My school is literally pirating windows lol

[OldFord76]

So I just started my junior year of high school last week, and we got our school issued laptops a few days ago. Lo and behold, every laptop I’ve seen (3 belonging to my siblings, and a few more to friends) all have the “Activate Windows” watermark. Can’t connect Bluetooth, change themes, or a lot of other settings. They didn’t buy new laptops for this year im pretty sure, as many are already banged up, but windows was activated last year. Anyone have an idea what’s going on? 

Also not sure if it’s related but the CPU, RAM and usually the drive are almost always at or over 90% utilization even if nothing is running. Even if it’s closed the fan will ramp up and stay there. 
And if anyone cares it’s a Dell Latitude 3300 I think 

[Dukesilver27-]

That's not pirating, you can install any windows 10/11 and use it forever without actually activating it. You just lose the functions you mentioned, it is perfectly legal and allowed by Microsoft.

Pirating is when you use tools to activate the windows, and gain all the function listed on each windows version, essentially getting a windows license for free.

 

As for the high resource usage, it's just windows being windows, legit activated copies of windows also have those issues.

[-rascal-]

Not necessarily pirated.

If you download a LEGITMATE copy of Windows 10/11 through Microsoft, install it onto a PC, and don't enter in a Windows key, it WILL show that watermark.

By the way, you can download Windows 10/11 directly from Microsoft for FREE.

 

One of my systems ( ) has been running Windows 10 since 2017 without a key, and it works fine.

I get the monthly Windows updates / patches, can install and run all programs just fine, connect to Blueetooth and WiFi, etc.

Heck, it even tells me to update to Windows 11.

[Arika]

Not activating windows only locks you out from themes, not bluetooth. It's more likely that the school has locked  out some settings intentionally because they don't want students messing around with them. A simple group policy that is then deployed on every machine. 

 

Have you tried asking your school about it?

[Needfuldoer]

Somebody goofed, but probably in a less blatantly illegal way than intentionally pirating Windows.

 

Which edition of Windows is installed?

 

They could be enterprise licenses tied to what's called a key management server. The PCs have to check in with the server at set intervals (I believe every 90 days is common); if they can't, they fall back to unlicensed mode.

 

They could have also bought PCs preloaded with Windows Home OEM keys and imaged them with a system image built around Pro or Enterprise.

[Vishera]

7 minutes ago, RGBoy said:

Latitude 3300

Dual Core Celeron...

Even a 15 years old Core 2 Quad performs better than the Celeron you have...

[Shantal]

What are you talking about ?

Just because someone didn't activate windows you call him a pirate ? Pirating Windows for being Un activated ?

 

and also the CPU is at 96% because of some Antimalware software doing scan maybe and has nothing to do with windows being Un activated

 

[GoodBytes]

Windows Enterprise/Education domain joined system, needs to communicate with Windows Sever every now and then to activate Windows.

For Pro and Home editions (or Education using Azure AD), needs to communicate with Windows Activation Server every now and then.

If the school laptop was off for months, or used outside of the school for a while, it is normal that Windows deactivates.

Another possibility is the work/school firewall blocks Microsoft activation servers (by mistake, hopefully and not incompetence), and so Windows can't activate.