Hello people I have recently changed my CPU, Motherboard and RAMs so I was planning on reinstalling windows on my PC. Last time I installed Windows was probably or so 10 years ago and I can’t remember for the life of me how I activated it.

Any recommendations on activating the new install? Or is it too much trouble nowadays and should I just buy a key?

  • 🧟‍♂️ Cadaver@lemmy.one
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    24
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Buy a key from a chinese retailer. 5€ for a fully functional windows.

    If you don’t want to, there are KMS tools but they work for a time then they don’t anymore.

          • Aux@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            3
            ·
            1 year ago

            You don’t know much about piracy, do you? Pirated stuff doesn’t always mean it’s free. For example, services like kino.pub - pure piracy, yet have monthly subscription. Which is worth it. I’m a pirate since early 90-s and it’s a huge multi billion dollar industry. From pirated VHS cassettes sold super cheap on flea markets back in the days to illegal software keys sold online for pennies today.

            Nature of pirating, lol.

            • CookieJarObserver
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              They take it for free and sell it to you, they are pirates, you are not, you just know you pay for a pirated product.

      • 🧟‍♂️ Cadaver@lemmy.one
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        Piracy could also mean “buy shit for way less”. Instead of a 200$ key you can have it for 2-5$. It kinda fits.

        Plus you can have it free but it’ll be a hassle or very low price and it won’t be a hassle. The choice is his.

    • empireOfLove@lemmy.one
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yeah go pay for a key that’s gonna get revoked once MS figures out its being illegally resold nahhhh

      • JasSmith@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        1 year ago

        To be fair, there’s an almost zero percent chance of the key being revoked. Microsoft sells (or sold) W10 keys for peanuts all over the world depending on the market. They don’t region lock. Their current strategy is monetising services, so there’s no risk they’re suddenly going to u-turn on their decade long strategy and kick off MS users.

        Worst case scenario OP has to use one of the hacks explained in this submission in a few years.

        • yoichi@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          1 year ago

          Why go through all that when MAS exists. Just activate it yourself with a single script, use the same thing for MS Office as well. I’ll never understand why people choose to pay for stolen/enterprise keys

            • Wreckronomicon@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              1 year ago

              Yes, windows functions exactly as it would should you have used a legit key and will tie in to any MS account you have logged in to permanently activate it forever (no need to keep activating), it even allows you to upgrade your Windows edition from home to pro if you wanted to. I have been doing this for literally a decade or more and have had zero repercussions from doing so.

              • sahqon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                1 year ago

                How do you upgrade to pro? I installed home because I was thinking of using my existing win7 key, then though better and activated the other way (because the old computer is still in use by mum - she gets my castoffs lol). But I would have installed pro if I knew I’ll want to keep the win7…

                • Wreckronomicon@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Open windows poweshell - type in “irm https://massgrave.dev/get | iex” (without quotes) - when the menu comes up press “6” - in the next menu press “1” - in the next menu press the number that corresponds to the edition that you would like.

            • sahqon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              What do you mean “can”? It can only be turned off for a month, max, then they force update it for you.

          • redcalcium@lemmy.institute
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            Oh man, MAS is quite a rabbit hole. It basically tricks Microsoft’s server to give out valid windows license.

            How does it work?

            In the official upgrade process from Windows 7 to Windows 10, Microsoft provides an HWID (digital license) activation for Windows 10 without any cost.

            In the background, the upgrade process runs a file named gatherosstate.exe (available in Windows 10/11 ISO) and it checks the license of current Windows if found activated, it generates a valid GenuineTicket.xml ticket which is sent to Microsoft and in return, MS authorizes a license.

            So if we just convince the gatherosstate.exe file that the conditions are met for ticket generation by fooling it, it will generate a valid ticket, which can be used to get the valid HWID (Digital license).

            The fact that this tool is hosted in a Microsoft-owned website (GitHub) is crazy, lol. Or maybe Microsoft doesn’t care and just want more people to use Windows, so they don’t crack hard on this.

            • yoichi@lemmy.dbzer0.com
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              6
              ·
              1 year ago

              It’s been proven over and over again that Microsoft simply does not care for individual consumers anymore. I mean, you can use any Microsoft Windows installation without activating for perpetuity and the only issue would be no customisation of the wallpaper and that pesky notice on the bottom right.

              The money from Enterprise is enough to justify it