Is this legit?

[JakubR8]

Is this website legit? and if so should i get windows 11 home or pro, For gaming and game engine use.

[whispous]

No-one will be able to accurately tell you if a random retailer like that is "legit" or not, and we're bound by the forum rules to not recommend other ones either!

[GeorgeKellow]

100% a volume license key that has been ripped off of a pre-built. 

 

[mariushm]

I would suggest checking out what other youtubers are recommending 

 

check ad spots or descriptions of these videos and decide for yourself 

 

 

 

 

[JakubR8]

4 minutes ago, GeorgeKellow said:

100% a volume license key that has been ripped off of a pre-built. 

 

is that bad orr?

[mariushm]

1 minute ago, JakubR8 said:

is that bad orr?

It means Windows will stop bothering you and say it's licensed and your computer will work, but technically you're not using your own personal license and it's invalid, illegal, in the sense that the computer would have to be owned or leased (rented) by the organization that has the volume license and you'd have to be one of their employees. 

If some anti-piracy organization comes to your house with a warrant to check your computer, it would be considered an invalid license. 

 

Also at any point, Microsoft could invalidate the volume license and with the next Windows Update, it may show up again as not activated and ask you for a valid license.

 

[JakubR8]

1 minute ago, mariushm said:

It means Windows will stop bothering you and say it's licensed and your computer will work, but technically you're not using your own personal license and it's invalid, illegal, in the sense that the computer would have to be owned or leased (rented) by the organization that has the volume license and you'd have to be one of their employees. 

If some anti-piracy organization comes to your house with a warrant to check your computer, it would be considered an invalid license. 

 

Also at any point, Microsoft could invalidate the volume license and with the next Windows Update, it may show up again as not activated and ask you for a valid license.

 

ah i see, whats the cheapest way of getting a windows key then.

[podkall]

5 minutes ago, mariushm said:

If some anti-piracy organization comes to your house with a warrant to check your computer, it would be considered an invalid license.

you'd call it a grey area, because this doesn't really happen,

 

and mostly Microsoft or any other corporation/company don't care that you bought discounted version of their product once of few times.

 

They would rather do that if you're actually profiting or something from this activity.

 

5 minutes ago, JakubR8 said:

ah i see, whats the cheapest way of getting a windows key then.

it's keys, it's just not completely legal, and it's only usable once, if the Windows resets or some major upgrade happens, you need another

[Needfuldoer]

All those suspiciously cheap Windows keys fall under three categories:

 

- Keys ripped off of recycled OEM PCs

- Misappropriated corporate site license keys (MAK)

- Windows licenses intended for developing markets

 

You might get a key that works. You won't know which category it fits in. There's no guarantee it will continue working in the long term. Buyer beware.

 

And if they tell you to use a "custom activation server", it's absolutely a stolen corporate license and you should not give them your money.

 

Never use install media provided by these "resellers". If the key they give you won't work with vanilla Windows install media straight from Microsoft, it's a scam.

 

The only guaranteed way to get a legitimate Windows license is to buy one directly from Microsoft or a Microsoft authorized reseller.

[JakubR8]

15 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

All those suspiciously cheap Windows keys fall under three categories:

 

- Keys ripped off of recycled OEM PCs

- Misappropriated corporate site license keys (MAK)

- Windows licenses intended for developing markets

 

You might get a key that works. You won't know which category it fits in. There's no guarantee it will continue working in the long term. Buyer beware.

 

And if they tell you to use a "custom activation server", it's absolutely a stolen corporate license and you should not give them your money.

 

Never use install media provided by these "resellers". If the key they give you won't work with vanilla Windows install media straight from Microsoft, it's a scam.

 

The only guaranteed way to get a legitimate Windows license is to buy one directly from Microsoft or a Microsoft authorized reseller.

I checked on command prompt and it says the key I got is OEM. is that a good thing ?

[Stahlmann]

Tbh for $5 I'd just test my luck. Worst-case scenario you're $5 lighter, best-case you have a working windows license.

 

I just bought a 20€ Windows 11 Pro license yesterday since my old Windows 7 key didn't work anymore. Windows accepted the key no questions asked and now I have another 10 years of free updates if Microsoft offers these for their next OS versions again.

[Stahlmann]

7 minutes ago, JakubR8 said:

I checked on command prompt and it says the key I got is OEM. is that a good thing ?

OEM just means it was initially meant to be included in pre-built PCs and stuff like that, not for the consumer market. But generally they're safe to use.

[JakubR8]

Just now, Stahlmann said:

OEM just means it was initially meant to be included in pre-built PCs and stuff like that, not for the consumer market. But generally they're safe to use.

cool cool!

[Spotty]

1 hour ago, whispous said:

No-one will be able to accurately tell you if a random retailer like that is "legit" or not, and we're bound by the forum rules to not recommend other ones either!

Discussion on grey market keys is not prohibited by the community standards. You can discuss websites selling them, provided you're not posting affiliate/referral links or engaging in advertising. Cracks/activators/etc are prohibited by the rules regarding piracy.

That said, I personally wouldn't recommend them. Many (all) of the sites selling grey market keys are super sketchy and there's a lot that are just straight up scams.

 

15 minutes ago, JakubR8 said:

I checked on command prompt and it says the key I got is OEM. is that a good thing ?

OEM keys are provided to system integrators to install on computers they sell to customers. Unlike retail keys they're not intended for end users to use.

Functionally there really isn't any difference, it will function like a normal Windows system, except you cannot transfer an OEM key to another machine. The OEM key will be tied to the hardware of that system.

 

It's possible that whoever is selling these keys purchased the keys from Microsoft by pretending to be a system integrator and buying thousands of OEM keys in bulk and is reselling the keys individually instead of using them to activate computers. That's against Microsoft's policy for system integrators. It's basically like buying a 30 can packs of Coca Cola cans that say "Not for individual sale" and then selling them individually to people at a profit taking advantage of the bulk discount you get by buying in the 30 packs.

It's possible that the key could be deactivated at some point in the future, but very unlikely. Microsoft wants people to use Windows and they don't want to inconvenience people who are using their operating system, even if the key they bought was sold to them by a company who was violating Microsoft's license policy. Most likely Microsoft will just stop selling keys to that business if they find out (and the key reseller would just create a new business to keep buying and reselling them).

[Needfuldoer]

1 hour ago, Stahlmann said:

OEM just means it was initially meant to be included in pre-built PCs and stuff like that, not for the consumer market. But generally they're safe to use.

Consumers can also buy OEM keys from legitimate, authorized retailers like Newegg. They're usually a little cheaper than a Retail SKU of the same version of Windows, but come with the same transferability limitations the cheap keys come with.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Spotty said:

it's possible that the key could be deactivated at some point in the future, but very unlikely.

I will say we had all of our grey market keys wiped I believe last year that were purchase from multiple sellers on multiple platforms across multiple years. They were removed from the accounts and the keys are now invalid. We however never got a warning or notice about it, Windows just deactivated and they were gone/invalid. It's not a huge loss considering the price, but it is definitely something to keep in mind. Considering they were grey market keys, I never bothered contacting Microsoft about it.

[Stahlmann]

13 minutes ago, Nayr438 said:

I will say we had all of our grey market keys wiped I believe last year that were purchase from multiple sellers on multiple platforms across multiple years. They were removed from the accounts and the keys are now invalid. We however never got a warning or notice about it, Windows just deactivated and they were gone/invalid. It's not a huge loss considering the price, but it is definitely something to keep in mind. Considering they were grey market keys, I never bothered contacting Microsoft about it.

My Windows 7 key also got deactivated on Windows 11, 10 years later, but not just randomly. I just couldn't reactivate it after the last hardware change. It's also likely due to the fact that Microsoft recently stopped allowing these old keys to be upgraded to new versions of Windows. Unfortunately, I can't confirm if the old key still works on 7 or if it's completely disabled.

 

If I hadn't upgraded my CPU, I probably could have used that key for several more years.

 

But still, you have to be extremely unlucky to have this happen. And for the price of one official key ($145) you can buy 29 of these $5 gray market keys.

[Stahlmann]

31 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

Consumers can also buy OEM keys from legitimate, authorized retailers like Newegg. They're usually a little cheaper than a Retail SKU of the same version of Windows, but come with the same transferability limitations the cheap keys come with.

In my experience, there are no transferability restrictions on OEM keys. I've used mine for 10 years, on different versions of Windows and completely new PCs. All I had to do was link the key with a Microsoft account, and every time I logged on to the new computer, the key was automatically reactivated there and deactivated on the older machine.

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, Stahlmann said:

My Windows 7 key also got deactivated on Windows 11, 10 years later, but not just randomly. I just couldn't reactivate it after the last hardware change. It's also likely due to the fact that Microsoft recently stopped allowing these old keys to be upgraded to new versions of Windows. Unfortunately, I can't confirm if the old key still works on 7 or if it's completely disabled.

 

If I hadn't upgraded my CPU, I probably could have used that key for years.

 

But still, you have to be extremely unlucky to have this happen. And for the price of one official key ($145) you can buy 29 of these $5 gray market keys.

Ours wasn't a hardware change, it was just activated one day and not the next. All keys invalid and digital entitlements gone. No idea if they were intended to be Windows 7 keys however just sold as Windows 10 keys, I feel like there probably would have been a mix however based on the time frames they were purchased. Since Microsoft never disclosed the reasoning I will never actually know why it happened unfortunately. But as mentioned for the cost, it doesn't really matter.

 

[Spotty]

59 minutes ago, Nayr438 said:

I will say we had all of our grey market keys wiped I believe last year that were purchase from multiple sellers on multiple platforms across multiple years. They were removed from the accounts and the keys are now invalid. We however never got a warning or notice about it, Windows just deactivated and they were gone/invalid. It's not a huge loss considering the price, but it is definitely something to keep in mind. Considering they were grey market keys, I never bothered contacting Microsoft about it.

I have heard of it happening, but I didn't think it was that common. It might also depend on how the keys are obtained or activated, or if the seller is selling the same key to multiple people. Or if they were originally Windows 7 keys. Problem with grey market keys is you really don't know where the keys are coming from. Bit of a lucky dip what your experience will be.

 

1 hour ago, Stahlmann said:

And for the price of one official key ($145) you can buy 29 of these $5 gray market keys.

Yeah, this is why it's hard to blame people for buying grey market keys. $10 vs $150 for a key is the difference between upgrading to a better CPU or the next GPU model.

I really wish Microsoft would drop the official price - or at least remove all the stupid ads from Windows when I pay $150. I don't see why Windows Home can't be $30 and include the ads and Windows Pro be ad free and not have Microsoft force updates that reset settings and prompt me to use Edge for $150.

[Lurking]

Save even more by not activating. It doesn't have really big limitations and is legal and no shady website gets your credit card data.

 

https://www.minitool.com/data-recovery/disadvantages-of-not-activating-windows-11-10.html

 

As for some people using their old activations ... I think there was a recent change that old W7 keys can't be used for W11 anymore. Not sure if that is just for if you activated after that date, or also de-activates installations that already were activated before this change. I know my W11 system still works even with my old W7 key. I guess I will see if that changes