Windows 10 cheap?

red eye · 21 Nov 2017 at 17:51

I need an os for my old not broken anymore laptop, give it to my little boy.

So I googles oem Windows 10 key and got prices from £25 to 7.25 in the sponsors box, I know with downloads you get no pysical disk and postage fees But under £8 there’s got to be a catch right?

Orcvader · 22 Nov 2017 at 08:26

Usually they're cheap volume licence keys so sometimes they actually do expire.

What was the default Windows image on the laptop? You can still upgrade from 7/8/8.1 for free using this: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/accessibility/windows10upgrade

Armageus · 22 Nov 2017 at 08:51

red eye said:
But under £8 there’s got to be a catch right?

Yep - the fact that they aren't legal.

While a "grey market" key may activate, activation isn't the same thing as actually complying with the license.

Either buy direct from Microsoft's website or buy from a retailer such as OcUK.

red eye · 22 Nov 2017 at 09:16

The laptop is around 12 Year’s old, it had vista on it. It stopped working ages ago and I can’t find the recovery discs.

I had a look on ocuk they don’t sell oem anything anymore and I don’t want to spend £100 on Windows for a 12 Year old laptop. I’ll have another look for the recovery disc but I think I binned them when I had a cd/dvd clear out.

Glanza · 22 Nov 2017 at 09:24

Stick Linux on at no cost?

skyripper · 22 Nov 2017 at 09:24

Armageus said:
Yep - the fact that they aren't legal.

Its only contract law though. Its not like you'll get the cops knocking down your door or a summons to turn up at the local courthouse.
The worst that will happen is your key will be swept up in a deactivation sometime down the line.
Which will stop you getting updates and security fixes. [Which is kinda important!]

Armageus · 22 Nov 2017 at 09:27

skyripper said:
Its only contract law though.

But if you go down that route, you may as well not bother buying a copy at all - it's no better than a pirated version.

skyripper · 22 Nov 2017 at 09:36

Armageus said:
But if you go down that route, you may as well not bother buying a copy at all - it's no better than a pirated version.

I agree its not morally right. I'm not endorsing these obviously "too cheap to be true" prices.

The OP could find out their existing Vista key (ie, is it on a sticker on the bottom, or using JellyBeanSoftware Keyfinder [assuming it boots]), source an ISO and reinstall quite legally.

red eye · 22 Nov 2017 at 09:39

What are the chances that my win7 key still works after upgrading to 10?

skyripper · 22 Nov 2017 at 10:03

No idea.

But if your laptop doesn't have much ram (say less than 4GB) or an SSD, you'll probably find if you get Windows 10 on it, by the time all the updates and Windows Store crap is on there, it'll run like a three legged dog.

red eye · 22 Nov 2017 at 10:20

skyripper said:
I agree its not morally right. I'm not endorsing these obviously "too cheap to be true" prices.

The OP could find out their existing Vista key (ie, is it on a sticker on the bottom, or using JellyBeanSoftware Keyfinder [assuming it boots]), source an ISO and reinstall quite legally.

The sticker is unreadable and the hdd well the laptop fell off the table and stopped working, i reseated the ram and hdd then replaced the hdd with my win 7 ssd it still wouldn’t work.
Turns out the hdd is fine and now has a backup copy of win 10, it was the keyboard.

Quartz · 22 Nov 2017 at 10:23

chroniclard · 22 Nov 2017 at 10:26

Oh, those keys you can get from **elsewhere** are dodgy? How come they are allowed to sell them?

Bought one last week for daughters pc, £13, activated ok.......

red eye · 22 Nov 2017 at 10:32

Glanza said:
Stick Linux on at no cost?

good point but while my little boy could probably master it in time I got no chance if I couldn’t make that kodi Ubuntu thing to do what I wanted it to do.

I think I’m stuck

Armageus · 22 Nov 2017 at 10:51

chroniclard said:
Oh, those keys you can get from **elsewhere** are dodgy? How come they are allowed to sell them?

Because they are sold by 3rd party sellers on that site who don't care?

chroniclard said:
Bought one last week for daughters pc, £13, activated ok.......

As above - being activated isn't the same thing as being legal.

"Grey market" keys tend to come from none retail channels, e.g. Volume licenses intended (and paid for by a business - e.g. who buy a single license key that activates 500 times), academic keys (e.g. for Schools and Universities), or MSDN keys which are intended for testing on a limited number of PCs e.g. for Software development purposes.

red eye · 22 Nov 2017 at 11:23

Armageus said:
Because they are sold by 3rd party sellers on that site who don't care?

As above - being activated isn't the same thing as being legal.

"Grey market" keys tend to come from none retail channels, e.g. Volume licenses intended (and paid for by a business - e.g. who buy a single license key that activates 500 times), academic keys (e.g. for Schools and Universities), or MSDN keys which are intended for testing on a limited number of PCs e.g. for Software development purposes.

So say I brought a hdd with Windows preinstalled from a pc builder, is this volume licence only to be installed on pcs built by the licence holder?

Glanza · 22 Nov 2017 at 11:32

red eye said:
So say I brought a hdd with Windows preinstalled from a pc builder, is this volume licence only to be installed on pcs built by the licence holder?

I'm surprised you can find anywhere that would supply you with just a HDD with Windows preinstalled, even if you could I'd highly doubt it would boot successfully.

Armageus · 22 Nov 2017 at 11:34

red eye said:
So say I brought a hdd with Windows preinstalled from a pc builder, is this volume licence only to be installed on pcs built by the licence holder?

PC Builders do not use volume licenses - generally smaller companies will use the same OEM (or in some cases Retail) versions that you and I can buy (e.g. https://www.overclockers.co.uk/microsoft-windows-10-64-bit-dvd-oem-ms-kw9-00139-sw-172-ms.html)

Bigger manufacturers e.g. HP, Dell, Lenovo etc use Tailored OEM installs which are tied into BIOS activation (and hence why the sticker/key on the bottom can vary from the key that is actually listed with key finder tools)

Volume licenses are intended specifically for businesses and organisations that need a large amount of licenses for easy deployment (e.g. 100 identical PCs)

demonix · 22 Nov 2017 at 15:10

If you want windows 10 for cheap, just download an image or create a bootable USB drive using the windows media creation tool and use that to install it on the laptop and don't activate it as there are no time limits with regards to activation since all they do is restrict the ability to personalise the desktop and put a watermark in the bottom right corner telling you to activate.

Disco_P · 25 Nov 2017 at 03:55

demonix said:
If you want windows 10 for cheap, just download an image or create a bootable USB drive using the windows media creation tool and use that to install it on the laptop and don't activate it as there are no time limits with regards to activation since all they do is restrict the ability to personalise the desktop and put a watermark in the bottom right corner telling you to activate.

And you can still set a wallpaper by right clicking on an image and then clicking "Set as Desktop Background"