ClearChoice IT Services Knowledge Base

When you buy a discounted copy of Windows 7 (such as the student version that costs only $29.99), the license restrictions are such that you are not allowed to do a clean install of the product--you "MUST" upgrade an existing OS.

If you ignore this, and do a clean install anyway, when you do try to activate, you will receive a message stating: 

Code 0xC004F061 This specified Product Key can only be used for upgrading not for clean installations

All I can say is:  B.S.

Here's how you get around this & activate a clean install of Windows 7:

1)  Click your Start menu button & search for "regedit".  Launch it.
2)  Browse to the following key & change its value from a "1" to a "0":  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\OOBE\MediaBootInstall
3)  Close regedit.
4)  Click your Start Menu button & search for "cmd".  RIGHT-CLICK it and select "Run as Administrator".
5)  At the command prompt type the following and press ENTER:  slmgr /rearm
6)  After a couple seconds, you will be prompted to reboot.  Go ahead and do so.
7)  Once back into Windows, click your Start Menu button & search for "Activate Windows".  Launch it.
8)  You should now be able to activate your discounted license normally without error.

ENJOY!

References:
   - http://blog.erkz.net/2009/11/activate-windows-7-with-product-key-for.html
   - http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/clean_install_upgrade_media.asp