choose a default", not sure if this default settings for an activated system. They can be changed however.

enter image description here

Moab

Posted 2012-11-02T22:32:49.700

Reputation: 54 203

On my system, it was disabled, but I had no problem enabling it, see screenshot. You must have made some other configuration changes.

– DzinX – 2012-11-03T07:55:10.803

Nope, clean install, no changes, hmmmm, thanks for posting, what distribution of W8 do you have? – Moab – 2012-11-03T16:45:40.517

I have a Windows 8 Pro British English RTM. In general, I think Windows would notify you if this field was disabled because of lack of activation, as it does in other places. – DzinX – 2012-11-03T16:52:29.150

I found a registry key, deleted it and now it is not greyed out and turned itself on after reboot. – Moab – 2012-11-03T16:56:37.540

And no, there was no notification after 16 hours of uptime. – Moab – 2012-11-03T17:01:24.373

Interesting... was it 16 hours of doing nothing, or did you e.g. visit the PC Settings screen? I noticed the timer for notifications restarts when you get an opportunity to activate Windows. My measurements were based on doing nothing (that's why they're not very accurate -- I didn't look at the computer screen every 5 minutes). – DzinX – 2012-11-03T17:08:15.913

1I will delete this answer if no one else reports the same issue in a few days. – Moab – 2012-11-03T17:08:21.313

A few hours of use, but then let it run overnight while I slept, was met with the activate now screen this morning, which was easy to make go away. – Moab – 2012-11-03T17:09:50.780

Due to a re-installation, my Windows 8 doesn't activate. It has been working without activation for a year now. The prompt comes up every couple of hours, but it seems to be actively stopped by streamlining programs such as Razer. You're fine to go indefinitely, methinks.

Josh Timms

Posted 2012-11-02T22:32:49.700

Reputation: 11

You won't be able to download something from the store or log on, and you'll be able to use only 30% of Windows 8's possibilities. You will receive notifications, and about a week or month later, Windows will only work for one hour, then restart again and again.

jeka

Posted 2012-11-02T22:32:49.700

Reputation: 1

-2

Activating it will just allow locked options to be enabled. And to ensure that you do have an original copy of windows 8.

kevin

Posted 2012-11-02T22:32:49.700

Reputation: 1

Is Windows 8 Pro usable without activation?

Answers

You don't have to activate Windows 8

Reminders and Limitations

TL;DR