Windows Are windows 10 or 11 OEM keys safe and trustworthy?

S

star_lord

Recruit
Hi people

I am building my own budget gaming PC. I need windows to game. I know that I can use windows as it is without key but the watermark would keep bothering. So I found out that I can buy windows key (the OEM ones) for cheap online.

My question is how safe is it and would it be trust worthy? Will windows someday detect the OEM key and put me back to Windows without key version?
 
I bought a Win 11 pro key from DigitBrew.com around six months ago, and it is working well so far with regular updates.
 
The OEM keys are tied to the motherboard, you can check the for sale section here, there are people selling keys.

Trust worthy, I would say so, depends on how long you keep the keys.

When you buy the key from Microsoft, you can transfer it to your new system, but it involves calling the customer care and escalating.
 
You can buy retail keys for cheap from grey market sellers. I bought mine for about ₹300 or so, it will be linked to your MS account instead of mobo/1 PC. Get a non-phone activation retail key.
 
I bought mine from ebay.com way back in 2017. Still running fine today. The keys were from discarded laptops (in their own words) Ebay was once flooded with such sellers but now it looks reduced. YMMV
 
Guys, unless you paid full retail you pirated the copy. Why even pay $10/equivalent, it's just piracy with extra steps. Remember you don't pay microsoft for the Windows OS you pay to license it (These are not my words it's Microsoft's). Just pirate like normal people and go on with your day or If you wanna be a bit ethical, Microsoft will let you use windows without activation.
 
kalph09 said:
I bought mine from ebay.com way back in 2017. Still running fine today. The keys were from discarded laptops (in their own words) Ebay was once flooded with such sellers but now it looks reduced. YMMV
Click to expand...
I think those were going for $2/3. My friend got one in 2020.
dvader said:
Guys, unless you paid full retail you pirated the copy. Why even pay $10/equivalent, it's just piracy with extra steps. Remember you don't pay microsoft for the Windows OS you pay to license it (These are not my words it's Microsoft's). Just pirate like normal people and go on with your day or If you wanna be a bit ethical, Microsoft will let you use windows without activation.
Click to expand...
I don't know if discussing piracy is allowed, but say MS office needs reactivation every 6 months for a pirated copy. Windows usually works alright, but have seen its activation fail after random period of time.

Grey market retail keys might be purchased from stolen CCs or so, not sure how they source it, but they are just convenient vs full on pirated copies. My friend's $2 OEM Windows 10 copy has been working for 3 years.
 
Last edited:
OMEGA44-XT said:
I think those were going for $2/3. My friend got one in 2020.

I don't know if discussing piracy is allowed, but say MS office needs reactivation every 6 months for a pirated copy. Windows usually works alright, but have seen its activation fail after random period of time.

Grey market retail keys might be purchased from stolen CCs or so, not sure how they source it, but they are just convenient vs full on pirated copies. My friend's $2 OEM Windows 10 copy has been working for 3 years.
Click to expand...
Discussing piracy is not allowed, however, the discussion was already started by @OP. I am just adding a commentary that there is no such thing as half or full piracy. I bought my copy of Windows 10 at full retail price and have never used the keys not even once. I don't think anything can be more convenient than entering one command and going your way. Now windows at 14k, I completely understand but Office why pirate that, as a student yeah why not, as an adult, you can use LibreOffice for small stuff and you shouldn't be pirating Office for work either way. Remember grey market keys are worse offenders than straight-up piracy because there is a money trail not that MS is gonna waste time on that but just saying.

I bought IDM a few years back and still used the pirated copy cuz why not. It was not until the Firefox Quantum update that I started using the official Key registration. We pay south of $1M to Oracle and VMware yearly for license costs and I can tell you it's always ethical to pirate.
 
dvader said:
Guys, unless you paid full retail you pirated the copy. Why even pay $10/equivalent, it's just piracy with extra steps. Remember you don't pay microsoft for the Windows OS you pay to license it (These are not my words it's Microsoft's). Just pirate like normal people and go on with your day or If you wanna be a bit ethical, Microsoft will let you use windows without activation.
Click to expand...
The keys sold are generally reused OEM keys from older hardware or taken from MSDN networks. It is more of a grey area and MS is well aware of it.

Secondly, MS does not want to crack down on developing markets like India as they want to monopolize the PC-OS market and it has worked out pretty well so far. It is a Win-Win for both.
 
kalph09 said:
The keys sold are generally reused OEM keys from older hardware or taken from MSDN networks. It is more of a grey area and MS is well aware of it.

Secondly, MS does not want to crack down on developing markets like India as they want to monopolize the PC-OS market and it has worked out pretty well so far. It is a Win-Win for both.
Click to expand...
That's exactly my point, not just developing markets MS doesn't give a shit about anything other than big businesses that they can audit and take to court (guess how I know). So why even waste INR 1 for something that at the end of the day is still Piracy? Sail the high seas, Mates. It all comes from the feeling that you have something genuine and you didn't have to pay full price for it. This feeling comes from our experiences with owning actual physical things, like scoring a (almost new) used SSD for half the price. This doesn't translate to the software world. At the end of the day it's your money however I would recommend saving that (even if it's INR 200) and donating it to a good cause.
 
Last edited:
Cheap keys are volume license keys.

Volume licensing is a special type of software licensing setup that uses a single license key to authorize the software on multiple computers. For instance, a company may purchase a software license that allows up to 50 of their employees to use the software at the same time. In this case, a single VLK (volume license key) can authenticate the software for all the installations.
 
kvn95ss said:
The OEM keys are tied to the motherboard, you can check the for sale section here, there are people selling keys.

Trust worthy, I would say so, depends on how long you keep the keys.

When you buy the key from Microsoft, you can transfer it to your new system, but it involves calling the customer care and escalating.
Click to expand...
All keys get tied to Microsoft account these days and can be transferred to a new machines easily from there.

Volume keys aren't piracy. They are cheap because you are buying them in bulk and there's no support included.

Retail version is made for Kerens who have the urge to talk to managers from time to time.

/s
 
lockhrt999 said:
All keys get tied to Microsoft account these days and can be transferred to a new machines easily from there.

Volume keys aren't piracy. They are cheap because you are buying them in bulk and there's no support included.

Retail version is made for Kerens who have the urge to talk to managers from time to time.

/s
Click to expand...

I am assuming the entire comment was sarcasm not just the last part.

Microsoft volume keys are not licensed for home, personal and retail use. Remember you DO NOT and CAN NOT BUY windows (because Microsoft doesn't sell windows, It sells you the legal license to use it, two completely different things), you license it (legally) and If you are not licensed to use Windows, it's a pirated copy. Now I sail the high seas myself. I am just pointing out Yes it's piracy in each and every sense of the word.

And if you are gonna pirate it why pay even INR 200.

How I know this, my Org is exclusive partner of Microsoft, we pay south of $800k just in windows licensing excluding millions in server licensing, Azure and consulting.
 
Back
Top