The Magic 'ei.cfg' file We can somewhat understand Microsoft's point of view when they made the product key mandatory for a Windows 8.1 installation. It sort-of makes sense as an anti-piracy measure. With the Windows 7 30-day trial, one could install Windows and have them for free.

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Then, once every new moon, they could format and reinstall Windows, and no one would be the wiser. Also, one would need to have Windows installed if they wanted to run an activator, should they swing that way. So, Microsoft decided to cut the problem off at the root.

Mandatory product key equals no trial, equals no activator. Makes sense, doesn't it? And then, they made it easy to bypass this system. And, when we say 'easy,' we mean 'child's play' easy. That's Microsoft for you. We 're halfway there. With this ei.cfg file, we can Install Windows 8.1 without a product key. We just need to get it in the Windows 8.1 installation medium. There is the easy way and the hard way to do so.

How to Install Windows 8.1 without a product key from USB The fastest and easiest way to install Windows 8.1 without a product key is by creating a Windows installation USB drive. We need to if we haven't already. Then, we can use a 4GB or larger and an app, such as Rufus, to.

After that, it's just a matter of dragging our ei.cfg file and dropping it in the 'sources' folder in the USB. Once ei.cfg is within the 'sources' folder.we can install Windows 8.1 without a product key. The Windows installer won't even ask for one; it will straight-up begin the installation. The installation will ask for a product key after the first automatic reboot, but there will be a handy 'Skip' button.

Of course, Windows are not activated. We will need a valid product key for that. How to Install Windows 8.1 without a product key from DVD Sometimes, using a Windows installation USB isn't an option. Maybe we don't have a USB flash drive, or an old motherboard might not support boot from USB. In this case, we need to edit the ISO file so we can add ei.cfg before we burn it on a disc. For this, we will use the 30-day trial version of gBurner.

It's one of the few free apps that can edit a 2GB+ ISO, no questions asked. We will find the latest version at Earlier versions of Gburner came with multiple unwanted third-party apps, such as Ad-Aware Web Companion However, the current version as of this writing, gBurner 4.3, seems to be free of such shenanigans. In any case, we should never blindingly click Next->Next->Next on any installer. Also, apps such as Unchecky can help to ensure a safe installation. Finally, on the last screen after the installation, it's a good idea to uncheck the option to associate.iso files with gBurner, especially if we will only use it for the 30-day trial.

After gBurner starts, we select 'Continue Unregistered.' We click the 'open' icon and select the Windows 8.1 ISO. Once loaded, we select the 'sources' folder, click on 'Add' and choose the ei.cfg file. After we make sure ei.cfg was added correctly in sources, we select File ->Save As. It's a good idea to choose a different name for the ISO, so we will have the clean ISO as a backup, in case something went wrong. And that's it. We can right-click on the new ISO, select 'Burn disk image' to burn it to a DVD, and we 're good to go.

You might have noticed that the new ISO is a bit smaller than the original, even though we added a file. Apparently, gBurner does some slight data compression during the ISO creation process. This won't matter for the Windows Installation, though. Either if we burn this ISO to a disk or use it to install a, it will work just as well. Did you have any trouble installing Windows 8.1 without a product key? Did you have any problem with the above and couldn't install Windows 8.1 without a product key?

Leave us a comment. Did you enjoy this post?

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It’s super easy to or a CD/DVD. But, what to do if you don’t have a USB drive in hand, or your optical drive doesn’t work properly? File Bomba A Decompressione Eliminare. Here we’ll show you how to install Windows 8 directly from a hard drive, without using a CD or USB drive.

This method requires you to create a bootable hard drive from Windows 8 ISO image, so you can then install Windows 8 without formatting. It also works with Windows 10, Windows 8.1 and Windows 7. Part 1: Copy Windows 8 Installation Files to Hard Drive • First connect your hard drive to another working computer as a slave/second drive. • Open the Disk Management utility by right-clicking on the My Computer icon on the desktop (or Start Menu) and selecting Manage from the drop down menu. • The Computer Management console will appear as shown below.

Click on Disk Management in the left-hand panel, you’ll see the attached hard drive shown as Disk 1. From there you can repartition your hard disk and create a primary partition for install Windows 8 later.

• Now we need to copy the setup files from Windows 8 ISO to your hard drive. This can be done using the freeware. After installing 7-Zip locally, right-click on your Windows 8 ISO image and select 7-Zip ->Extract files.

• Next you need to specify where the destination should be. Free Dmx Light Control Software Mac. Click button to select the root path of the attached hard drive. • Now the extracting progress window will display.

When this is done, the extraction dialog will automatically close. Now you’ve successfully copied all contents of Windows 8 ISO to your hard drive. Part 2: Make Hard Drive Bootable • Open the Command Prompt with admin privileges. In Windows 7, go to Start >All Programs >Accessories. Right-click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.

• In the Command Prompt, type in the following commands, and press Enter key after typing each command. Diskpart List Disk Select Disk 1 List Partition Select Partition 1 Active Exit The commands above will set the first partition of your attached hard drive as active.

• Next type this command to mark your hard drive as bootable: e: boot bootsect.exe /nt60 e: Assuming that e: is the drive letter of attached hard drive, where the Windows 8 installation files are copied to. • At this moment your external hard drive is bootable and you can then use it to install Windows 8. Close the Command Prompt and shutdown the computer. Part 3: Install Windows 8 Place the hard drive back into the target machine. Make sure that the BIOS is configured to boot from the hard drive. If you did everything correctly, you should see the blue Windows logo and setup will load.

Install Windows 8 as usual (but don’t format your hard drive this time otherwise it will erase the Windows 8 setup files too). After successfully installing Windows 8, you can then go to the system partition and optionally delete the Windows 8 installation files you previously copied from ISO image.