So im looking on ebay and I do not want to pay the price tag of a new version windows 10 pro.
Im looking at the blatant copies and the disks that are intended for supplying companies with cheap windows copies.
I found this guy with lots of good feed back
(had to remove a link but I typed in windows 10 pro on ebay search, filtered for lowest price) (Windows 10 Pro 64-bit DVD Upgrade from 7/8/8.1, 10 Home or Clean install)
However one of his feedbacks said it came with a virus
Should I look for a copy or a DVD with a proper graphics display on the disk, so I know it was for a company that gets cheap versions of windows to distribute, and is authentic?
Online gray markets are never a good place to buy any kind of software keys.
Back then, the best you can do is go around old places and look around for old-ish decommisioned computers with win 7 license stickers stuck next to them, rip it out (or maybe just take a picture of it) and then register it as a key for Windows 10.
Unfortunately, I think this approach of getting legit keys may no longer be viable because I think Microsoft recently removed the capability to use old Windows 7 keys to register Windows 11.
I do not know if Windows 7 to Windows 10 still works though.
Only use Windows installers that come directly from Microsoft. You can legally download any version of MS Windows 7/10/11 directly from Microsoft itself even if you do not own a valid key yet. You can just use the eBay’s seller keys with new installs of Windows. No need to involve the seller’s installers at all. You literally just need the serial key. You cannot be infected with malware with just a Windows serial key
If the seller says you have to install using their software to automatically get the keys, that would be suspicious. Do not buy from them if they are forcing you to use their software to get the keys.
By the way, it is worth it to learn Linux just to get Lutris. A lot of the old games can still be played in Linux with ease using Lutris.
You dont have to involve the weirdness of using outdated Windows to play old games. Microsoft doesnt want you using old version of their software and wants to keep obsolete things, obsolete so that you will buy new machine licensed with new Windows.
You mean the built in one, to the operating system? Yeah, it wouldn’t. If they had physical access they could bake it in and modify it.
You could always give it a scan with Malwarebytes that will usually pull out all the crap.
If you’re going to be buying grey market keys then you should never use an OS or software they give you it should just be a license key (but even that is dicey because of how it was obtained YMMV). The main focus should not be to get pwned.
That Greg Saizar tech YouTuber has an affiliate link for cheap windows, I’ve used it several times with no problems at all. There are even cheaper outlets, but the authenticity declines!
Meanwhile a friend stayed on windows without activating it for around 3 months with no issues. Other than those mentioned by @regulareel
Windows 10 Pro does require activation, all versions of Windows do in one way or another.
If you did not have to activate then something else is going on. Either your MB already had a Windows activation installed on it and the keys are still there, or the installer you used was already pre-activated or cracked.
Upgrading to 10 or 11 no longer works from 7. They cracked down on it last year IIRC. I had to upgrade activated Windows 7 machine the same way recently.
For what it’s worth, I’ve cobbled together my kids’ computers from old parts, with 10 Home it’s been a couple years, it’s just living with the watermark and not being able to customize some appearance and taskbar settings. I’ve got other software on them for Remote Desktop.
If you have an old PC laying around with an OEM license sticker, I’ve had luck using those to do activation on VMs before. I don’t know if this would work for a different machine on bare metal though
You could also self host an activation server, then there is some way to point client machines to your local KMS. I’m not sure if you can actually get around activation fees this way though.
Tech Youtubers like to recommend urcdkeys, $30 for a Windows 11 Pro OEM license (tied to your machine).
Personally I find the hassle of licensing keys is creating more and more of an incentive to do what many others already discovered, switch to Linux. But if you do not want to do that a legit key is the second best thing.
As already hinted at, you can get ISOs for most Windows versions directly from Microsoft, and can buy a key online to activate it. One of the few exceptions is the Enterprise IoT LTSC version, which comes decrapified from Microsoft, and has two more years of support to boot. Achive.org has some of those for download, haven’t tried them yet…
Imo for Bill to win some kind of love from his customer base he should at least have all games working on the next OS and everyone after that otherwise hes just not with us.
At least the big section of PC users that are gamers should be catered for, with an inbuilt dos box type system with every OS form now on .
The guy doesn’t seem to value his mammalian brain or his potential for a fan base.