I asked this question back in December and no one could give me a straight answer because I guess no one actually knew for sure, but I think I can set the record straight in case anyone else is wondering...If you took advantage of the Media Center freebie
that accompanied the introductory sale of Win 8 Pro for $39.99, you know that you got a separate key from Microsoft for Media Center along with instructions to activate on or before Jan 31, 2013, else the key would not work past the expiration of the introductory
program. Many folks, including me, were concerned that this meant that in the event we had to do a complete reinstall of Win8 (format c:, etc.) that our keys for Media Center would no longer work past that date and that we'd have to either get another
key from Microsoft or buy it for $9.99.
Well, although I was unhappily forced to do the nuke reset Win8 reinstall option two days ago (that's a whole other can of worms), I can happily report that using my original key for Media Center through the Control Panel "Add Features to Windows
8" applet worked perfectly the first time with my original Microsoft MC key. So it appears that only in the event that someone failed to use his introductory-sale keys on or before Jan 31, 2013 that they would simply not have worked past the date
of the expiration of the sale program. This just makes sense, of course, but it's always nice to know for sure...)
View the full article
that accompanied the introductory sale of Win 8 Pro for $39.99, you know that you got a separate key from Microsoft for Media Center along with instructions to activate on or before Jan 31, 2013, else the key would not work past the expiration of the introductory
program. Many folks, including me, were concerned that this meant that in the event we had to do a complete reinstall of Win8 (format c:, etc.) that our keys for Media Center would no longer work past that date and that we'd have to either get another
key from Microsoft or buy it for $9.99.
Well, although I was unhappily forced to do the nuke reset Win8 reinstall option two days ago (that's a whole other can of worms), I can happily report that using my original key for Media Center through the Control Panel "Add Features to Windows
8" applet worked perfectly the first time with my original Microsoft MC key. So it appears that only in the event that someone failed to use his introductory-sale keys on or before Jan 31, 2013 that they would simply not have worked past the date
of the expiration of the sale program. This just makes sense, of course, but it's always nice to know for sure...)
View the full article