Friday, February 20, 2009

Windows 7 installation: The product key does not match current Windows SKU

I just finished installing Windows 7 on my iMac, I had no problems during the installation until I got to the product key part, I grabbed a new key from the MS site, only to find out it didn't work, then I tried with another key, no luck, long story short, I tried at least 5 keys, including one I had already used to install it on my laptop, none of them worked.

Google has very few links to people who have had the problem, and the only answer seems to be that you may have downloaded the checked build, and you need to chose the Ultimate version; I had chosen Business edition.
Chris responds: You are probably installing from the "checked" ISO image. Please choose "Ultimate" and your key should work.
However, when you are on that screen there is no way to go back, do I don't know how you would select Ultimate.

Anyway, the solution that worked for me was to simply leave the field empty, yup, that simple.

So, if you downloaded the checked build, chose the Ultimate version; if you're stuck in that page, I hope this helps you

11 comments:

freevoter said...

thanks man, this is what I had too and it helped.

Anonymous said...

yep, that did it. too funny. thanks for the post.

Sean said...

Quality tip, cheers :)

G-Daddy said...

No kidding...how cheesy is that lol. It worked for me as well. Wish I had found this before I dumped out 5 keys.

Anonymous said...

THANK YOU!

Mizchief said...

That is all well and good untill 30 days later when you fail to activate your copy of windows.....

Anonymous said...

Thank you - you saved me a lot of trouble. After the Windows installation the key worked - but not during the installation...

Anonymous said...

"Anyway, the solution that worked for me was to simply leave the field empty, yup, that simple."

How cool is that!!!

This was mailed to me by my company and I went through 5 iterations of the installation each time with miserable failure. Thanks!!!!

Anonymous said...

thanks, It worked when I tried to install my MacBookPro with Win7.

Anonymous said...

great hint! Helped so much

Anonymous said...

Thanks, this has helpt, simple works best....