Windows activation help!

[JJLabrier]

Hey guys, so I was upgrading my laptop hard drive to an SSD (have done this on my desktop and wife's laptop before with no problem), and after cloning everything to my SSD, windows was damaged somehow.

 

I had to re-install windows, and when I did a little research, I found out that the windows activation key is built into the bios now for windows 8 and 8.1 laptops.

So, I thought I'd take advantage of this and install windows 8.1 Pro. But apparently the key doesn't work for all versions of windows (LOL). So now I'm stuck with an un-activated version of windows, which isn't that big of a deal, but I'd rather have an activated version in-case that's required for the windows 10 upgrade in the future. 

 

Long story short, is there a way to somehow downgrade from windows 8.1 Pro to the ordinary windows 8 or 8.1? I would just re-install to windows 8 but I already installed a bunch of programs that take forever to install.

 

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance! 

 

EDIT: I guess I'm really bad at explaining, let me try to be clearer.

My laptops original OS was standard windows 8. After cloning it to my SSD, the OS was corrupted or something and wasn't working. So I had to install new windows. I installed windows 8.1 Pro, because I thought that the windows key built into the bios would work on any windows. It turns out I was wrong. So now I am trying to downgrade back to regular windows 8, since my windows 8.1 Pro can't be activated without me buying a new key. If I can go back to standard windows 8, my OEM windows 8 key built into the bios should work when I try to activate it. So what I'm asking is a way to downgrade to windows 8.

[DarrenP]

There's all kinds of software that can do it. Like Magic Jelly Bean Keyfinder. there's one i like more, but the name escapes me. 

 

 

EDIT: It should auto pick up the key though..

[JJLabrier]

There's all kinds of software that can do it. Like Magic Jelly Bean Keyfinder. there's one i like more, but the name escapes me. 

 

 

EDIT: It should auto pick up the key though..

 

It did pick up the key but the key didn't work for windows 8.1 Pro because (I assume) the original windows on the laptop was the normal windows 8.

 

EDIT: Yeah I think you misunderstood. I'm not trying to find the key, that was autodetected. I need to change my version of windows somehow.

[TheGamingBarrel]

I believe the issue is you are upgrading from Windows 8 core to 8.1 Pro?

[JJLabrier]

I believe the issue is you are upgrading from Windows 8 core to 8.1 Pro?

 

No no lol. I guess I'm really bad at explaining, let me try to be clearer.

My laptops original OS was standard windows 8. After cloning it to my SSD, the OS was corrupted or something and wasn't working. So I had to install new windows. I installed windows 8.1 Pro, because I thought that the windows key built into the bios would work on any windows. It turns out I was wrong. So now I am trying to downgrade back to regular windows 8, since my windows 8.1 Pro can't be activated without me buying a new key. If I can go back to standard windows 8, my OEM windows 8 key built into the bios should work when I try to activate it. So what I'm asking is a way to downgrade to windows 8.

[vembutech]

Hi,

 

There is no automatic downgrade from Win 8 Pro to Win 8, other than a re-install.

[JJLabrier]

Hi,

 

There is no automatic downgrade from Win 8 Pro to Win 8, other than a re-install.

 

I see. So is there anyway to reinstall the OEM version of windows 8?