It is an upgrade, so technically you needed a previous version to install over. Same applied to Windows 7 upgrades. You can reset the key though. I found instructions online. Or you can just run the Windows 8 install again (instructions online for this way too).So anyway, I did a fresh install today on my new SSD. Used the key they mailed me and the .ISO clean install file they allowed me to download. Everything works 100%.
Now that I'm running Win8, it says I need to activate it & when I use my same code it says the code is "upgrade only" code. Ma se hare.
So yeah, guess I'm going back to Win7, where stuff works.
(But damn, Win8 boots **** fast on an SSD!)