Another cheap Windows key...

[homeap5]

I knew that Kinguin or other grey market sites have cheap keys, but this is one I think was a little better than Kinguin:

 

<link removed>

 

They even wrote normal price and then adds discount.

 

I wonder - why it looks like legal action? And why normal user can't just check if Windows key is legal or not? It should be simple - I call Microsoft, send them link to website and they answer me "yes, it's real deal, we know about this promo" or "no, it's illegal, do not buy that key on this website and we'll take actions to prevent piracy".

 

PS. I paste link because I'm not sure if it's legal or not. So it's not link for some torrent with activator, but link to website that everyone can find and many people use.

Edited September 26, 2020 by SansVarnic
Removed content.

[Oshino Shinobu]

It's a grey area. 

 

Majority of the keys are legit in the sense that they work. Some of the super cheap keys used to be MSDN or education copies which aren't allowed to be resold and can expire. It seems those types of keys aren't as common nowdays though. 

 

The truth is that no one knows for sure where these keys come from. In the past, many have been found to be purchased with stolen credit cards and the likes. Others are bought in a country where the keys are cheaper due to a difference in currency exchange. 

 

Typically, as long as the key works, you're fine as a consumer. Microsoft's not going to come after you with legal action, unless you're a business using multiple server datacenter keys or similar purchased in this way. 

 

Hell, Microsoft's fine with you running the consumer versions of Windows without ever purchasing a key, it seems indefinitely right now. 

[Morrie Sells Wigs]

2 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

It's a grey area. 

 

Majority of the keys are legit in the sense that they work. Some of the super cheap keys used to be MSDN or education copies which aren't allowed to be resold and can expire. It seems those types of keys aren't as common nowdays though. 

 

The truth is that no one knows for sure where these keys come from. In the past, many have been found to be purchased with stolen credit cards and the likes. Others are bought in a country where the keys are cheaper due to a difference in currency exchange. 

 

Typically, as long as the key works, you're fine as a consumer. Microsoft's not going to come after you with legal action, unless you're a business using multiple server datacenter keys or similar purchased in this way. 

It's one of those things were you start veering into murky territory, where nobody is quite sure who you are really dealing with and how they are obtaining said items.

 

Those cheap prices are often intended to lure the unsuspecting, aren't they?

[Oshino Shinobu]

1 minute ago, Maury Sells Wigs said:

It's one of those things were you start veering into murky territory, where nobody is quite sure who you are really dealing with and how they are obtaining said items.

 

Those cheap prices are often intended to lure the unsuspecting, aren't they?

Majority of them will work. It's typically not an outright scam in the sense that you often get a license that will activate just fine. 

 

For your average consumer, it's more of a morality thing. The sellers are almost certainly not selling keys obtained through what Microsoft would deem a legitimate manner. It's somewhat up to you if you would rather give a relatively small amount to someone who's most likely either breaking or almost breaking the law, or give a fairly large amount directly to Microsoft. 

 

If both of those are not options for you, you can run Windows 10 unactivated, both the Home and Pro editions just fine. You lose customisation and personalisation options such as themes and desktop backgrounds but you'll still get feature and security updates and the OS will otherwise work as normal. 

[Morrie Sells Wigs]

1 hour ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Majority of them will work. It's typically not an outright scam in the sense that you often get a license that will activate just fine. 

 

For your average consumer, it's more of a morality thing. The sellers are almost certainly not selling keys obtained through what Microsoft would deem a legitimate manner. It's somewhat up to you if you would rather give a relatively small amount to someone who's most likely either breaking or almost breaking the law, or give a fairly large amount directly to Microsoft. 

 

If both of those are not options for you, you can run Windows 10 unactivated, both the Home and Pro editions just fine. You lose customisation and personalisation options such as themes and desktop backgrounds but you'll still get feature and security updates and the OS will otherwise work as normal. 

If you buy from Microsoft it's quite expensive, isn't it?

 

Depending on the version you get, it can cost you as much as 300 quid/dollars/euros, or as little as 20 (or thereabouts), if I remember right?

 

I guess it's no surprise there is a "black market".

[homeap5]

1 hour ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Majority of them will work. It's typically not an outright scam in the sense that you often get a license that will activate just fine.

That's not what I'm asking about. Activators works as well, they're even better than paying for piracy, which is really worst users can do.

 

I'm just curious, why there is no legal method to check that sellers if they keys are legal. Who knows - maybe this is some kind of promo sales and Microsoft agree with that. Or maybe it's just the same selling illegal keys as other sites.

 

I don't really care if key works or not. Stolen car works too, if I stole food from shop, I can eat it the same good as if I pay for it. Even more - if I stole whole computer it will work great, system will install on stolen hard drive and games will work on this computer. Seems to be cheaper than buying, isn't? After all there is no difference, everything works.

 

No, that is not I'm asking for. I'm asking why after so many years there is still no method to check if key is legal or not? Why there is no 10 letters longer key and these letters are shown before you buy, so you can check if whole key is legal before you buy? Why there is no blacklist resellers on Microsoft website so I can check easily if it's a scam?

 

People always will want to buy something for less money. In case games discounts are sometimes huge, so people may believe that Microsoft and HRK made special offer for them.

[Oshino Shinobu]

2 hours ago, homeap5 said:

That's not what I'm asking about. Activators works as well, they're even better than paying for piracy, which is really worst users can do.

 

I'm just curious, why there is no legal method to check that sellers if they keys are legal. Who knows - maybe this is some kind of promo sales and Microsoft agree with that. Or maybe it's just the same selling illegal keys as other sites.

 

I don't really care if key works or not. Stolen car works too, if I stole food from shop, I can eat it the same good as if I pay for it. Even more - if I stole whole computer it will work great, system will install on stolen hard drive and games will work on this computer. Seems to be cheaper than buying, isn't? After all there is no difference, everything works.

 

No, that is not I'm asking for. I'm asking why after so many years there is still no method to check if key is legal or not? Why there is no 10 letters longer key and these letters are shown before you buy, so you can check if whole key is legal before you buy? Why there is no blacklist resellers on Microsoft website so I can check easily if it's a scam?

 

People always will want to buy something for less money. In case games discounts are sometimes huge, so people may believe that Microsoft and HRK made special offer for them.

I'd imagine because it's near impossible to keep track of. 

 

As far as MS is concerned, or aware, these keys are legal. How's MS meant to know when a key is bought with a stolen credit card and then resold? It's not like these are fake keys. They've genuine keys from Microsoft, they're just obtained in either sketchy or outright illegal ways, which MS doesn't really have any way of knowing about. 

 

A blacklist of sellers would never be accurate or up to date. If they blacklist a seller, they'll just create a new account and sell through that. MS would have no way of knowing which keys they have, so couldn't blacklist them either. Instead, they have lists of authorised resellers. A whitelist, if you will. Buying from anywhere other than MS directly or from authorised resellers would be a risk. 

 

Very few of them are a scam though. At least, not for the end consumer. They may be a scheme and obtained in an illegal manner, but the actual selling part is normally just a "normal" transaction with a working product at the end. 

[SansVarnic]

2 hours ago, Maury Sells Wigs said:

Depending on the version you get, it can cost you as much as 300 quid/dollars/euros, or as little as 20 (or thereabouts), if I remember right?

Windows Home: $99 USD

Windows Pro: $199 USD

 

@homeap5:

2 hours ago, homeap5 said:

why there is no legal method to check that sellers if they keys are legal.

this is why...

32 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

I'd imagine because it's near impossible to keep track of. 

The reason the current model of windows exist is because Microsoft has been fighting piracy for decades. They have not given up but they have made the process easier to them to fight the battle. I dont have the details so I cant cant go into how this is, but think about, if the software is freely available to distribute then all they have to focus on is the license. Servers do the checks and balances, when something doesnt show up right it filters out and flags, then MS will step in and identify and prosecute if needed.

 

*edit

I forgot to point out; MS makes most of their profit on the license sales through devices anyhow through OEM's. PC enthusiasts may be growing but is still in part a small percentage of users in general. Thus the problem of pirating a license these days is a much smaller issue than it was for say... Windows 98 when the market was flooded by Chinese made fake cd's [yes this was the issue, it is well documented]. It was a huge issue that was overcome by switching to digital distribution of the OS and locking features without a license. Not solved just reduced the issue from overwhelming to somewhat manageable.

[Morrie Sells Wigs]

59 minutes ago, SansVarnic said:

Windows Home: $99 USD

Windows Pro: $199 USD

 

@homeap5:

this is why...

The reason the current model of windows exist is because Microsoft has been fighting piracy for decades. They have not given up but they have made the process easier to them to fight the battle. I dont have the details so I cant cant go into how this is, but think about, if the software is freely available to distribute then all they have to focus on is the license. Servers do the checks and balances, when something doesnt show up right it filters out and flags, then MS will step in and identify and prosecute if needed.

 

*edit

I forgot to point out; MS makes most of their profit on the license sales through devices anyhow through OEM's. PC enthusiasts may be growing but is still in part a small percentage of users in general. Thus the problem of pirating a license these days is a much smaller issue than it was for say... Windows 98 when the market was flooded by Chinese made fake cd's [yes this was the issue, it is well documented]. It was a huge issue that was overcome by switching to digital distribution of the OS and locking features without a license. Not solved just reduced the issue from overwhelming to somewhat manageable.

So, between 99 and 199?

 

Better than what I had seen.

 

Maybe, the $300 i saw was Aussie dollars or Singapore, or some other country that uses dollars?

 

I just saw a comment somewhere that said it was 300 for the premium version. 

 

Still, is 99-199 not expensive for what you actually get?

[Nayr438]

1 hour ago, Maury Sells Wigs said:

Still, is 99-199 not expensive for what you actually get?

Not really, your paying a one time fee to own a legitimate copy of Windows. It's the Operating System that most major companies target.

Compare that to Microsoft's other products, Adobe CC, and various other software companies that charge a monthly subscription or even some that charge a one time fee exceeding the cost of a Windows license, or even the cost of computer hardware, Windows itself actually seems relatively cheap.

[Morrie Sells Wigs]

1 hour ago, Nayr438 said:

Not really, your paying a one time fee to own a legitimate copy of Windows. It's the Operating System that most major companies target.

Compare that to Microsoft's other products, Adobe CC, and various other software companies that charge a monthly subscription or even some that charge a one time fee exceeding the cost of a Windows license, or even the cost of computer hardware, Windows itself actually seems relatively cheap.

I guess you are right.

[SansVarnic]

3 hours ago, Maury Sells Wigs said:

So, between 99 and 199?

 

Better than what I had seen.

 

Maybe, the $300 i saw was Aussie dollars or Singapore, or some other country that uses dollars?

 

I just saw a comment somewhere that said it was 300 for the premium version. 

 

Still, is 99-199 not expensive for what you actually get?

Its basically a fixed priced. It hasnt changed in 20 years.

[Morrie Sells Wigs]

19 minutes ago, SansVarnic said:

Its basically a fixed priced. It hasnt changed in 20 years.

Yes, fixed.

 

But, I was referring to the different countries which use the dollar, and that 200 U.S dollars is not 200 Aussie dollars, ditto Singapore.