Hello people I have recently changed my CPU, Motherboard and RAMs so I was planning on reinstalling windows on my PC. Last time I installed Windows was probably or so 10 years ago and I can’t remember for the life of me how I activated it.
Any recommendations on activating the new install? Or is it too much trouble nowadays and should I just buy a key?
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It’s pretty ironic that this is hosted on a Microsoft owned service. I hope they have a mirror available somewhere
This is the correct answer!
Definitely this is the way
This is the way
Sorry for the double reply but do you know if this works for every version of Windows 10 or just specific ones?
Worked on 11, safe to assume works on all 10’s
should work on every version. Afaik the activation sequence is the same for all windows 10 versions so i can’t see why it wouldn’t work on some versions
I’ve used it on probably 10+ windows systems that I’ve had to refresh/set up for various needs and people. I’ve never had it fail on any flavor of 10/11.
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Which Windows? Windows 10 and above have the key attached to your Microsoft account, so you shouldn’t have any issues. I’m pretty sure they’re free now anyways (in exchange for being spyware).
That’s assuming you’ve ever logged into the account.
It isn’t mandatory? Can I detach my account from an install that is already registered, or would they just make the association anyways with the hardware specs?
You unplug ethernet during the install to get the “limited setup”, which just means without a microsoft account.
It’s not mandatory, but they keep making it harder every update.
I’m not sure your registration would remain once you detach the account from your install, but I do think you can still detach it.
I don’t have any recommendation beyond what has already been said but if none of the solutions work or seem too much to handle and you don’t absolutely need windows for whatever reason (mostly work, if gaming is what you’re worrying about Linux works fine usually now that steam is pushing for more conpatibility) I’d rather recommend you try out Linux Mint (or Nobara if you want all the gaming stuff to be setup for you already) instead of buying windows as it will save you money and time.
Went through this recently. Had to get a new drive and install fresh and going through the setup process in windows 10 just broke my spirit. I downloaded Garuda Linux and havent even finished setting up windows.
Buy a key from a chinese retailer. 5€ for a fully functional windows.
If you don’t want to, there are KMS tools but they work for a time then they don’t anymore.
Yeah go pay for a key that’s gonna get revoked once MS figures out its being illegally resold nahhhh
To be fair, there’s an almost zero percent chance of the key being revoked. Microsoft sells (or sold) W10 keys for peanuts all over the world depending on the market. They don’t region lock. Their current strategy is monetising services, so there’s no risk they’re suddenly going to u-turn on their decade long strategy and kick off MS users.
Worst case scenario OP has to use one of the hacks explained in this submission in a few years.
Why go through all that when MAS exists. Just activate it yourself with a single script, use the same thing for MS Office as well. I’ll never understand why people choose to pay for stolen/enterprise keys
Oh man, MAS is quite a rabbit hole. It basically tricks Microsoft’s server to give out valid windows license.
How does it work?
In the official upgrade process from Windows 7 to Windows 10, Microsoft provides an HWID (digital license) activation for Windows 10 without any cost.
In the background, the upgrade process runs a file named gatherosstate.exe (available in Windows 10/11 ISO) and it checks the license of current Windows if found activated, it generates a valid GenuineTicket.xml ticket which is sent to Microsoft and in return, MS authorizes a license.
So if we just convince the gatherosstate.exe file that the conditions are met for ticket generation by fooling it, it will generate a valid ticket, which can be used to get the valid HWID (Digital license).
The fact that this tool is hosted in a Microsoft-owned website (GitHub) is crazy, lol. Or maybe Microsoft doesn’t care and just want more people to use Windows, so they don’t crack hard on this.
Microsoft never cared.
It’s been proven over and over again that Microsoft simply does not care for individual consumers anymore. I mean, you can use any Microsoft Windows installation without activating for perpetuity and the only issue would be no customisation of the wallpaper and that pesky notice on the bottom right.
The money from Enterprise is enough to justify it
Can you still run windows updates when using MAS?
Yes, windows functions exactly as it would should you have used a legit key and will tie in to any MS account you have logged in to permanently activate it forever (no need to keep activating), it even allows you to upgrade your Windows edition from home to pro if you wanted to. I have been doing this for literally a decade or more and have had zero repercussions from doing so.
What do you mean “can”? It can only be turned off for a month, max, then they force update it for you.
This is for piracy, piracy means not buying shit.
Since when?
Uhm… Thats the nature of taking things without paying…
You don’t know much about piracy, do you? Pirated stuff doesn’t always mean it’s free. For example, services like kino.pub - pure piracy, yet have monthly subscription. Which is worth it. I’m a pirate since early 90-s and it’s a huge multi billion dollar industry. From pirated VHS cassettes sold super cheap on flea markets back in the days to illegal software keys sold online for pennies today.
Nature of pirating, lol.
They take it for free and sell it to you, they are pirates, you are not, you just know you pay for a pirated product.
Lol what? You don’t take something for free. Oh man, kids these days…
You are just not understanding the therm piracy correctly.
Piracy could also mean “buy shit for way less”. Instead of a 200$ key you can have it for 2-5$. It kinda fits.
Plus you can have it free but it’ll be a hassle or very low price and it won’t be a hassle. The choice is his.
Those keys are usually gotten via stolen credit cards. It’s much more ethical to just pirate the thing.
Thats not piracy then, you just buy your key from someone else, who probably got the key legally anyway.
Any random win7/win10/win11 key works.
Personally I scratch of the old win7 keys of old customers that gave them to us for recycling amd use them for myself :)GASP You wouldn’t download Windows!?
It is maybe time to try something else like Linux for exemple.
I’m an avid Void user, so I get the value of linux. But I cringe every time I see a comment like this. The OP has asked a specific question about a specific version of a specific OS. Someone asking about an OS should not be considered an invitation to tell them about another.
Thank you for saying this! The Linux virtue signaling is so strong around here that it really is off putting. Like, we get it. You’re a super duper computer person that’s super duper smart and has made the smartest of smart choices in your OS.
I’ve been a programmer for 13 years now and can do anything from the command line yet I still think GNU/Linux is garbage as a desktop OS… it has nothing to do with being good with computers. The only good argument for Linux is a FOSS only mentality
It’s like going on a car sub where someone’s asking how to repair the brakes on a Ford Focus, and someone replying “Well I have a Hyundai i20 and it doesn’t have that problem”
Fuckin irritating kids
More like going on a car sub where someone is asking for a specific car for free, and someone replying “well I have a different car you can have for free”
But Linux is a Windows app…
Linux is a family of operating system running the Linux kernel.
You may be thinking of WSL, a subsystem for linux on windows.
My god…
Lol
I just used the injector or whatever I got with the LTSC ISO. No trouble whatsoever.
