• tony@lemmy.hoyle.me.uk
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      1 year ago

      I’ve got an entire set of windows test VMs running unactivated for about 4 years now. We have a few at work too (we actually have keys for those but nobody has bothered putting them in).

      The worst that happens is you can’t set a desktop background.

    • icedterminal@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      What you’re describing is for bare metal Windows Server only or all editions in a VM. And that’s on purpose. You can probably guess why. Windows Home through Enterprise will run indefinitely on bare metal. It just locks down personalisation. Microsoft explicitly offers a VHD of Windows that doesn’t require activation.

    • dangblingus@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Nope. On all of my machines I installed Windows 10 using an official usb boot disk with a distro straight from Microsoft. It was 100% free, I didn’t need an account, and I’m not being prompted to activate, nor do I have the annoying little watermark in the bottom right of my screen.

      I seriously don’t understand how people are paying to use Windows when Microsoft gives it away for free.

      • Trollception@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Were those OEM machines? Often times OEM computers will come with a Windows OS license during purchase and I think Windows may check the hardware thumbprint of the machine and license it automatically. Windows 10/11 is certainly not free for people who build their own machine from parts.