2014-12-11 12:33 GMT+01:00 James Sinnamon <james.sinnamon@gmail.com>:

...

Basically, to have dual boot machine, the procedure should be: 1. disable secure boot 2. re-install windows 3. install your linux distribution

Hope I can avoid having to reinstall Windows 8.1 . It's not on a separate DVD. I hope too, for you!

However, I do have my own Microsoft Win Pro 7 that I think I was given during a single University C# programming unit I studied in 2011.

May be a solution. Anyway try the keys you have found before. Maybe the secure boot was already disabled at the time original windows copy was installed. -- Mick