Windows 10 Pro key for less than 2$

[akialwayz]

Hey guys,I was recently surfing ebay(India) and saw multiple listing for windows 10 pro for 150-200Rs(which is ~2 dollars). Now I was skeptical at first but it had ebay guarantee so I bought 1 key.I usually use kinguin/Scd keys for windows or office keys but a Win10 pro key there is ~ 20-35 USD.The key from ebay worked for my amusement(but I had to reinstall windows and was a lot of work). I want to know how these guys sell these key for such low prices.Say they got 300 keys via volume licensing same as sellers from kinguin,does it mean kinguin sellers are selling for high prices? Any thoughts.

 

P.S-Ebay sellers only sell 1 key to one account.

[Alir]

19 minutes ago, akialwayz said:

Hey guys,I was recently surfing ebay(India) and saw multiple listing for windows 10 pro for 150-200Rs(which is ~2 dollars). Now I was skeptical at first but it had ebay guarantee so I bought 1 key.I usually use kinguin/Scd keys for windows or office keys but a Win10 pro key there is ~ 20-35 USD.The key from ebay worked for my amusement(but I had to reinstall windows and was a lot of work). I want to know how these guys sell these key for such low prices.Say they got 300 keys via volume licensing same as sellers from kinguin,does it mean kinguin sellers are selling for high prices? Any thoughts.

 

P.S-Ebay sellers only sell 1 key to one account.

 

3 possibilities:

 

1) Stolen from full priced retail copies. (unlikely, though possible)

2) Bought in bulk for businesses and now sold individually on an unregulated (non-Microsoft) website. (most likely)

3) They've cracked Windows' key generation. (extremely highly unlikely)

 

Whichever one of the above it is, the key is being sold illegally/ against Microsoft's terms and conditions.

 

Your choice whether you want to go for it. You most likely won't get legal action anyways since it is being sold on a "reputable" site.

 

I don't see the point of buying it though. Windows 10 is 100% free with the Insider Preview. The cost is that they collect your data to improve their services. Which they do anyways on the full retail copy, just ever so slightly less. If that is your concern, use Linux. 

[dizmo]

Why pay at all? You don't need to pay for Windows to use it, and what you're doing is significantly worse.

 

31 minutes ago, Alir said:

I don't see the point of buying it though. Windows 10 is 100% free with the Insider Preview. The cost is that they collect your data to improve their services. Which they do anyways on the full retail copy, just ever so slightly less. If that is your concern, use Linux. 

You don't even have to do that. Just don't activate it. All you get is a message every now and then.

[akialwayz]

32 minutes ago, Alir said:

3 possibilities:

 

1) Stolen from full priced retail copies. (unlikely, though possible)

2) Bought in bulk for businesses and now sold individually on an unregulated (non-Microsoft) website.

3) They've cracked Windows' key generation (extremely highly unlikely)

 

Whichever one of the above it is, the key is being sold illegally/ against Microsoft's terms and conditions.

 

Your choice whether you want to go for it. You most likely won't get legal action anyways since it is being sold on a "reputable" site.

 

I don't see the point of buying it though. Windows 10 is 100% free with the Insider Preview. The cost is that they collect your data to improve their services. Which they do anyways on the full retail copy, just ever so slightly less. If that is your concern, use Linux. 

I already had windows 10,I just upgraded to pro version with the key that being said I used insider preview once and found it a bit buggy

 

28 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Why pay at all? You don't need to pay for Windows to use it, and what you're doing is significantly worse.

how is it worse than not paying and you cannot run pro edition like that(I think so).

[dizmo]

2 minutes ago, akialwayz said:

how is it worse than not paying and you cannot run pro edition like that(I think so).

I don't like funding criminals.

You don't need the Pro version.

[Alir]

8 minutes ago, dizmo said:

You don't even have to do that. Just don't activate it. All you get is a message every now and then.

There is an annoying watermark though and certain OS functionality is limited, last I checked.

[dizmo]

1 minute ago, Alir said:

There is an annoying watermark though and certain OS functionality is limited, last I checked.

You can't change your desktop background. That's it.

[Alir]

28 minutes ago, akialwayz said:

I already had windows 10,I just upgraded to pro version with the key that being said I used insider preview once and found it a bit buggy

Personally, I find Windows buggy anyways.

If you upgraded to Pro, I assume you did so for a reason and needed the extra functionality though.

 

22 minutes ago, dizmo said:

I don't like funding criminals.

You don't need the Pro version.

Personally, I don't like funding corporations that violate privacy like crack. Hence why I suggested Linux. There is no reason not to use it, unless you need Windows for a very specific reason (to run a certain program - I'm not big on Wine).

 

20 minutes ago, dizmo said:

You can't change your desktop background. That's it.

Yeah that's an instant turn off for me. 

 

If I'm running it on a personal machine, I expect full functionality of the OS. 

 

I don't expect people selling these keys cheap to be big bad evil criminals in the typical sense. But yeah funding them isn't a good thing either. 

[akialwayz]

4 minutes ago, Alir said:

I don't expect people selling these keys cheap to be big bad evil criminals in the typical sense. But yeah funding them isn't a good thing either. 

Yes bitlocker is a big plus for me.I also dont consider them criminals.

[Razor Blade]

It is very likely if the keys aren't stolen they are simply OEM keys taken from recycled electronics. Most are likely just Windows 7 keys.

 

Keep in mind using OEM keys (if they even activate) will result in zero support from Microsoft.

 

 

TBH unless you need the Pro features like RDP, bitlocker, Hyper-V, etc. there is no reason to upgrade your Windows 10 license.

[Alir]

11 minutes ago, akialwayz said:

Yes bitlocker is a big plus for me.I also dont consider them criminals.

 

Why use Bitlocker when you can use stronger, free-er open source alternatives like Veracrypt?

 

For clarification, they're still criminals. But that can't really be used against them entirely in a context where a corporation is charging ridiculous amounts of cash for their OS and yet is still collecting your private data.

[akialwayz]

3 minutes ago, Alir said:

 

Why use Bitlocker when you can use stronger, free-er open source alternatives like Veracrypt?

 

For clarification, they're still criminals. But that can't really be used against them entirely in a context where a corporation is charging ridiculous amounts of cash for their OS and yet is still collecting your private data.

tried veracrypt it had issues with my computer plus bitlocker is easier and less heavy as veracrypt.

[Alir]

1 hour ago, akialwayz said:

tried veracrypt it had issues with my computer plus bitlocker is easier and less heavy as veracrypt.

What issues? I've never encountered any serious issues.

Veracrypt is significantly more secure than Bitlocker and easier to ensure the security of. 

Though if you try whole disk encryption on a GUID partition table, it will probably fail. I only ever try it on an MBR. There's no need for GPTs anyways. 

 

Also, Bitlocker has backdoors, at the request of (at least) the US government, if not others. Microsoft cannot be trusted when it comes to security. 

 

For years, there was never any GPT support from open source encryption solutions for whole disk encryption. That changed last year with Veracrypt releasing support for GPTs. I tried it and it didn't go well. After every Windows Update, Veracrypt would fail to boot because Windows would tamper with changes made by Veracrypt on the boot partition. this constantly required me to boot into Linux to fix the issues.

 

Just install it on an MBR and all is good. These issues are the fault of Windows and Microsoft. Not Veracrypt or their team. 

[KHII]

Sense EU law requires the keys to be transferd it  is just a deactivated Product key that your inserting on another PC. 

 

 

Typically reset via Phone activation