removing and reinstalling windows 8.1

[radome]

my next fiasco is as follows. I am running a sony vaio at work which i purchased a downloaded version of windows 8.1 pro. the original operating system was vista.

i have dell pc that was handed down to me from another department with windows 7 onboard. in the process of changing the user name and password i must have made a mistake when i changed them and now i cant get past that point. wait, it gets better.

i came up with the bright idea install a copy of the windows 8.1 pro from the sony to the dell. that is when i learned that i was only authorized for the product key on one computer only. i was able to install 8.1 on the dell but it would not let me activate. that brings me to my current problem.

is there any way to remove 8.1 from the sony and reinstall it on the dell. I have the product key and i also have the disc back up from the sony for vista.

i feel very inadequate right now.

hopefully submitted,

radome

 

[radome]

could the next administrator that looks at this please delete it. apparently someone thinks i am trying to hack an operating system. i'm not but i get the message.


thanks,

radome

 

[BikerEcho]

No need to delete it. What you are asking is not illegal.
What does it say when you try to activate windows 8?
Is it doing the installation or when you are inside windows and try to activate it?

 

[radome]

when i try and activate it. the 8.1 is on the dell desktop and it says no other programs are installed. i am completely dead in the water.

radome

 

[BikerEcho]

scratch that. I didn't read the part where you explained that you have installed windows 8.
It's just weird. When i installed windows 8 it asked me for a license before the installation started.

 

[BikerEcho]

Missed your last post.

That's odd.
You are inside windows and you are clicking the activation program inside windows 8. Right?
To be sure you are at the right place. Type in "slui" when you are at the modern UI interface and hit enter.

 

[radome]

let me start over. first of all, when you get old, you lose 2 things. the first is your memory and i forgot what the 2nd one was. so let me tell you what i know now. i was handed down a dell desktop with windows 7 installed. in the process of changing the user name and password, i must have made a typo because i cant get pass the sign in screen. i installed 8.1 from a media creation tool on a usb drive. it installed the program and i was successfully able to activate it. when i left click the win symbol, i get the what i call the start menu. when i right click the win symbol, it goes to the start screen. that is backwards, right? when i bring the charms up and click on anything, nothing happens. i am dead in the water.

i hope this makes sense

 

[radome]

(edit) when i bring up the charms, i must right click on it to get anything. it also gives me an icon with an x on it stating online is unavailable even though i am sitting right next to that computer entering this to you. when windows 7 was the operating system, i had no problems getting on line with that computer. i have now discovered that everything that should be left clicked to function has to be right clicked. to make sure it wasnt the mouse, i changed it to the one i use on this computer. the mouse is fine. whatever i did, it must have been a doosie.

radome

 

[strollin]

Maybe the mouse settings are changed to be used by a left-handed person? That is configurable. Bring up the Charms, click on Settings, then Change PC settings. From there select PC and devices, then Mouse and touchpad. On that screen, check to see if the primary mouse button is set to Right and, if so, change it to Left.

 

[radome]

another edit. i finally thought to bring up the device manager which was accomplished with the reverse mouse-clicking thing. under other devices i have pci parallel port and pci simple communications controller. both have a yellow exclamation point on them. there is nothing under network adapters. i know enough about this to know that this is prolly what is keeping me from getting online.

radome