How to Activate Windows 8 Enterprise M1 (Build 7850)

The leaked Windows 8 Build 7850 of M1 milestone, which is essentially a 32-bit Windows 8 Enterprise, has an expiration date of February 5th, 2011 time bomb, a day long past into history. The expiry means that installed Windows 8 Enterprise M1 cannot be activated, and is always flagged as non-genuine installation.

If you intend to use and try the very early build of Windows 8 M1, which nonetheless has already some features slated for Windows 8 available but locked away, it’s now possible to disable or remove the built-in time bomb and activate the Windows 8 Enterprise M1 edition, via the resurrected frankenbuild crack method. If you manage to activate Windows 8 properly, you can unlock and change desktop background wallpaper or theme at ease without been reverting to default on reboot.

Windows 8 7850 Activator

The easiest way to activate a system installed with Windows 8 Enterprise Build 7850 is by using Windows 8 7850 Activator, developed by janek2012. The activator basically does four things:

1. Disable the Windows 8 M1 build’s time-bomb by replacing the tokens file and store (\Windows\System32\spp\store) folders with similar files from Windows 7 Enterprise.
2. Activate the frankenbuild Windows 8 Enterprise with ZWT’s KMS Keygen which is designed to activate Windows and Office volume licensing versions offline.
3. Remove “evaluation copy” watermark (can be enabled or disabled).
4. Unlock and enable hidden features locked in Windows 8 M1 build.

Download Windows 8 7850 Activator from MDL Forums.

How to use Windows 8 7850 Activator for activating Windows 8 Enterprise M1:

1. Boot into Safe Mode (press F8 function key during initial boot).
2. Run Windows 8 7850 Activator and click Remove Timebomb.
3. Restart computer for normal booting.
4. Run Windows 8 7850 Activator again and click Activate.
5. Restart computer again.
6. Windows 8 Enterprise M1 is now activated via KMS with activation valid for 6 months (KMS requires re-activation every 180 days). 6 months should last long enough before the next leaks appear.

$OEM$ Activation Crack Method

For people who wants to create a custom Windows 8 Build 7850 ISO which can be activated, or has the system activated right after installation, another developer alphawaves also publishes an $oem$ method which can be incorporated into Windows 8 M1 ISO’s installation files to replace the tokens and spp folder from Windows 7 Enterprise SP1, and subsequently activate Windows via KMS automatically during installation. The hack makes use of OEM folder provided by Microsoft for OEM partners to execute OEM-specific actions or tasks.

Download latest version of $oem$ folder files for Windows 8 Enterprise M1 from MDL Forums.

The newest version also includes registry hacks to unlock and activate hidden extra Windows 8 features, such as Ribbon user interface, Modern Task Manager, PDF reader, and WebCam.

With the $OEM$ folder files above, the patched ISO image can be made. To integrate the activation crack into Windows 8 Build 7850 ISO, open the original ISO image with a ISO image editor such as MagicISO or UltraISO, and put the $oem$ folder extracted from the downloaded archive into the “source” folder of the ISO. Save or burn the ISO, and the pre-activated Windows 8 Build 7850 ISO image is built.