How to uninstall a license key

I bought Windows 8 Professional, updated to it from my Win 7 Pro and it's great. All in all, I wanna keep using Windows 8, but something went wrong with my Visual Studio 2012 Professional installation. Now there is no way I can install the target version for .NET 4.0, and I really need this to comply with old projects without affecting other developers.

I do have an official license key, bought when installing Windows 8, so my question is, now that I need to format, then reinstall Win 7 Pro, then reupgrade to Win 8 Pro, how do I make sure my next activation is successful?

In other words, how can I not change, but remove my license so I can use it again when everything is fresh and updated?

balexandre

Posted 2012-11-06T09:17:26.603

Reputation: 513

Answers

If you want to use your license on a clean install, you need to backup and restore your activation files.

Backup the store folder located here: %WinDir%\System32\spp\store\.
- Make sure that your backup folder contains the three files: data.dat, tokens.dat, and cache\cache.dat.
To uninstall a key, right click on the Start corner > Command Prompt (Admin) > Yes > Type:
```
slmgr -upk
```
- Actually, there is no need to uninstall your key before clean install. You can just skip this step. After you format, your Windows 8 installation will be removed anyway.
- However, in the clean installation, if you had used a default install key, you should uninstall that key.
After you clean install Windows 8, boot into safe mode > Right click on the Start corner > Command Prompt (Admin) > Yes > Type:
```
net stop sppsvc
```
Restore the backed up store folder to its location in %WinDir%\System32\spp\.
Restart.

It is a good idea to make a backup of your OS drive before performing these steps and a clean install.

XP1

Posted 2012-11-06T09:17:26.603

Reputation: 924

No, you can download the ISO file for Win8 PRO and re-install Windows 8 booting from that ISO (dvd or usb) using the serial given during the update process.

AndreaCi

Posted 2012-11-06T09:17:26.603

Reputation: 1 310

ok, but this does not answer my original question: How to uninstall the license. – balexandre – 2012-11-06T09:38:42.090

1you can't. Windows activate that serial on your pc and vinculate it on the hardware you're using – AndreaCi – 2012-11-06T11:10:24.647

2@balexandre - You wipe the hdd. This would "uninstall" the license and allow you to use the Windows 7 license. – Ramhound – 2012-11-06T12:03:20.293

You cannot uninstall a license key in a way you uninstall an application.

If you use the key only on one computer, Windows will activate.

That means you can reformat the drive, install Windows 7 Pro with its key, upgrade to Windows 8 with its key.

You can even transfer the upgrade to another computer, if it's eligible for upgrade provided you re-install Windows 7 on your current which was upgraded.

If you have a retail version of Windows 7, non-OEM, you can install it on another computer, and it will activate, although you may have to use phone-activation (since the hardware changed significantly). Then you can also upgrade it to Windows 8. Of course, this assumes you still use it only one computer.

Alexey Ivanov

Posted 2012-11-06T09:17:26.603

Reputation: 3 900

I have used one license key on many computers and it never got mad at me :P. As long as 200 people don't use your key I think OP should be ok... – Wijagels – 2012-11-06T13:22:20.890

@Wijagels You were lucky! ;) I had to re-activate my Windows 7 installation after I had changed motherboard. And the phone robot asked me on how many computers I installed this copy of Windows.

– Alexey Ivanov – 2012-11-06T14:09:05.387