Probably blocks the MAS activation scripts from working too.
Sure enough, on their site:
Note: Microsoft servers are currently rejecting HWID activation requests when activating through MAS, we’re checking what’s going on now. Use the KMS38 activation option for now.
This is the real blow. Truly the end of an era.
Looks like it’s time to start using reactos i guess… ☹️
Lucky me, just used last month to upgrade to 10 pro
Wow, what a timing, just discovered MAS last month and used it last week. Was truly nice and easy, and I liked the technical explanations on their website.
You can buy a used mini PC for less than the price of a new Windows 11 license. I know there are cheaper license sites out there (unclear how legit they are) but this way you get a Windows license and a spare PC to run Linux!
There could be a bit of a caveat here. I when I purchased my laptop it had windows 10 installed. When I installed Mint, I could not reuse that key in a VM because it was “different hardware”. The license, could not be transferred under any circumstance. I had also purchased the upgrade to Pro through the windows store. That’s also lost.
I seldom run windows, even in the VM, but it still leaves one a bit bitter.
Usually calling Windows support, they’ll give you a key if you just tell them you replaced some piece of hardware due to failure, assuming you haven’t been transferring the same key around for awhile. They tend to be more invested in keeping you in the Windows ecosystem than they are are just getting one more license sold.
I called support, they said no. Asked for a one time exception, still no. The key to my knowledge was only used once on the laptop when I bought it new.
I wasn’t investing any more time in it.
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Windows 10 links their license to the motherboard.
So as long as you use the same motherboard, the key will work.
This isn’t possible with VMs sadly.
You can extract the SLIC value from the ACPI table, and then pass it through to QEMU
See more details here: https://gist.github.com/Informatic/49bd034d43e054bd1d8d4fec38c305ec
It is my understanding that this can only be used to run the OEM license one one instance in a VM, on the specific hardware that is originally licensed. IE, you virtualize the license if the bootOS is Linux, but you can’t run 2 instances of the same windows license inside each other.
Or just install Linux and never worry about that shit again lol
I agree, I don’t plan to go back! Just don’t like giving up the option.
Cheap license sites (windows, games, etc) usually use keys bought via stolen credit cards. Pirating it is much better than buying from those sites, including for the devs that get punished for chargebacks from those keys.
the devs that get punished for chargebacks from those keys.
Just to be clear… in the case of Windows, that would be M$…?
Tbh if you want gray area keys. Microsoftsoftwareswap has always had verified users selling business generated licenses keys. If you HAVE to buy a key, at least buy one from vetted people and not some rando on a seller site
So, hurting Microsoft and getting a cheap Windows key? Where’s the downside?
They cost like $5 online, it’s not like it’s a huge risk. I’ve bought OEM keys before and they work fine. Just use a credit card so you can easily get a refund if it’s fake.
Those are usually Windows 7 or 8 keys.
Which do indeed work to activate Windows 10 and 11.
But not anymore.
Dumb q, if I install Linux and later decide to reinstall Windows, is that OEM license still good?
The answer is a resounding maybe. If you activated with a Microsoft account or if there’s a TPM chip, the chances of it still working increases. There are different kinds of licenses, but if it fails, there’s a better than not chance calling MS support and just telling them you had a hardware failure on your laptop and you need to reinstall, they’ll get you going. Not a guarantee though. And I’ll caveat and say this information is a couple years old (I don’t work in tech support anymore).
You can just reactivate by troubleshooting your activation in Windows.
No need to call Microsoft about it.
The multiple posts of people not being able to do that should have made it clear that doesn’t always work.
Definitely yes.
As long as you use the same motherboard.
Jumped the windows ship long ago. So glad I don’t need to deal with this nonsense anymore.
To be fair, nobody actually NEEDS to deal with this nonsense. Windows works just fine without an activated key, literally the only downside is the “Please activate Windows” bug on your desktop. That’s it, everything else works fine.
But yes, using Linux is also a great option.
Not exactly, can’t customize it either or change certain settings. I know this because I just built a new PC and the key I had didn’t work for 2 days while I had support figure it out.
Yeah, but nothing that prevents you from using your computer.
Customisation is just aesthetics
Absolutely, it’s not the worst. I had a client who had me rebuild their work pc for them and the key they gave me didn’t work. They never ended up bothering getting it to work since it was a work pc and didn’t really care if they could change the background or theme. This was Win 10, I think 11 has a few more settings locked out but it’s not bad really.
I don’t think system wide dark theme works without a key, although there are workarounds of course.
It does on 11
I’m going to fully assess what actual windows software I rely on any more and migrate all of my systems to a Linux based os this weekend I think.
The amount of games that I play that work on my Steam deck already confirms that I’ll be fine there.
I probably spin up a windows vm that I could remote into from my homelab if I’ve missed anything I do need to run.
I did recently and have regrets yet . Been using to run yuzu perfectly and most games I’ve tried work great other than some games that use certain anti cheats . Going to work on RGB control soon once I have time. And I have a windows VM to adjust the controls easily on my mouse and gaming keypad which I almost never need to change.
Ya I’m thinking I’ll just try some version of linux on my old laptop
On 10 right now, but honestly have had enough of the whole Windows ecosystem. (Like today I ran across a look at these exciting Windows 11 September updates! woo! aren’t you excited! video, and it was almost all embarrassingly cosmetic. Except for the part where they’re finally adding native support for archive formats (.7z, .rar, .tar) that everyone else has supported for decades: how fucking charming am I supposed to find that announcement after all these years of using 3rd party apps, when the probability of the native support being buggy as hell is very high? And that was just one example; there’s a full list in the description box.
No thanks. It’s clear they did all this just to be able to simultaneously slather AI hooks all through the OS works, free for now but not forever, and I’m just not interested in that either. Nothing against AI, I just don’t want it integrated into my OS. I also like my privacy, believe in keeping my own shit on my own computers, and enjoy not having a significant portion of my hardware computing load dedicated to the collection and sale of my data.
But MS isn’t the only game in town anymore. I tried some hardware-light Linux distros on a 13 year old MacBook recently just to see what the fuss is about, and was gobsmacked at how well they ran with 4GB of RAM and a slow (by today’s standards) processor. Holy shit. So I did a bit of hardware upgrading so I could run even more, and yesterday I installed Fedora 38 with KDE Plasma on that same MacBook with 16GB of RAM and a 1T SSD. It picked up every bit of that hardware on its own, too; I didn’t have to configure a thing.
It’s almost too easy, lol. It’s Linux so I thought I was going to be overwhelmed with command line shit, but no, not at all: the few times I needed the command line, the exact syntax was a web search away, with plentiful discussion, documentation, and even demo videos to choose from.
And if I don’t like it, I can try as many as I like off USB drives until I see something I like and decide to install that instead, and there are literally dozens, if not hundreds of distros now.
So Microsoft can keep that AI-ridden ad-ware Windows 11 shit. I’ll keep 10 for now (installed on a 7 license, lol) until I’m fully comfortable with Linux, and then that’s that.
Put it this way. I now have a screaming fast machine that runs on 13-year-old hardware where every software I could want for it is free, open source, and backed by a gazillion gurus both pro and amateur for whom no question is too arcane; why the hell should I give that up for the baggy, bloated, slow, privacy-invasive advertising delivery service that is Microsoft Windows?
I know there will be issues with Linux as I get to know it and use it, just because there are issues with every OS. There may even be things I find I can’t get past, and if that happens I try other distros or suck it up, lol. But fuck MS if they think I am going to pay actual cash to help them serve up my privacy while they deliver unwanted ads to me every time I boot it up.
Thank you for coming to my Ted talk, lol.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
I have around 30 windows 7 pro COAs (used to work in a pc repair shop, pulled the COAs on every dead pc that came through). Most of them are from dells, but I haven’t had an issue activating on custom pcs. If anyone wants one, let me know
If you’re handing out free keys, I’d happily take one! Pretty smart to yoink em from scrapped PCs lol
DM’d you
I’d love one if you have a spare! Thanks so much
DM’d you
I’d like one too if you have a spare
DM’d you too
Can i get one? Upgraded my PC and windows wont accept my old code, been running without activation for a while lol
DM’d you
You guys are using keys?
My first legit Windows Version I installed(not pre-installed) was when my university gave keys out for free.
Before that I used sketchy tools to activate my Windows. Since I am using Linux only my vms don’t get activated. Windows 10 runs fine without activation.
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He’s actually partly correct. VMs of Windows 10 or 11 are supposed to shut down hourly if not activated. It’s been present since Windows 10 released.
Here’s a reference in case you need one: https://superuser.com/questions/933754/why-does-windows-10-shut-down-hourly-with-initiated-power-off-on-behalf-of-nt-a
You either have the registry key unset, or are experiencing a bug of the software protection mechanism.
windows…as a server…?
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The same reason I set up a windows vm yesterday.
Space Engineers. There are dockers for it but since Single Player on Linux is already suffering in Performance I don’t think the server in docker on wine will perform better.
And I used a Windows Image that I used for personal installs and never had the issue that it shutdown unactivated. Some settings aren’t available though. Nothing usually you need.
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ah, i assumed a web server. it’s ok for game servers i guess
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.
that applies to vm images only
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.
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.
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.
Wym man I pacman -Syu 20 times a day with no problem. You guys need keys?
You guys need keys?
Yeah, sometimes if I haven’t booted up my laptop in a while, I’ll run pacman -Sy archlinux-keyring to get the keys I need.
Haven’t happened to me yet. I’ll keep this in mind. My arch devices are constantly in use.
I wish we could just get back to an updated version of 7. Everything since has sucked.
If you don’t use any software that requires Windows, you should give Kubuntu a try. I’ve found it very easy to use, as someone coming from Windows.
No problem. I’m still staying on 10 though.
Yeah, same for me.
Getting rid of the automated 11 upgrade was a pain already, took me months to finally find what was making it resurface all the time.
Thing is, I wasn’t even opposed to it originally. It just didn’t work and failed systematically. And my PC wasn’t even supposed to support it, since I don’t have TPM 2.0, so no idea why it even tried.
Now with all the reports of new ways to fuck with privacy I don’t even see any reason to upgrade.
I think they removed that requirement recently… I killed the upgrade prompts originally by disabling the fTPM but they’ve come back in the last month or so.
Weird. The lack of TPM 2.0 never prevented the upgrade process in my case, but once I disabled the upgrade, it didn’t come back (though I couldn’t tell you exactly what worked for me, I googled that some time ago).
However, for a while now Windows Update has been telling me my PC didn’t have the minimal requirements to execute Windows 11. Sure enough, PC health check app tells me it’s just lacking TPM. Gee, maybe it would have helped to check that before trying back then…
I’ve had the same Win8 Pro key that I purchased for $40 when it released 12 years ago. I’ve used it for Win10 and 11. Is this saying if I format my drive and reinstall Win11 that I won’t be able to activate using this key anymore?
Not like I wanted to, my older PCs running windows 7 aren’t eligible for Windows 11 anyway
Try installing fresh from USB. Typically works for me on any machine that says it couldn’t install on
It’s because of the TPM shit but there are ways to bypass that in the installer. There’s not that much difference in the architecture of Windows 7 v.s Windows 11, and there is theoretically nothing stopping a Win7 machine from running Win11. It’s all the same since Vista anyway. That was the last major architecture revamp.
Hmm, this shouldn’t affect me, as my Win 7 Pro key is now a Win 10 Pro key, right?
I finally ran out windows 7 keys and had to buy a new one for win11, they cost 4-9$ online.
Yeah, volume keys are what I’ve been using the past ten years or so. Only one office key got blacklisted so far. Overall a pretty good deal.
Where?
KeysOff has been very reliable for me in the past (I’m not affiliated with them, just a happy customer) but I’m pretty sure there are multiple VLK resellers out there for Windows keys at this point.
i randomly picked a shady website i found by searching “windows 11 pro license key purchase”
I’ve been able to get them off ebay before for windows 10 keys. Got a pro key for 6 dollars I believe.
r/MicrosoftSoftwareSwap sells them but mine stopped working and the dude who sold it to me didn’t answer. So don’t go there.
Activate Linux
So I can’t upgrade my sistem that works perfectly fine because it doesn’t meet one of their frivolous requirements. And now I can’t use the key that I legally purchased? Sounds like MS doesn’t want me to use their products.
They don’t want you, because they only want people that will happily conform and accept the walled garden they are slowly building towards
