Computer Active selling fake Window's software.

sastusbulbas · Tuesday at 18:34

According to the internet an OEM license for Windows doesn't expire if not installed.

So imagine my surprise when the product I bought some years back but never used would not activate Windows.

The advert when purchased stated a genuine license with an original retail price and sale price.
Due to the advert and claimed retail price I had assumed genuine product, OEM single use.

So contact the magazine, 1st they ramble on about one time use, then about it expiring and therefore my fault for not using it.
Apparently I should have known it was not genuine and had an expiry date.

Nowhere on their adverts does it ever say it's some expiring batch key. That it states an RRP infers a genuine OEM

Contacting them was a joke,

I specifically bought it from what I thought was a reputable source to avoid any activation issues. Turns out the magazine is simply profiteering on cheap business keys with adverts that infer an OEM retail value.
I can only assume due to the nature of the reading audience it's a deliberate attempt to dupe potential customers of cheap keys into spending more on a cheap key.

****** off now. Was meant to be a nice experience enjoying a new build and it's simply been disappointing. What a mug I am.

drakulton · Tuesday at 19:18

C'mon man, it was a windows 95 key, all the kool kids are on XP.

Gray2233 · Tuesday at 19:26

You wanted to buy a genuine Windows licence from a reputable source, and you went with what is primarily a magazine company? :confused:

You didn't think to maybe buy one from OCUK instead, or any myriad of other options including Microsoft themselves?

Not that I'd ever do so personally, you can pick up keys for £5-10 and I've never had any issues with doing so. I'd shift to Linux before forking out £100 + to Microsoft to beta test their increasingly poor O/S platform, in fact I'll be doing just that in a month or two.

LostCorpse · Tuesday at 19:32

drakulton said:
C'mon man, it was a windows 95 key, all the kool kids are on XP.

Na ME !!! all the way

CaptainCrash · Wednesday at 01:37

Grass them up to MS's enforcers: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/howtotell/cfr/report

sastusbulbas · Wednesday at 07:43

Gray2233 said:
You wanted to buy a genuine Windows licence from a reputable source, and you went with what is primarily a magazine company?

You didn't think to maybe buy one from OCUK instead, or any myriad of other options including Microsoft themselves?

Not that I'd ever do so personally, you can pick up keys for £5-10 and I've never had any issues with doing so. I'd shift to Linux before forking out £100 + to Microsoft to beta test their increasingly poor O/S platform, in fact I'll be doing just that in a month or two.

If you look at the advertising it infers genuine product just as Overclockers do.

A listed retail price, and then the discount. I used it thinking it was a reputable sale as 5 years ago some were wary of online key vendors.

I've already had two full retail purchases of Windows 7 Ultimate back in the day, one of which I passed to my eldest. The magazine advertising the single use licence at a sale price of £33 seemed genuine back then.

For a second PC I thought a single licence was fine. Didn't realise Computer Active were selling expiring enterprise codes.

The fact that they list original retail prices for multi use full retail packages even today is dubious.

Sadly I feel I want to avoid Windows 11, the latest NVMe issues a class example of why, and often issues on the work PC"s after updates.

Spent a small fortune on Windows genuine products over the years since XP.

I've played with Ubuntu on and off, kept finding Windows that little more useful and rounded, but yeah, it's either £220 on a genuine Microsoft website purchase, or a £9 key, that is not much use if there are future system issues, or starting again with Linux.