Windows 7 Clean install with Upgrade license key Error Code 0xC004F061

Windows 7 Clean install with Upgrade license key Error Code 0xC004F061 December 5, 2009

Posted by Aurelius in Windows 7.
Tags: clean install, Error Code 0xC004F061, upgrade, Windows 7
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I purchased a Windows 7 upgrade recently (my computer came with a full version of Vista). I got a new hard drive and did a clean install of Windows 7. When I attempted to use the key in the installation process, it told me the product key I was using was not valid. From the MS site it looked like I might have to install Vista first. Turns out this is not the case, it’s actually fairly easy around this.

*NOTE: Only follow these steps if you have a VALID Upgrade (I.e.: You legitimately own the previous full version you’re upgrading from)

This is what I did to solve the problem:

1. Do a clean install of Windows and do a keyless installation (I.e.: When it asks you to put in the key, just uncheck the “Validate Windows when I’m online” box and don’t enter the key; click “Next”)

Once you’re in Windows, you’re going to have to do some tweaking to “trick” it into letting you active Windows with the Upgrade key. To do this:
2. Once you’re at your desktop, run Command Prompt as Administrator (click Start, then type ‘command‘ in the Search box. You should see Command prompt on the list. Right-click it and click “Run as Administrator”. Click “Yes” on the Security Prompt).
3. At the command prompt, type: regedit
4. Once in Registry Editor, navigate to this key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE
In that folder, look for the item MediaBootInstall
5. Double-click it and change the value to 0
6. Close out of Registry Editor. You should still have the Command Prompt open. Now, at the Command Prompt, type the following:
slmgr /rearm
7. It should show something that tells you the command was successful.
8. Restart the computer. Then, go to the Activation screen (Click Start, Right-click Computer then click Properties. Scroll to the bottom and choose “Activate my copy of Windows”)
9. Enter your Upgrade product key and it should activate successfully!

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Comments»

1. C - January 15, 2010: RE windows 7 clean install with upgrade….. Thanks for the post! This will really help me because I cant find my Vista disks to reinstall. I also had to buy a new hard drive.

When type “slmgr /rearm” they tell me I need elevated privileges.

How do I get them?!

Thanks Aurelius

Cian
2. Aurelius - January 15, 2010: You need to *right-click* command prompt and choose “Run as Administrator” and then you’ll be good-to-go.
3. coreabstraction - January 17, 2010: Worked Perfectly
4. happy - January 19, 2010: THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!!!

I really do like windows and have never been one to bash them, but they hung up on me THREE TIMES while trying to fix the upgrade issue. They had me reinstall winXP to upgrade to win7 twice and each time I got the same error code.

This also worked flawlessly for my laptop which didn’t come with installation cd’s for vista to upgrade from.
5. alan - February 17, 2010: nope – all i get at slmgr /rearm is the VBS diplayed in full
Should I be editing this file in notepad or somthing?
Aurelius - February 17, 2010: You shouldn’t be editing any file. You want to go to the Command Prompt and run as Administrator:

Start –> All Programs –> Accessories –> Right-Click “Command Prompt” –> choose “Run as Administrator”

Then, type that command at the command prompt
6. Jayson - March 17, 2010: It worked perfectly on Win 7 Ultimate 64bit upgrade. Thank you!

My hard disk with Vista died and this would have been a nightmare of wasted time with Microsoft. Microsoft shows true arrogance to treat its loyal customers this way. Apple can stop wasting money on TV ads. I already have Ubuntu on an old machine…
7. Brad - May 1, 2010: Thanks – worked great! I wanted the clean install after my hard drive crashed so I was dismayed to find out (after installing Win7) that I would have to reinstall Vista in order to activate Win7. Glad I didn’t have to!
8. John - May 30, 2010: This is wonderful ! Why the heck does Microsoft make life so hard for law abiding paying customers ?!?! The thieves have it easier than do the people who actually pay and get trapped by these DRM issues. Get rid of this crap Microsoft!!!!
9. Moose - June 6, 2010: YESSSSSSSSSSSS!

I used this to install Windows 7 on my new Mac via Parallels–I have a copy of Windows XP, so this was a legitimate upgrade, but there was no way I was going to install WinXP and THEN upgrade to 7. How stupid would that be?

THANK YOU!! Microsoft wasted a crap ton of my time, but it would have been much worse if I hadn’t found your post.

THANKS!
10. FATRAY - August 29, 2010: Thanks a millions worked like a charm, at least now that I can enter the key, I only hope there are no problems down the road. Yaaaa.
Clean install of Win7 Pro 64bit, on RAID. All is looking good.
11. wittereus - September 16, 2010: i couldnt thank you enough
12. surya - December 4, 2010: work great…save my time
13. scared of computers - January 25, 2011: I am a computer beginner and this was so easy to follow and work perfect. Very helpful.
thanks
14. Craig - March 25, 2011: I just used this and it was a life saver. You sir should be nominated for a Nobel Prize. Thank you!
15. Tom - April 12, 2011: Yeah, I was puzzled when it didn’t accept my use of the license key they included with the software. I did a clean install to a new hard drive, rather than “upgrade” windows xp.
16. JOhn smith - April 16, 2011: I dont have the file MediaBootInstall in that foldrer… what should i do?
Aurelius - April 19, 2011: You can try adding it as a String. If you’re not comfortable with the Registry don’t do this…I bear no responsibility if it causes your computer harm. Don’t muck around with the registry if you don’t know what you are doing.
17. Tzafra - April 21, 2011: Just double checking that this will supposedly work for me – I want to do a clean install of Windows 7 now, on my machine currently running Vista Home Premium (Microsoft says you have from that to 7 Professional you can’t upgrade, you need a clean install) but after that I’d like to buy a new hard drive and install 7 again on that. This should work for me?
Thanks a ton!!
18. This Awesome Guy - June 24, 2011: Worked on Win7 x64 Home Premium. Thanks! You win one internet.
19. a - August 7, 2011: Worked on Win7 x64 Home Premium. Thanks! – Aug 7, 2011
20. Joshua Welch - September 6, 2011: Excellent, worked for me, no flaws! Thanks I was dreading running pirated software to activate a legitimate copy of Windows!
21. Ian Lords - September 18, 2011: Saved me from a cardiac arrest, thanks;-)
22. ouragingfolks - October 3, 2011: when i type in sImgr /rearm, I get “‘simgr’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.”

Any ideas how I can get this done?

thanks.
23. ouragingfolks - October 3, 2011: ooops, i saw simgr, but googled it and when I tried SLMGR/rearm, I got the desired result. Restarting now. Thanks.
24. Toni - December 19, 2011: Works perfect.
25. keane - January 2, 2012: Thanks!!! Worked perfect and saved a lot of time and effort!
26. Matt - January 4, 2012: Works like a charm on Win7 Home Premium Family Pack…even after downloading every update possible
27. Stilly - January 28, 2012: Any MS wonders why people don’t feel like paying for their stuff…

This worked great btw. I had a laptop that came with Vista and I bought the ms home premium pack (1 key for 3 computers) and the laptop drive died SO I figured that it would ask for a vista disk or something to show that I already had a OS since I put in a new HD. Never did any such thing. Then it gave me crap on installing and it refused my key so I hit next to see what would happen and stupid MS with their whorish attitude allowed me to install anyways. But I am glad it did because after a phone call to Azzimed Ackbar Ahmed who called herself Lisa and then about a half hour playing with the DAZ loader and trying the slmgr ipk command several times and getting the SAME error again I found this page and it worked fine. Now WHY didn’t MS just tell me to do this in the first place? Perhaps they do not know… (or they do not want to miss the chance to sell fully priced retail versions when people would just go buy the upgrades…
28. jay - February 10, 2012: ur a god ur a god u r a gooooooood.

thank u so much

ps
why does mcrosoft make it so haed
29. psdillon - February 10, 2012: Thankyou very much! Now if only Google would rank this page 1st instead of 6th!
30. Keith - February 15, 2012: Another happy customer! I would have been so angry if this wouldn’t have worked. I legitimately have an XP license and legitimately have a Win7 license, but rebuilt with fresh HDD.
31. John - February 21, 2012: Thanks!!! (No thanks to Microsoft, for not offering a legitimate solution.)
32. Pat Crowe - April 5, 2012: Thanks, this worked really slick. I was scared to death that I would have to spend many _more_ hours installing WinXP and then Win7 and all the apps and updates that I had installed over the last 2 weeks. I have the legit products and the thought of all this work was terrifying.
33. Thomas - April 9, 2012: I thank YOU for this perfect solution, it really works!!! I was despite that i need to install XP first, but you are magician
34. Sam - April 28, 2012: this worked wonderfully. Tahnk you
35. Mike - May 5, 2012: Thank you sooo much for posting this!!
36. Micah - May 8, 2012: good sir,
You are a genius! It worked perfectly the very first time. Thanks again.
37. Brian - May 18, 2012: Wow, cannot thank you enough not to have to reinstall XP again, then Windows 7 again! Talk about a time-saver. You’re awesome!
38. Nathan - May 27, 2012: I’m so jealous it’s working for everyone else

I’m getting the same “Invalid product key” message as before I tried this fix. Everything with your instructions went perfect so thank you for that. After I restarted and put in my valid upgrade key it’s saying, “The product key you have entered will not work with this edition of windows 7.

You must either run Windows 7 Setup or enter a Windows 7 Professional product key.”

How come this didn’t work for me?
Cleanly installed windows 7 pro, tried to enter the key the first time and that message showed up. Found your page, tried it, same thing.

Thanks in advanced.
Aurelius - May 28, 2012: It sounds to me like you have a different problem…perhaps you have an OEM key and a retail disk, or something? The “edition” error is slightly different than what my posted solution solves.