My hard drive died taking with it my copy of Windows 10 (it was a refurbished computer that I guess didn’t like being used as a security camera DVR) I searched eBay and saw a bunch of sellers offering keys for $5-$10. My thinking is that these can’t possibly be legitimate (or are they).
Is there a cheaper way of getting a legal copy of Windows 10 other than going into the store and buying a retail package, which would cost more than the computer that it originally came on?
Newegg and TigerDirect and probably many others have legit product keys, sometimes on ‘sale’. Home is cheaper than Pro of course. No idea about sellers on ebay, but I share your skepticism.
If only the HD gets swapped and Win 10 was activated on the machine, there should be a way to reactivate the OS. I’m not sure about the details, but I suspect this needs a call to Microsoft.
The ebay keys are almost certainly based on license violations.
A few years ago, Microsoft linked Windows licenses to your Microsoft account. If you used one to log-in to Windows 10, you might be able to re-install Windows and activate it using your MS account.
You can download a copy of Windows 10 from Microsoft to do this if you need it: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
Depends on the definition of “legitimate”.
In the sense of “will this satisfy a bona fide license validity audit”, likely not. I have seen multiple theories concerning the source of these cheap licenses. Some believe these are actual OEM licences (most of these listings seem to include a statement that they are also selling a motherboard and that you are welcome to drop by at a certain place to collect it) that are being resold, the legality of which AFAIK is a somewhat grey area. There are also other claims, e.g. that these are actual licenses bought using stolen credit card data, or that they are procured from other markets than intended by MS. In short, it seems safe to assume that crimes and/or breaches of contract have occurred somewhere in the supply chain.
However, in the sense of “will this make my Windows behave as a fully licensed OS without the user having to find and install some strange software” the anecdotal consensus seems to lean in favor of “yes, at least for some time”. IIRC one of my old laptops had a Windows install with such a license key and ran for several years without any issues.
FWIW, on multiple occasions I have successfully reactivated Windows on systems after replacing a hard drive. It did not require a call to MS.
If Windows was activated on the old PC you can just do a clean install on a new hard drive. During installation, skip the step that asks for a key.
Once you finish the install, check the activation screen in settings. It should say “Activated with an electronic license.”
You can create install media on any PC with the media creation tool from the MS download site.
Get on another computer and go to this page:
Download the tool and follow the “create installation media” instructions.
Make sure the PC with the new blank hard drive is set to boot from USB, or DVD or whatever
When the installer loads, select whatever flavour of Windows was previously on the machine, and let it install. At some point it will ask you for a license key, but just select the “skip and do later” option, and let the install complete. It’ll phone home and validate the Windows install without you needing to do anything further.
OP I believe the Windows key is not stored on the hard drive, but instead in the BIOS–so something like Wolf333’s approach should work.
Although Microsoft officially stopped allowing free upgrades from Windows 7 (and presumably 8.x) a few years ago, you can still do it if you search for the link. I did this 3 months ago maybe, I’m not sure which link I used but looks like maybe Baron Greenback’s link might be best.
Yeah, the activation servers will still happily validate manual upgrades from 7 and 8.1 to 10.
This is what I tell people: you’re not buying a cheap license, you’re renting one. I see reviews online for cheap Windows boxes (like sticks and media centers) where people say it worked for a bit and then started getting MS license warnings. Once MS notices something off about a batch of licenses, they clamp down.
You could try getting a new HD , installing windows, seeing if it pulls the license from BIOS and if not calling Microsoft and seeing if that works. $30 for a new drive, and an hour or so of time doing the install. Decent chance of working one way or the other.
If you don’t want that hassle, or it doesn’t work, my advice is to just buy a refurbished/used computer with windows installed. My local computer store has refurbished computers with a legit Windows 10 install for $99. That’s cheaper than a $130 Windows license all by itself. Sure, it’s not cutting-edge gaming-rig hardware, but probably better than the old computer that just died and certainly enough to be a DVR. And you’re getting a ready-to-go guaranteed system and license.
If you want less money & more risk, hit Craigslist and buy used. For me, the cost of my time is too high to go that route, but up to you.
Thanks for the suggestions
The scenario is that this computer (per the sticker on front) originally had Windows 7 on it. It was sold to with a valid (or semi-valid apparently) copy of Windows 10. I’m actually not sure which version.
The thought occurred to me to just buy another refurbished computer, but the problem is that would be another used hard drive and the specific application I use is very hard-disk intensive. Also that leaves me with a computer carcass to dispose of and for some reason it’s nearly impossible to find a refurbished computer with an HDMI or DVI port, they all see to come with VGA and Displayport only.
Without an OS Can I look somewhere in Bios to see what the key is or what version of Windows 10 is I need to install? It’s a Dell 390 if it matters.
Using mine and Wolf’s method, it’s no big deal to have more than one go at installing. Try installing Win 10 Home first, and if that doesn’t validate then try Win 10 Pro. It’s very unlikely it’ll be one of the other versions.
Now that I think of it, the computer was actually from 8 (not 8.1) to 10, so it should work with any 7 or later install. As long as you’re not coming from 7 32-bit presumably.
It’s actually possible to do upgrade installs all the way from MS-DOS 5.0 to Windows 1.0 to Windows 10. I mean, if you have a lot of spare time on your hands. Like this guy:
Do you even have to activate Win10? I know earlier windows versions got nasty if you didn’t activate but Win10 doesn’t seem to care. My only windows install is running inside a virtual machine on Linux (all my PCs are native Linux). I’ve never activated it and it runs just fine. Only restriction I noticed is it won’t let me change the desktop background.
Same here. I’ve noticed sometimes, though, that after the virtual machine has been up for some amount of time (an hour maybe?), the words “Activate Windows” appear in the lower right corner, floating above whatever I’ve got open. The words are opaque, though, and easy enough to ignore.
I did upgrades from MS-DOS 3.3 to Window 7. I could have continued to Windows 10 but wanted to go to 64-bit so that was a “clean” install. (I used a mover program to migrate a lot of stuff to the new system.)
The XP to 7 upgrade was the trickiest. No direct upgrade so a very temporary upgrade to Vista was needed.
Once you get your Windows issue sorted out, consider getting a surveillance or DVR drive designed for this type of application. I use Western Digital purple drives in my DVRs, but other manufacturers make DVR drives.