RHOPKINS13@kbin.social
on 28 Sep 2023 21:35
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Probably blocks the MAS activation scripts from working too.
Sure enough, on their site:
Note: Microsoft servers are currently rejecting HWID activation requests when activating through MAS, we’re checking what’s going on now. Use the KMS38 activation option for now.
TwinHaelix@reddthat.com
on 28 Sep 2023 21:41
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This is the real blow. Truly the end of an era.
scottywh@lemmy.world
on 28 Sep 2023 23:28
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It will absolutely get figured out and gotten around again.
RickyRigatoni@lemmy.ml
on 28 Sep 2023 22:42
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Looks like it’s time to start using reactos i guess… ☹️
Wow, what a timing, just discovered MAS last month and used it last week. Was truly nice and easy, and I liked the technical explanations on their website.
Never_Sm1le@lemdro.id
on 29 Sep 2023 05:51
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Lucky me, just used last month to upgrade to 10 pro
Endorkend@kbin.social
on 28 Sep 2023 21:36
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I was lucky to receive 10 Windows 7 and Visual Studio Ultimate keys for personal use, in the Windows 7 era.
Once the "you can use Windows 7 keys to activate Windows 8/10" thing, combined with Microsoft accounts came around, I created 10 Microsoft accounts with 10 of my email addresses.
I've been able to activate Windows versions 7-11 with all 10 keys (and I can change to older Windows without issue) and been able to upgrade Visual Studio Ultimate to the current version year after year this way.
I wonder if the already upgraded keys attached to Microsoft accounts, that become a bit version fluid, will remain able to use higher versions.
DoomBot5@lemmy.world
on 29 Sep 2023 00:19
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I have some Windows keys back from college (software policy stated you kept your software if you graduate), I hope those continue to work for me as well.
HidingCat@kbin.social
on 29 Sep 2023 01:40
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Damn, that's a lot of keys! Lucky alright. Do you use them all at once though? o_O That's a lot of computers.
Giblets4all@lemmy.world
on 28 Sep 2023 22:28
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You can buy a used mini PC for less than the price of a new Windows 11 license. I know there are cheaper license sites out there (unclear how legit they are) but this way you get a Windows license and a spare PC to run Linux!
PeachMan@lemmy.world
on 28 Sep 2023 22:51
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They cost like $5 online, it’s not like it’s a huge risk. I’ve bought OEM keys before and they work fine. Just use a credit card so you can easily get a refund if it’s fake.
I agree, I don’t plan to go back! Just don’t like giving up the option.
confusedwiseman@lemmy.world
on 28 Sep 2023 23:03
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There could be a bit of a caveat here. I when I purchased my laptop it had windows 10 installed. When I installed Mint, I could not reuse that key in a VM because it was “different hardware”. The license, could not be transferred under any circumstance. I had also purchased the upgrade to Pro through the windows store. That’s also lost.
I seldom run windows, even in the VM, but it still leaves one a bit bitter.
Giblets4all@lemmy.world
on 28 Sep 2023 23:29
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I reused a Win10 Pro key from a mini PC from 2015 onto a brand new build and it worked right away. Not sure what the difference is with your situation. Maybe it was your license type?
confusedwiseman@lemmy.world
on 29 Sep 2023 02:09
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It was the license that came on an Acer laptop. Completely non transferable per Microsoft.
Laptop licences are linked to the hardware. You technically do not have a key to begin with.
pjhenry1216@kbin.social
on 28 Sep 2023 23:56
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Usually calling Windows support, they'll give you a key if you just tell them you replaced some piece of hardware due to failure, assuming you haven't been transferring the same key around for awhile. They tend to be more invested in keeping you in the Windows ecosystem than they are are just getting one more license sold.
confusedwiseman@lemmy.world
on 29 Sep 2023 02:08
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I called support, they said no. Asked for a one time exception, still no. The key to my knowledge was only used once on the laptop when I bought it new.
I wasn’t investing any more time in it.
Kepabar@startrek.website
on 29 Sep 2023 02:53
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Yes, an OEM license is not transferable from the hardware the OEM originally installed it on, even to a VM running on that hardware.
Honytawk@lemmy.zip
on 29 Sep 2023 10:52
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Windows 10 links their license to the motherboard.
So as long as you use the same motherboard, the key will work.
It is my understanding that this can only be used to run the OEM license one one instance in a VM, on the specific hardware that is originally licensed. IE, you virtualize the license if the bootOS is Linux, but you can’t run 2 instances of the same windows license inside each other.
SavinDWhales@lemmy.world
on 29 Sep 2023 20:12
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When I build a new PC, I could not transfer my old 7 pro retail license, even though it worked fine on my old PC running Windows 10 and it even said it was a digital license connected to my MS account.
So I bought a Win 10 pro key from one of the ebay resellers aber everything was fine… until it wasn’t.
I updated the firmware for my mainboard and Windows took that for a replacement of hardware. Troubleshooter did not show three option “I recently changed my hardware” and did not give me the option to call Microsoft’s support.
Turns out it was a “one time install” key which was invalidated by changing the hardware. So it couldn’t activate a second time. And since the key seller was out of business at that time (they’ll change accounts every few months), I had no way of getting the key replaced.
Luckily, I still had an old Windows 7 COA with key and CD lying around from an old Dell business Workstation. That activated just fine.
But yeah, even if you have a valid license connected to your Microsoft account, there’s no way of seeing it in your account, and it’s not guaranteed MS will honor it.
londos@lemmy.world
on 28 Sep 2023 23:03
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Dumb q, if I install Linux and later decide to reinstall Windows, is that OEM license still good?
scottywh@lemmy.world
on 28 Sep 2023 23:26
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Yes
pjhenry1216@kbin.social
on 28 Sep 2023 23:58
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The answer is a resounding maybe. If you activated with a Microsoft account or if there's a TPM chip, the chances of it still working increases. There are different kinds of licenses, but if it fails, there's a better than not chance calling MS support and just telling them you had a hardware failure on your laptop and you need to reinstall, they'll get you going. Not a guarantee though. And I'll caveat and say this information is a couple years old (I don't work in tech support anymore).
Cheap license sites (windows, games, etc) usually use keys bought via stolen credit cards. Pirating it is much better than buying from those sites, including for the devs that get punished for chargebacks from those keys.
dudewitbow@lemmy.ml
on 28 Sep 2023 23:43
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Tbh if you want gray area keys. Microsoftsoftwareswap has always had verified users selling business generated licenses keys. If you HAVE to buy a key, at least buy one from vetted people and not some rando on a seller site
jarfil@lemmy.world
on 29 Sep 2023 00:19
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the devs that get punished for chargebacks from those keys.
Just to be clear… in the case of Windows, that would be M$…?
CaptainBasculin@lemmy.ml
on 29 Sep 2023 11:37
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So, hurting Microsoft and getting a cheap Windows key? Where’s the downside?
Drbreen@sh.itjust.works
on 28 Sep 2023 22:43
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I’ve had the same Win8 Pro key that I purchased for $40 when it released 12 years ago. I’ve used it for Win10 and 11. Is this saying if I format my drive and reinstall Win11 that I won’t be able to activate using this key anymore?
PotjiePig@lemmy.world
on 28 Sep 2023 22:52
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If I’m not mistaken your key is linked to your motherboard as well as your Microsoft account. So I think you should be fine. I just formatted my drive yesterday and it didn’t even ask me to type it in, I skipped that step and it verified once I logged in.
Capitao_Duarte@lemmy.eco.br
on 28 Sep 2023 23:11
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That on laptop or desktop? I had a laptop and always did like you said. For the first time I have a desktop and don’t know how things go now
PotjiePig@lemmy.world
on 04 Oct 2023 06:15
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Super late reply to your question, but when you add Windows and punch in the key it links to the motherboard of the PC (laptop or desktop, doesn’t matter). Once you sign in to your Microsoft account, the key and mobo serial gets stored there. If you bought a new PC and with it a new motherboard you can find your key in your account or use the one on the back of your old laptop and delink it from your old device so that you can reuse it on your new one. It moves with your account.
Of you do a standard format, you shouldn’t have to worry, but if you ever upgrade your mobo, just make sure you get a screenshot of your serial in the windows settings and make sure you are logged in to your windows account (maybe check the account settings on a browser and see if you can find your devices, not sure of this is a necessary step… but just to make sure it’s linked I guess)… then once you format, you can punch in the old serial and log in, if it pops up a warning, it may ask you to migrate the serial and delete the old device or you may have a step or two on the Microsoft website to do this, I’m a bit hazy on the details as I did this a good 4 years ago, bit it wasn’t much of a headache.
Drbreen@sh.itjust.works
on 28 Sep 2023 23:17
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OEM keys are linked to motherboards I believe. Mine is a retail key and I’ve used it across many different builds over the years.
Retail keys can also be linked to the hardware or Microsoft account
pjhenry1216@kbin.social
on 28 Sep 2023 23:54
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Keys are usually stored in the TPM chip and/or tied to Microsoft accounts if you use one. If you don't have an account, there's actually a limit to how often a key can activate new hardware. If there's no TPM, there's simply a limit within a certain timeframe that it can be used to activate on the same hardware.
Drbreen@sh.itjust.works
on 29 Sep 2023 00:02
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Right, I’m pretty sure this key is tied to my MS account.
UnculturedSwine@lemmy.world
on 28 Sep 2023 22:46
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Jumped the windows ship long ago. So glad I don’t need to deal with this nonsense anymore.
PeachMan@lemmy.world
on 28 Sep 2023 22:52
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To be fair, nobody actually NEEDS to deal with this nonsense. Windows works just fine without an activated key, literally the only downside is the “Please activate Windows” bug on your desktop. That’s it, everything else works fine.
But yes, using Linux is also a great option.
HeyJoe@lemmy.world
on 28 Sep 2023 23:10
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Not exactly, can’t customize it either or change certain settings. I know this because I just built a new PC and the key I had didn’t work for 2 days while I had support figure it out.
Absolutely, it’s not the worst. I had a client who had me rebuild their work pc for them and the key they gave me didn’t work. They never ended up bothering getting it to work since it was a work pc and didn’t really care if they could change the background or theme. This was Win 10, I think 11 has a few more settings locked out but it’s not bad really.
vividspecter@lemm.ee
on 29 Sep 2023 00:20
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I don’t think system wide dark theme works without a key, although there are workarounds of course.
The_Mixer_Dude@lemmus.org
on 29 Sep 2023 01:55
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It does on 11
bighatchester@lemmy.world
on 28 Sep 2023 23:10
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I did recently and have regrets yet . Been using to run yuzu perfectly and most games I’ve tried work great other than some games that use certain anti cheats . Going to work on RGB control soon once I have time. And I have a windows VM to adjust the controls easily on my mouse and gaming keypad which I almost never need to change.
BigVault@kbin.social
on 29 Sep 2023 00:59
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I’m going to fully assess what actual windows software I rely on any more and migrate all of my systems to a Linux based os this weekend I think.
The amount of games that I play that work on my Steam deck already confirms that I’ll be fine there.
I probably spin up a windows vm that I could remote into from my homelab if I’ve missed anything I do need to run.
Ya I’m thinking I’ll just try some version of linux on my old laptop
Zima@kbin.social
on 29 Sep 2023 00:04
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I finally ran out windows 7 keys and had to buy a new one for win11, they cost 4-9$ online.
teejay@lemmy.world
on 29 Sep 2023 01:39
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Where?
SomeRandomWords@lemmy.blahaj.zone
on 29 Sep 2023 01:56
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KeysOff has been very reliable for me in the past (I’m not affiliated with them, just a happy customer) but I’m pretty sure there are multiple VLK resellers out there for Windows keys at this point.
Zima@kbin.social
on 29 Sep 2023 03:01
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i randomly picked a shady website i found by searching "windows 11 pro license key purchase"
Piemanding@sh.itjust.works
on 29 Sep 2023 04:47
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I’ve been able to get them off ebay before for windows 10 keys. Got a pro key for 6 dollars I believe.
JackbyDev@programming.dev
on 29 Sep 2023 05:46
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r/MicrosoftSoftwareSwap sells them but mine stopped working and the dude who sold it to me didn’t answer. So don’t go there.
Go to Amazon UK, bunch of really cheap ones there. You’ll get the key via email instantly. Ideally, install a fresh windows 10 and immediately upgrade to 11, then the key will be upgraded and remains valid even if the original one gets disabled.
TalesFromTheKitchen@lemmy.world
on 29 Sep 2023 03:31
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Yeah, volume keys are what I’ve been using the past ten years or so. Only one office key got blacklisted so far. Overall a pretty good deal.
altima_neo@lemmy.zip
on 29 Sep 2023 00:19
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Not like I wanted to, my older PCs running windows 7 aren’t eligible for Windows 11 anyway
The_Mixer_Dude@lemmus.org
on 29 Sep 2023 01:51
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Try installing fresh from USB. Typically works for me on any machine that says it couldn’t install on
TimeSquirrel@kbin.social
on 29 Sep 2023 10:49
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It's because of the TPM shit but there are ways to bypass that in the installer. There's not that much difference in the architecture of Windows 7 v.s Windows 11, and there is theoretically nothing stopping a Win7 machine from running Win11. It's all the same since Vista anyway. That was the last major architecture revamp.
spudwart@spudwart.com
on 29 Sep 2023 00:57
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Activate Linux
spudwart@spudwart.com
on 29 Sep 2023 00:57
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Activate Linux
HidingCat@kbin.social
on 29 Sep 2023 01:42
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Hmm, this shouldn't affect me, as my Win 7 Pro key is now a Win 10 Pro key, right?
If you already activated it once with 10 Pro, then yes, you can freely use it beyond the cut-off date.
Johnpwrinkle@midwest.social
on 29 Sep 2023 02:56
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I have around 30 windows 7 pro COAs (used to work in a pc repair shop, pulled the COAs on every dead pc that came through). Most of them are from dells, but I haven’t had an issue activating on custom pcs. If anyone wants one, let me know
Artaca@lemdro.id
on 29 Sep 2023 03:01
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If you’re handing out free keys, I’d happily take one! Pretty smart to yoink em from scrapped PCs lol
Johnpwrinkle@midwest.social
on 29 Sep 2023 03:06
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Getting rid of the automated 11 upgrade was a pain already, took me months to finally find what was making it resurface all the time.
Thing is, I wasn’t even opposed to it originally. It just didn’t work and failed systematically. And my PC wasn’t even supposed to support it, since I don’t have TPM 2.0, so no idea why it even tried.
Now with all the reports of new ways to fuck with privacy I don’t even see any reason to upgrade.
tony@lemmy.hoyle.me.uk
on 29 Sep 2023 12:20
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I think they removed that requirement recently… I killed the upgrade prompts originally by disabling the fTPM but they’ve come back in the last month or so.
Weird. The lack of TPM 2.0 never prevented the upgrade process in my case, but once I disabled the upgrade, it didn’t come back (though I couldn’t tell you exactly what worked for me, I googled that some time ago).
However, for a while now Windows Update has been telling me my PC didn’t have the minimal requirements to execute Windows 11. Sure enough, PC health check app tells me it’s just lacking TPM. Gee, maybe it would have helped to check that before trying back then…
ColdWater@lemmy.ca
on 29 Sep 2023 07:16
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Ahemm… MAS
jws_shadotak@sh.itjust.works
on 29 Sep 2023 10:21
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MAS is directly affected by this and doesn’t work anymore.
On their GitHub it looks like they’re looking for a way around it.
Hmm… interesting, I haven’t used MAS for a while because I have windows 7 OEM key stuck with my MS account I wonder if it won’t work anymore but I’m still rocking win10 anyway
ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
on 29 Sep 2023 07:30
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On 10 right now, but honestly have had enough of the whole Windows ecosystem. (Like today I ran across a look at these exciting Windows 11 September updates! woo! aren’t you excited! video, and it was almost all embarrassingly cosmetic. Except for the part where they’re finally adding native support for archive formats (.7z, .rar, .tar) that everyone else has supported for decades: how fucking charming am I supposed to find that announcement after all these years of using 3rd party apps, when the probability of the native support being buggy as hell is very high? And that was just one example; there’s a full list in the description box.
No thanks. It’s clear they did all this just to be able to simultaneously slather AI hooks all through the OS works, free for now but not forever, and I’m just not interested in that either. Nothing against AI, I just don’t want it integrated into my OS. I also like my privacy, believe in keeping my own shit on my own computers, and enjoy not having a significant portion of my hardware computing load dedicated to the collection and sale of my data.
But MS isn’t the only game in town anymore. I tried some hardware-light Linux distros on a 13 year old MacBook recently just to see what the fuss is about, and was gobsmacked at how well they ran with 4GB of RAM and a slow (by today’s standards) processor. Holy shit. So I did a bit of hardware upgrading so I could run even more, and yesterday I installed Fedora 38 with KDE Plasma on that same MacBook with 16GB of RAM and a 1T SSD. It picked up every bit of that hardware on its own, too; I didn’t have to configure a thing.
It’s almost too easy, lol. It’s Linux so I thought I was going to be overwhelmed with command line shit, but no, not at all: the few times I needed the command line, the exact syntax was a web search away, with plentiful discussion, documentation, and even demo videos to choose from.
So Microsoft can keep that AI-ridden ad-ware Windows 11 shit. I’ll keep 10 for now (installed on a 7 license, lol) until I’m fully comfortable with Linux, and then that’s that.
Put it this way. I now have a screaming fast machine that runs on 13-year-old hardware where every software I could want for it is free, open source, and backed by a gazillion gurus both pro and amateur for whom no question is too arcane; why the hell should I give that up for the baggy, bloated, slow, privacy-invasive advertising delivery service that is Microsoft Windows?
I know there will be issues with Linux as I get to know it and use it, just because there are issues with every OS. There may even be things I find I can’t get past, and if that happens I try other distros or suck it up, lol. But fuck MS if they think I am going to pay actual cash to help them serve up my privacy while they deliver unwanted ads to me every time I boot it up.
Thank you for coming to my Ted talk, lol.
PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks
on 29 Sep 2023 07:30
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Yeah, sometimes if I haven’t booted up my laptop in a while, I’ll run pacman -Sy archlinux-keyring to get the keys I need.
pineapplelover@lemm.ee
on 29 Sep 2023 21:31
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Haven’t happened to me yet. I’ll keep this in mind. My arch devices are constantly in use.
Johanno@feddit.de
on 29 Sep 2023 09:19
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You guys are using keys?
My first legit Windows Version I installed(not pre-installed) was when my university gave keys out for free.
Before that I used sketchy tools to activate my Windows. Since I am using Linux only my vms don’t get activated. Windows 10 runs fine without activation.
neshura@bookwormstory.social
on 29 Sep 2023 11:16
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Space Engineers has no Linux Dedicated Server so I’m forced to run a Windows VM. It’s the only piece of software I’ve encountered that problem with and it boggles my mind why they chose to do that
Johanno@feddit.de
on 29 Sep 2023 11:23
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The same reason I set up a windows vm yesterday.
Space Engineers. There are dockers for it but since Single Player on Linux is already suffering in Performance I don’t think the server in docker on wine will perform better.
And I used a Windows Image that I used for personal installs and never had the issue that it shutdown unactivated. Some settings aren’t available though. Nothing usually you need.
neshura@bookwormstory.social
on 29 Sep 2023 11:30
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Getting Space Engineers to run on Linux is a constant experience of “Ooohh, it works. Now don’t touch anything or it’ll break!”. There are some docker containers out there that seem to work but then I’d lose the advantage of Torch and I’m not about to do that.
Really hope they provide a Linux Server for Space Engineers 2 (I assume that is what they will work on once Vrage3 is done)
tony@lemmy.hoyle.me.uk
on 29 Sep 2023 12:16
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I’ve got an entire set of windows test VMs running unactivated for about 4 years now. We have a few at work too (we actually have keys for those but nobody has bothered putting them in).
The worst that happens is you can’t set a desktop background.
icedterminal@lemmy.world
on 29 Sep 2023 12:58
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What you’re describing is for bare metal Windows Server only or all editions in a VM. And that’s on purpose. You can probably guess why. Windows Home through Enterprise will run indefinitely on bare metal. It just locks down personalisation. Microsoft explicitly offers a VHD of Windows that doesn’t require activation.
dangblingus@lemmy.world
on 29 Sep 2023 13:03
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Nope. On all of my machines I installed Windows 10 using an official usb boot disk with a distro straight from Microsoft. It was 100% free, I didn’t need an account, and I’m not being prompted to activate, nor do I have the annoying little watermark in the bottom right of my screen.
I seriously don’t understand how people are paying to use Windows when Microsoft gives it away for free.
Trollception@lemmy.world
on 29 Sep 2023 13:09
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Were those OEM machines? Often times OEM computers will come with a Windows OS license during purchase and I think Windows may check the hardware thumbprint of the machine and license it automatically. Windows 10/11 is certainly not free for people who build their own machine from parts.
KillAllPoorPeople@lemmy.world
on 29 Sep 2023 12:15
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I had to fire up a Windows VM yesterday. Holy shit its gotten so bad. Glad I don’t need to deal with that shit on a daily basis anymore. I wish people weren’t so scared of Linux.
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
on 29 Sep 2023 13:01
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Scared?
Despite what Linux aficionados think, the Linux world is fractured and broken for the average person. I’ve been running dual boots or standalone linux for decades, but I still consider myself a relative beginner because I get pissed at Linux not doing what I want when I need it to and I’ll just give up trying to sort it out. Packages don’t install .make doesn’t work. .configure the same. Windows applications don’t work because Wine sucks, if it even installs correctly. Too many distros, too many versions that won’t accept apps built for previous versions, repositories disappearing and upgrade paths that aren’t intuitive. Online searches offer multiple “fixes”, but good luck. It probably doesn’t work for your distro, version, user privileges, etc. Linux for the average person sucks, and it sucks bad. Even popular ones like Ubuntu are a pain in the ass. I have all sorts of boxes running linux, from raspberry pi to Ubuntu, to Debian. The Pi’s are the best, they don’t break shit on updates or upgrade. The rest? Apt-get update is fraught with peril. I grew up with command line work, I still use it all the time, but I don’t have the patience to deal with trying to get Linux to do what a Windows machine does.
KillAllPoorPeople@lemmy.world
on 29 Sep 2023 22:15
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I’ve put countless elderly individuals like yourself onto PopOS! and they’re getting by just fine. This sounds like a you problem.
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
on 29 Sep 2023 23:52
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Elderly…lol. You’re funny.
Cysioland@lemmygrad.ml
on 29 Sep 2023 13:03
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I wish we could just get back to an updated version of 7. Everything since has sucked.
altec@midwest.social
on 29 Sep 2023 15:21
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If you don’t use any software that requires Windows, you should give Kubuntu a try. I’ve found it very easy to use, as someone coming from Windows.
danielfgom@lemmy.world
on 29 Sep 2023 17:09
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It had to happen eventually. To be honest I’m surprised Microsoft still charges for Windows when Apple, Google Chrome OS and Linux offers their systems for free.
In my case I run Windows 10 in a VM on my Linux machine just to use the Canon printer which the box said supported Linux but after I bought it, their website says they no longer support Linux.
So I’m forced to use Windows.
Btw, if you use Linux ain’t buy a Canon printer. If you can, get Brother.
grayman@lemmy.world
on 30 Sep 2023 01:25
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If they used to, find the ppd or one from the series models.
whofearsthenight@lemm.ee
on 30 Sep 2023 02:04
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tbh I wish they’d charge for their OS and they would charge a little more instead of filling it with bullshit and privacy nightmares that I (and probably no one) wants. I don’t main on Windows, but goddamn is it annoying when I do update having to get rid of some new bullshit every single time.
It’s also a bit funny because used to be you bought a new key for each OS version. This could be a positive for Windows, but they bungled it because they decided Windows 10 was going to be the “last” version of Windows, until they didn’t.
Lemminary@lemmy.world
on 29 Sep 2023 19:09
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So I can’t upgrade my sistem that works perfectly fine because it doesn’t meet one of their frivolous requirements. And now I can’t use the key that I legally purchased? Sounds like MS doesn’t want me to use their products.
A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
on 30 Sep 2023 02:02
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They don’t want you, because they only want people that will happily conform and accept the walled garden they are slowly building towards
phoenixz@lemmy.ca
on 29 Sep 2023 19:29
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Install Linux and don’t have to deal with any of the shit Microsoft software
cy_narrator@discuss.tchncs.de
on 30 Sep 2023 05:08
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Why? Just install Linux and be done with the windows shit
HawlSera@lemm.ee
on 30 Sep 2023 00:14
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Shady
scripthook@lemmy.world
on 30 Sep 2023 01:39
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And you wonder why I switched to Mac last year when Win 11 was launched. I’d rather give $700 to Apple for a Mac Mini than spend $600 rebuilding my PC for an OS I don’t want
cy_narrator@discuss.tchncs.de
on 30 Sep 2023 05:06
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I have some trusty KMS activator that I have to use every year once, so far no problems
sagrotan@lemmy.world
on 30 Sep 2023 10:50
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After Garuda Linux I don’t even use that crap on our gaming machine. Never again.
threaded - newest
Probably blocks the MAS activation scripts from working too.
Sure enough, on their site:
This is the real blow. Truly the end of an era.
It will absolutely get figured out and gotten around again.
Looks like it’s time to start using reactos i guess… ☹️
Wow, what a timing, just discovered MAS last month and used it last week. Was truly nice and easy, and I liked the technical explanations on their website.
Lucky me, just used last month to upgrade to 10 pro
I was lucky to receive 10 Windows 7 and Visual Studio Ultimate keys for personal use, in the Windows 7 era.
Once the "you can use Windows 7 keys to activate Windows 8/10" thing, combined with Microsoft accounts came around, I created 10 Microsoft accounts with 10 of my email addresses.
I've been able to activate Windows versions 7-11 with all 10 keys (and I can change to older Windows without issue) and been able to upgrade Visual Studio Ultimate to the current version year after year this way.
I wonder if the already upgraded keys attached to Microsoft accounts, that become a bit version fluid, will remain able to use higher versions.
I have some Windows keys back from college (software policy stated you kept your software if you graduate), I hope those continue to work for me as well.
Damn, that's a lot of keys! Lucky alright. Do you use them all at once though? o_O That's a lot of computers.
You can buy a used mini PC for less than the price of a new Windows 11 license. I know there are cheaper license sites out there (unclear how legit they are) but this way you get a Windows license and a spare PC to run Linux!
They cost like $5 online, it’s not like it’s a huge risk. I’ve bought OEM keys before and they work fine. Just use a credit card so you can easily get a refund if it’s fake.
Those are usually Windows 7 or 8 keys.
Which do indeed work to activate Windows 10 and 11.
But not anymore.
Or just install Linux and never worry about that shit again lol
I agree, I don’t plan to go back! Just don’t like giving up the option.
There could be a bit of a caveat here. I when I purchased my laptop it had windows 10 installed. When I installed Mint, I could not reuse that key in a VM because it was “different hardware”. The license, could not be transferred under any circumstance. I had also purchased the upgrade to Pro through the windows store. That’s also lost.
I seldom run windows, even in the VM, but it still leaves one a bit bitter.
I reused a Win10 Pro key from a mini PC from 2015 onto a brand new build and it worked right away. Not sure what the difference is with your situation. Maybe it was your license type?
It was the license that came on an Acer laptop. Completely non transferable per Microsoft.
Laptop licences are linked to the hardware. You technically do not have a key to begin with.
Usually calling Windows support, they'll give you a key if you just tell them you replaced some piece of hardware due to failure, assuming you haven't been transferring the same key around for awhile. They tend to be more invested in keeping you in the Windows ecosystem than they are are just getting one more license sold.
I called support, they said no. Asked for a one time exception, still no. The key to my knowledge was only used once on the laptop when I bought it new.
I wasn’t investing any more time in it.
Yes, an OEM license is not transferable from the hardware the OEM originally installed it on, even to a VM running on that hardware.
Windows 10 links their license to the motherboard.
So as long as you use the same motherboard, the key will work.
This isn’t possible with VMs sadly.
You can extract the SLIC value from the ACPI table, and then pass it through to QEMU
See more details here: gist.github.com/…/49bd034d43e054bd1d8d4fec38c305e…
It is my understanding that this can only be used to run the OEM license one one instance in a VM, on the specific hardware that is originally licensed. IE, you virtualize the license if the bootOS is Linux, but you can’t run 2 instances of the same windows license inside each other.
When I build a new PC, I could not transfer my old 7 pro retail license, even though it worked fine on my old PC running Windows 10 and it even said it was a digital license connected to my MS account.
So I bought a Win 10 pro key from one of the ebay resellers aber everything was fine… until it wasn’t. I updated the firmware for my mainboard and Windows took that for a replacement of hardware. Troubleshooter did not show three option “I recently changed my hardware” and did not give me the option to call Microsoft’s support.
Turns out it was a “one time install” key which was invalidated by changing the hardware. So it couldn’t activate a second time. And since the key seller was out of business at that time (they’ll change accounts every few months), I had no way of getting the key replaced.
Luckily, I still had an old Windows 7 COA with key and CD lying around from an old Dell business Workstation. That activated just fine.
But yeah, even if you have a valid license connected to your Microsoft account, there’s no way of seeing it in your account, and it’s not guaranteed MS will honor it.
Dumb q, if I install Linux and later decide to reinstall Windows, is that OEM license still good?
Yes
The answer is a resounding maybe. If you activated with a Microsoft account or if there's a TPM chip, the chances of it still working increases. There are different kinds of licenses, but if it fails, there's a better than not chance calling MS support and just telling them you had a hardware failure on your laptop and you need to reinstall, they'll get you going. Not a guarantee though. And I'll caveat and say this information is a couple years old (I don't work in tech support anymore).
You can just reactivate by troubleshooting your activation in Windows.
No need to call Microsoft about it.
The multiple posts of people not being able to do that should have made it clear that doesn't always work.
Definitely yes.
As long as you use the same motherboard.
Cheap license sites (windows, games, etc) usually use keys bought via stolen credit cards. Pirating it is much better than buying from those sites, including for the devs that get punished for chargebacks from those keys.
Tbh if you want gray area keys. Microsoftsoftwareswap has always had verified users selling business generated licenses keys. If you HAVE to buy a key, at least buy one from vetted people and not some rando on a seller site
Just to be clear… in the case of Windows, that would be M$…?
So, hurting Microsoft and getting a cheap Windows key? Where’s the downside?
I’ve had the same Win8 Pro key that I purchased for $40 when it released 12 years ago. I’ve used it for Win10 and 11. Is this saying if I format my drive and reinstall Win11 that I won’t be able to activate using this key anymore?
If I’m not mistaken your key is linked to your motherboard as well as your Microsoft account. So I think you should be fine. I just formatted my drive yesterday and it didn’t even ask me to type it in, I skipped that step and it verified once I logged in.
That on laptop or desktop? I had a laptop and always did like you said. For the first time I have a desktop and don’t know how things go now
Super late reply to your question, but when you add Windows and punch in the key it links to the motherboard of the PC (laptop or desktop, doesn’t matter). Once you sign in to your Microsoft account, the key and mobo serial gets stored there. If you bought a new PC and with it a new motherboard you can find your key in your account or use the one on the back of your old laptop and delink it from your old device so that you can reuse it on your new one. It moves with your account.
Of you do a standard format, you shouldn’t have to worry, but if you ever upgrade your mobo, just make sure you get a screenshot of your serial in the windows settings and make sure you are logged in to your windows account (maybe check the account settings on a browser and see if you can find your devices, not sure of this is a necessary step… but just to make sure it’s linked I guess)… then once you format, you can punch in the old serial and log in, if it pops up a warning, it may ask you to migrate the serial and delete the old device or you may have a step or two on the Microsoft website to do this, I’m a bit hazy on the details as I did this a good 4 years ago, bit it wasn’t much of a headache.
OEM keys are linked to motherboards I believe. Mine is a retail key and I’ve used it across many different builds over the years.
Retail keys can also be linked to the hardware or Microsoft account
Keys are usually stored in the TPM chip and/or tied to Microsoft accounts if you use one. If you don't have an account, there's actually a limit to how often a key can activate new hardware. If there's no TPM, there's simply a limit within a certain timeframe that it can be used to activate on the same hardware.
Right, I’m pretty sure this key is tied to my MS account.
Jumped the windows ship long ago. So glad I don’t need to deal with this nonsense anymore.
To be fair, nobody actually NEEDS to deal with this nonsense. Windows works just fine without an activated key, literally the only downside is the “Please activate Windows” bug on your desktop. That’s it, everything else works fine.
But yes, using Linux is also a great option.
Not exactly, can’t customize it either or change certain settings. I know this because I just built a new PC and the key I had didn’t work for 2 days while I had support figure it out.
Yeah, but nothing that prevents you from using your computer.
Customisation is just aesthetics
Absolutely, it’s not the worst. I had a client who had me rebuild their work pc for them and the key they gave me didn’t work. They never ended up bothering getting it to work since it was a work pc and didn’t really care if they could change the background or theme. This was Win 10, I think 11 has a few more settings locked out but it’s not bad really.
I don’t think system wide dark theme works without a key, although there are workarounds of course.
It does on 11
I did recently and have regrets yet . Been using to run yuzu perfectly and most games I’ve tried work great other than some games that use certain anti cheats . Going to work on RGB control soon once I have time. And I have a windows VM to adjust the controls easily on my mouse and gaming keypad which I almost never need to change.
I’m going to fully assess what actual windows software I rely on any more and migrate all of my systems to a Linux based os this weekend I think.
The amount of games that I play that work on my Steam deck already confirms that I’ll be fine there.
I probably spin up a windows vm that I could remote into from my homelab if I’ve missed anything I do need to run.
Ya I’m thinking I’ll just try some version of linux on my old laptop
I finally ran out windows 7 keys and had to buy a new one for win11, they cost 4-9$ online.
Where?
KeysOff has been very reliable for me in the past (I’m not affiliated with them, just a happy customer) but I’m pretty sure there are multiple VLK resellers out there for Windows keys at this point.
i randomly picked a shady website i found by searching "windows 11 pro license key purchase"
I’ve been able to get them off ebay before for windows 10 keys. Got a pro key for 6 dollars I believe.
r/MicrosoftSoftwareSwap sells them but mine stopped working and the dude who sold it to me didn’t answer. So don’t go there.
Go to Amazon UK, bunch of really cheap ones there. You’ll get the key via email instantly. Ideally, install a fresh windows 10 and immediately upgrade to 11, then the key will be upgraded and remains valid even if the original one gets disabled.
Yeah, volume keys are what I’ve been using the past ten years or so. Only one office key got blacklisted so far. Overall a pretty good deal.
Not like I wanted to, my older PCs running windows 7 aren’t eligible for Windows 11 anyway
Try installing fresh from USB. Typically works for me on any machine that says it couldn’t install on
It's because of the TPM shit but there are ways to bypass that in the installer. There's not that much difference in the architecture of Windows 7 v.s Windows 11, and there is theoretically nothing stopping a Win7 machine from running Win11. It's all the same since Vista anyway. That was the last major architecture revamp.
Activate Linux
Activate Linux
Hmm, this shouldn't affect me, as my Win 7 Pro key is now a Win 10 Pro key, right?
If you already activated it once with 10 Pro, then yes, you can freely use it beyond the cut-off date.
I have around 30 windows 7 pro COAs (used to work in a pc repair shop, pulled the COAs on every dead pc that came through). Most of them are from dells, but I haven’t had an issue activating on custom pcs. If anyone wants one, let me know
If you’re handing out free keys, I’d happily take one! Pretty smart to yoink em from scrapped PCs lol
DM’d you
I'd like one too if you have a spare
DM’d you too
I’d love one if you have a spare! Thanks so much
DM’d you
Can I have 3?
Best limit it to one to share the love - DM’d you
Ty!
Can i get one? Upgraded my PC and windows wont accept my old code, been running without activation for a while lol
DM’d you
No problem. I’m still staying on 10 though.
Yeah, same for me.
Getting rid of the automated 11 upgrade was a pain already, took me months to finally find what was making it resurface all the time.
Thing is, I wasn’t even opposed to it originally. It just didn’t work and failed systematically. And my PC wasn’t even supposed to support it, since I don’t have TPM 2.0, so no idea why it even tried.
Now with all the reports of new ways to fuck with privacy I don’t even see any reason to upgrade.
I think they removed that requirement recently… I killed the upgrade prompts originally by disabling the fTPM but they’ve come back in the last month or so.
Weird. The lack of TPM 2.0 never prevented the upgrade process in my case, but once I disabled the upgrade, it didn’t come back (though I couldn’t tell you exactly what worked for me, I googled that some time ago).
However, for a while now Windows Update has been telling me my PC didn’t have the minimal requirements to execute Windows 11. Sure enough, PC health check app tells me it’s just lacking TPM. Gee, maybe it would have helped to check that before trying back then…
Ahemm… MAS
MAS is directly affected by this and doesn’t work anymore.
On their GitHub it looks like they’re looking for a way around it.
Hmm… interesting, I haven’t used MAS for a while because I have windows 7 OEM key stuck with my MS account I wonder if it won’t work anymore but I’m still rocking win10 anyway
On 10 right now, but honestly have had enough of the whole Windows ecosystem. (Like today I ran across a look at these exciting Windows 11 September updates! woo! aren’t you excited! video, and it was almost all embarrassingly cosmetic. Except for the part where they’re finally adding native support for archive formats (.7z, .rar, .tar) that everyone else has supported for decades: how fucking charming am I supposed to find that announcement after all these years of using 3rd party apps, when the probability of the native support being buggy as hell is very high? And that was just one example; there’s a full list in the description box.
No thanks. It’s clear they did all this just to be able to simultaneously slather AI hooks all through the OS works, free for now but not forever, and I’m just not interested in that either. Nothing against AI, I just don’t want it integrated into my OS. I also like my privacy, believe in keeping my own shit on my own computers, and enjoy not having a significant portion of my hardware computing load dedicated to the collection and sale of my data.
But MS isn’t the only game in town anymore. I tried some hardware-light Linux distros on a 13 year old MacBook recently just to see what the fuss is about, and was gobsmacked at how well they ran with 4GB of RAM and a slow (by today’s standards) processor. Holy shit. So I did a bit of hardware upgrading so I could run even more, and yesterday I installed Fedora 38 with KDE Plasma on that same MacBook with 16GB of RAM and a 1T SSD. It picked up every bit of that hardware on its own, too; I didn’t have to configure a thing.
It’s almost too easy, lol. It’s Linux so I thought I was going to be overwhelmed with command line shit, but no, not at all: the few times I needed the command line, the exact syntax was a web search away, with plentiful discussion, documentation, and even demo videos to choose from.
And if I don’t like it, I can try as many as I like off USB drives until I see something I like and decide to install that instead, and there are literally dozens, if not hundreds of distros now.
So Microsoft can keep that AI-ridden ad-ware Windows 11 shit. I’ll keep 10 for now (installed on a 7 license, lol) until I’m fully comfortable with Linux, and then that’s that.
Put it this way. I now have a screaming fast machine that runs on 13-year-old hardware where every software I could want for it is free, open source, and backed by a gazillion gurus both pro and amateur for whom no question is too arcane; why the hell should I give that up for the baggy, bloated, slow, privacy-invasive advertising delivery service that is Microsoft Windows?
I know there will be issues with Linux as I get to know it and use it, just because there are issues with every OS. There may even be things I find I can’t get past, and if that happens I try other distros or suck it up, lol. But fuck MS if they think I am going to pay actual cash to help them serve up my privacy while they deliver unwanted ads to me every time I boot it up.
Thank you for coming to my Ted talk, lol.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Windows 11 September updates!
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Wym man I pacman -Syu 20 times a day with no problem. You guys need keys?
Yeah, sometimes if I haven’t booted up my laptop in a while, I’ll run pacman -Sy archlinux-keyring to get the keys I need.
Haven’t happened to me yet. I’ll keep this in mind. My arch devices are constantly in use.
You guys are using keys?
My first legit Windows Version I installed(not pre-installed) was when my university gave keys out for free.
Before that I used sketchy tools to activate my Windows. Since I am using Linux only my vms don’t get activated. Windows 10 runs fine without activation.
.
I’ve got an unactivated VM I abuse as a server that’s been running for half a year now, no idea what you are talking about
windows…as a server…?
Space Engineers has no Linux Dedicated Server so I’m forced to run a Windows VM. It’s the only piece of software I’ve encountered that problem with and it boggles my mind why they chose to do that
The same reason I set up a windows vm yesterday.
Space Engineers. There are dockers for it but since Single Player on Linux is already suffering in Performance I don’t think the server in docker on wine will perform better.
And I used a Windows Image that I used for personal installs and never had the issue that it shutdown unactivated. Some settings aren’t available though. Nothing usually you need.
Getting Space Engineers to run on Linux is a constant experience of “Ooohh, it works. Now don’t touch anything or it’ll break!”. There are some docker containers out there that seem to work but then I’d lose the advantage of Torch and I’m not about to do that.
Really hope they provide a Linux Server for Space Engineers 2 (I assume that is what they will work on once Vrage3 is done)
ah, i assumed a web server. it’s ok for game servers i guess
He’s actually partly correct. VMs of Windows 10 or 11 are supposed to shut down hourly if not activated. It’s been present since Windows 10 released.
Here’s a reference in case you need one: superuser.com/…/why-does-windows-10-shut-down-hou…
You either have the registry key unset, or are experiencing a bug of the software protection mechanism.
that applies to vm images only
I’ve got an entire set of windows test VMs running unactivated for about 4 years now. We have a few at work too (we actually have keys for those but nobody has bothered putting them in).
The worst that happens is you can’t set a desktop background.
What you’re describing is for bare metal Windows Server only or all editions in a VM. And that’s on purpose. You can probably guess why. Windows Home through Enterprise will run indefinitely on bare metal. It just locks down personalisation. Microsoft explicitly offers a VHD of Windows that doesn’t require activation.
Nope. On all of my machines I installed Windows 10 using an official usb boot disk with a distro straight from Microsoft. It was 100% free, I didn’t need an account, and I’m not being prompted to activate, nor do I have the annoying little watermark in the bottom right of my screen.
I seriously don’t understand how people are paying to use Windows when Microsoft gives it away for free.
Were those OEM machines? Often times OEM computers will come with a Windows OS license during purchase and I think Windows may check the hardware thumbprint of the machine and license it automatically. Windows 10/11 is certainly not free for people who build their own machine from parts.
.
I had to fire up a Windows VM yesterday. Holy shit its gotten so bad. Glad I don’t need to deal with that shit on a daily basis anymore. I wish people weren’t so scared of Linux.
Scared?
Despite what Linux aficionados think, the Linux world is fractured and broken for the average person. I’ve been running dual boots or standalone linux for decades, but I still consider myself a relative beginner because I get pissed at Linux not doing what I want when I need it to and I’ll just give up trying to sort it out. Packages don’t install .make doesn’t work. .configure the same. Windows applications don’t work because Wine sucks, if it even installs correctly. Too many distros, too many versions that won’t accept apps built for previous versions, repositories disappearing and upgrade paths that aren’t intuitive. Online searches offer multiple “fixes”, but good luck. It probably doesn’t work for your distro, version, user privileges, etc. Linux for the average person sucks, and it sucks bad. Even popular ones like Ubuntu are a pain in the ass. I have all sorts of boxes running linux, from raspberry pi to Ubuntu, to Debian. The Pi’s are the best, they don’t break shit on updates or upgrade. The rest? Apt-get update is fraught with peril. I grew up with command line work, I still use it all the time, but I don’t have the patience to deal with trying to get Linux to do what a Windows machine does.
I’ve put countless elderly individuals like yourself onto PopOS! and they’re getting by just fine. This sounds like a you problem.
Elderly…lol. You’re funny.
Okay, I’ll use the Microsoft-endorsed activation tool
Ima try that later. Had the activate windows water mark on my monitor for like a year lol.
I wish we could just get back to an updated version of 7. Everything since has sucked.
If you don’t use any software that requires Windows, you should give Kubuntu a try. I’ve found it very easy to use, as someone coming from Windows.
It had to happen eventually. To be honest I’m surprised Microsoft still charges for Windows when Apple, Google Chrome OS and Linux offers their systems for free.
In my case I run Windows 10 in a VM on my Linux machine just to use the Canon printer which the box said supported Linux but after I bought it, their website says they no longer support Linux.
So I’m forced to use Windows.
Btw, if you use Linux ain’t buy a Canon printer. If you can, get Brother.
If they used to, find the ppd or one from the series models.
tbh I wish they’d charge for their OS and they would charge a little more instead of filling it with bullshit and privacy nightmares that I (and probably no one) wants. I don’t main on Windows, but goddamn is it annoying when I do update having to get rid of some new bullshit every single time.
It’s also a bit funny because used to be you bought a new key for each OS version. This could be a positive for Windows, but they bungled it because they decided Windows 10 was going to be the “last” version of Windows, until they didn’t.
So I can’t upgrade my sistem that works perfectly fine because it doesn’t meet one of their frivolous requirements. And now I can’t use the key that I legally purchased? Sounds like MS doesn’t want me to use their products.
They don’t want you, because they only want people that will happily conform and accept the walled garden they are slowly building towards
Install Linux and don’t have to deal with any of the shit Microsoft software
Or use Windows 10 Activator
Why? Just install Linux and be done with the windows shit
Shady
And you wonder why I switched to Mac last year when Win 11 was launched. I’d rather give $700 to Apple for a Mac Mini than spend $600 rebuilding my PC for an OS I don’t want
I have some trusty KMS activator that I have to use every year once, so far no problems
After Garuda Linux I don’t even use that crap on our gaming machine. Never again.