How do I actually get a windows 10 licence nowadays?

[Season2mask]

I went to a store today in the UK and asked if they still sold it but they said it's all online. What's the proper way to just get an official windows 10 key because I'm seeing various ways online ranging from cheap to very expensive.

Thoughts?

[Sinyc]

I went to a store today in the UK and asked if they still sold it but they said it's all online. What's the proper way to just get an official windows 10 key because I'm seeing various ways online ranging from cheap to very expensive.

Thoughts?

Go here and download the Win10 Media Creation Tool. Follow the instructions and you will have free Windows 10.

Or go on eBay and search for a key. Should be $10 or so.

[Tuor]

Got mine in a store.

[sunxsera]

Download the Win10 Media Creation Tool. Put it on a bootable USB. Install Windows - it will start without cd key.
You'll just have an annoying "activate windows" message at the corner of the screen though.
Buy a win 10 ultimate key for ~ 15€ from a trusted key reseller and activate that key with your outlook / microsoft account.

If there are no UK resellers just search for other EU ones. You'll get them instantly via email when you buy them.

Thats what i did, bought it from a german reseller.

[ldev]

From work - we have .NET shop, so cd-keys from MSDN. Technically they are for testing and not legal personal use, so technically I'm testing Windows 11 on my gaming PC how it runs games.

[Gaidax]

I'm all into purchasing all them 10 bucks keys, which usually come from various corporations and sources that got way too many licenses than they ever bother to maintain.

Alternatively you can get these from MS as a tester or as above if you have VS corporate account for Azure and such, but at that point you know you can get it... which actually makes me wonder what else I can get there, need to go and check.

[Season2mask]

I'm kind of hopeless with this sort of thing. Would someone kindly be able to link me a few reputable windows 10 keys? (Pro or home I'm not overly fussed but I guess pro)

[Nerph-]

If you want to go the official route, pretty sure you can buy a key through the Microsoft store. Install Windows 10 and I'm pretty sure it'll let you know how to do that.

[SinR]

I'm not sure you can buy a Win10 key anymore. At least not from MS.

MS seems too hell bent on constant forced updates.

[Nerph-]

I'm not sure you can buy a Win10 key anymore. At least not from MS.

MS seems too hell bent on constant forced updates.

You might be right, I was curious and checked the Microsoft Store myself and could only find "10/11 Pro for Workstations", but wasn't sure if this was because I'm already on 10 Pro.

Edit: I found this article: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...9-2820fda32227

[Season2mask]

Would this work?

https://www.kinguin.net/category/194...sional-oem-key

[Temp name]

It should work. If they email you the key then just enter that when installing, otherwise there's probably instructions

[Bumkin]

from stores that sell pc parts, a real license is around 100euro, these 10 euro ones are fake/stolen etc. but if u dont have enough money, they will do the job aswell

[Nerph-]

Would this work?

https://www.kinguin.net/category/194...sional-oem-key

It should work, yes. Note on their page they suggest using the automated phone system to activate it. I wouldn't be surprised if you need to do that to activate the key (so just entering the key and clicking "Activate" wont work). That's just a hunch I have though.

[Kagthul]

these 10 euro ones are fake/stolen etc.

No, they aren't. Theyre simply purchased somewhere where the local currency works out to far less than 100 Euro or USD.

If you have a credit card that supports foreign currency transactions, you can even just go buy one yourself in one of those markets using a VPN to appear local.

Whats happening is that someone is buying a package of OEM keys from Microsoft (which they usually sell in bundles of at least 1,000) someplace like Indonesia or somewhere else where its cheap, and then just reselling them. Even if they only double their money, theyre doubling their money for free pretty much.

It should work, yes. Note on their page they suggest using the automated phone system to activate it. I wouldn't be surprised if you need to do that to activate the key (so just entering the key and clicking "Activate" wont work). That's just a hunch I have though.

I deployed a ton of keys from Kinguin. I never had one fail. Ive moved on to using the ones that Greg Salazar shills/promotes on his channel (VIP-SCDKEY, i think it is) and using his promo code because its cheap. Ive only ever had one of those fail, and they replaced it immediately (most likely, me and someone else purchased a key at exactly the same time and their automated system sent us both the same key) - like, within 5 minutes of me emailing them, no questions asked.

Ever since they abandoned region-locked keys, there's no reason to pay full retail MSRP for Windows.

[Earthwormj1m]

I deployed a ton of keys from Kinguin. I never had one fail. Ive moved on to using the ones that Greg Salazar shills/promotes on his channel (VIP-SCDKEY, i think it is) and using his promo code because its cheap. Ive only ever had one of those fail, and they replaced it immediately (most likely, me and someone else purchased a key at exactly the same time and their automated system sent us both the same key) - like, within 5 minutes of me emailing them, no questions asked.

Ever since they abandoned region-locked keys, there's no reason to pay full retail MSRP for Windows.

I second Kinguin as a reliable source, My last 10 systems I've build for me and my family have all recieved their key from here, not one issue.

[Velerios]

from stores that sell pc parts, a real license is around 100euro, these 10 euro ones are fake/stolen etc. but if u dont have enough money, they will do the job aswell

Wrong, these are OEM-Keys, they lack the support of the Microsoft Service Channels; that's all.

Also: Microsoft nowadays mostly give a crap about Windows Keys anymore: more important than this is having a market share. As long as you use the MS Ecosystem, you also probably use their Office Products (they make the money) or their cloud-services (they make even more money). If they actually would, you could also simply install windows 10 without key, and except for the occasional reminder and the Watermark and Personalizations, you get a full Windows 10 or 11 without any downgrades.

[Nerph-]

I deployed a ton of keys from Kinguin. I never had one fail. Ive moved on to using the ones that Greg Salazar shills/promotes on his channel (VIP-SCDKEY, i think it is) and using his promo code because its cheap. Ive only ever had one of those fail, and they replaced it immediately (most likely, me and someone else purchased a key at exactly the same time and their automated system sent us both the same key) - like, within 5 minutes of me emailing them, no questions asked.

Ever since they abandoned region-locked keys, there's no reason to pay full retail MSRP for Windows.

Ah, good to hear I'm mistaken. I've never bought a Microsoft key from Kinguin, the only time I've ever bought one from a site like that was an Office 2016 key (I think) and it wouldn't activate for me without calling the automated phone service. Either way it worked eventually, and good to hear OP wont have to go through that

[Yizu]

I bought mine from urcdkey for ~10$ been using it for 5 years now no issues, even upgraded to win11

[naniplu]

Of course I do. To use it comfortably.