Hi forum, on several office computers (HP Compaq Pro 6300 with Windows 8.1 Pro) users are demanded to activate windows. There is a corresponding message shown on users desktop in the lower right corner. If they try to activate via 'Change PC settings' (in Charms Bar) they see error message 0xC004F074, which states, that no KMS server was found. The current Product Key is displayed as ********-9D6T9. These computers came originally installed with Windows 7. I ran a setup on one of these clients from a original Microsoft ISO of 8.1 Pro and used the above mentioned key.

When trying to activate you get 0xC004F074 with. When trying to activate Windows 7 or Windows Server. 0xC004F074 with description 'The Key.

The idea was, that after deployment of this image Windows recognizes and uses the internal HP OEM product key, which should be a MAK key. But this obviously does not happen, so after deployment Windows continues to ask on several machines for a non existing KMS server to validate this 9D6T9-key.

Is there any way to tell Windows 'Ignore the key ******-9D6T9, which was only used for initial activation during setup, instead, use the OEM key from your BIOS.' What could be done? I hope it's clear what I'm talking about and someone has an idea:-) Thanks and regards, Stefano Edited Feb 8, 2015 at 6:02 UTC.

Just to clarify, these computers came with Windows 7 installed but you upgraded them to Windows 8, correct? Is there a Windows 7 COA sticker with a product code on the case or just a Windows 8 sticker? Was WIndows 7 originally installed with downgrade rights from Windows 8? If the computers have a WIndows 8 key already in the bios (assuming you want to use the OEM key that came with the PCs'), you'll need to get that key for each computer and manually change it using slmgr.vbs from a command prompt ran as an administrator.

The syntax should be: slmgr.vbs /ipk There are some free programs out there that should be able to get the Windows 8 product key for you out of the bios. This is assuming there is a Windows 8 product key already in there. If not, then some more information may be needed.

Hope this helps. Trey Anastasio Traveler Rapidshare Library here. Just to clarify, these computers came with Windows 7 installed but you upgraded them to Windows 8, correct? Is there a Windows 7 COA sticker with a product code on the case or just a Windows 8 sticker?

Was WIndows 7 originally installed with downgrade rights from Windows 8? If the computers have a WIndows 8 key already in the bios (assuming you want to use the OEM key that came with the PCs'), you'll need to get that key for each computer and manually change it using slmgr.vbs from a command prompt ran as an administrator. The syntax should be: slmgr.vbs /ipk There are some free programs out there that should be able to get the Windows 8 product key for you out of the bios.

This is assuming there is a Windows 8 product key already in there. If not, then some more information may be needed. Hope this helps. Thanks to both of you. With your Information I was able to fix it.

The steps I took: 1. Download a software that retrieves product key from BIOS, I took one (click on button called ACPI and than on tab MSDM, there you find the key) 2. 'slmgr /upk' on command line (removes present key) 3.

'slui 3' on command line, enter key from above Yes, these are indeed machines that are licensed to Windows 8, came without COA and have Windows 7 installed (i.e. They are downgraded). As I said I expected Windows 8 to detect the presence of this BIOS key during install, but it didn't.

Regards, Stefano.