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douglasg14b ,
@douglasg14b@lemmy.world avatar

Morning. One of my devices has been running unactivated W10 for something like 4+ years now.

sag ,

Nothing I guess. I never activate Windows back then.

bestusername ,
@bestusername@aussie.zone avatar

Don’t worry about it.

github.com/…/Microsoft-Activation-Scripts

KISSmyOSFeddit ,

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/3998f8a8-215d-486f-bbcd-43fea461db1f.png

cholesterol ,

Buy him out, boys!

rekabis ,

I have always bought surplussed business hardware, which back in the day came with COA stickers still attached. My latest iron had two attached for some strange reason. So when Windows 10 came along with its “Upgrade Win 7 key to 10” plan, I fired up a VM (for this exact purpose) and went to work. Now (after moving them to 10 and then 11) I have a handful of Win11 Pro licenses for whatever machine I need to license.

Slowly moving away from Windows due to their AI and spyware shenanigans, but hey. Likely always will run at least one Windows rig, even if I have to spend the first day or two after install castrating it.

Lost_My_Mind ,

See, your mistake was moving away from Windows 7.

rekabis ,

Unless you airgap the machine, Windows 7 is now becoming more and more insecure and out of date.

It’s like using Debian 9 or earlier in production… not something you want to do unless you enjoy being pwned.

AreaKode ,

This method has worked for me for years. msguides.com/windows-10

mynamesnotrick , (edited )

Totally not a link to mass gravel.

eratic ,

massgrave.dev

jasep ,

Whatever you do, don’t find massgravel’s GitHub and run the PowerShell script (this is sarcasm btw)

intro ,

Oh yes, do not do that! I certainly didn’t do it. And I’m gonna not do it again if I need to.

paf0 ,

Oh wow, you rule.

I installed Windows in a VM for the first time in years just last week. I’ll never use it enough to want to pay $200, this is perfect.

Retiring ,
@Retiring@lemmy.ml avatar

I love how this has 81k stars on Github, a platform Microsoft acquired in 2018.

tourist ,
@tourist@lemmy.world avatar

Then you may be delighted to hear that, not only do they know about it, they also use it themselves

(I think it’s the same project, idk I didn’t read all that, I’m legit concussed, but it’s still funny)

Retiring ,
@Retiring@lemmy.ml avatar

😂😂😂 thank you, this just made my day. Sorry about your concussion though! And yes it is the same project, it shows in the screenshot.

EddoWagt ,

Looking at the screenshots, yes its the same script

xavier666 ,

I’ve posted the link to the Github project so people can avoid it

github.com/…/Microsoft-Activation-Scripts

folkrav ,

I have 3 old DreamSpark Windows 7, 8 and 10 Pro licenses I’ve been upgrading/reusing between my main PC and laptop, so I haven’t bothered looking at the state of spoofing the MS activation process in years. Holy crap now it’s literally just on GitHub lol, used to have to download some zip on a random forum or a dodgy torrent…

Chainweasel ,

It’ll harass you to activate it indefinitely but Microsoft has a policy that they’d rather have people steal their operating system than pay for someone else’s, so ultimately that’s it. It’ll just annoy you.

Empricorn ,

they’d rather have people steal their operating system than pay for someone else’s

Uh… What? 99% of all alternatives to Windows are free (as in beer), whereas Microsoft is the one that charges money. Especially as a non-commercial user.

A_Random_Idiot ,

Hes half right.

Its not about paying for someone elses cause as you said the alternatives are free for the most part, its about not learning someone elses ecosystem so they stay in the windows ecosystem. Its why they have never come down on people using illegal copies.

Nougat ,

Its why they have never come down on people using illegal copies.

They will come down on businesses using illegal copies. An individual with one or two or three copies running is not worth the legal expense.

InternetCitizen2 ,

Also worth saying that they can still go after individuals if they think making an example of them is needed. Our legal system is friendly to corps too.

Nougat ,

Can, yes, but that would most likely be someone who is selling computers with unlicensed Windows installed. I'm willing to bet that the only reason Microsoft even continues to make home versions cost money is because of the deals they have with OEMs who preinstall Windows, and pay Microsoft a bit for the OS.

For example, the time I was doing field service at a small office (like seven people), because they were tired of the rando guy they were paying crazy amounts of money to. He had set them up with three or four servers he'd built himself, all of the machines in the office were unlicensed, all of the server apps (MS SQL and MS Office were the big ones I remember, but there were others) were unlicensed. He "worked remotely" "at night" and never came into their office after having put everything in place.

After the customer cut the cord with this guy, he redirected their website to somewhere else. Site was still there, but his name was on the domain registration, and he wouldn't give it back to the customer he had registered it for.

I discovered the shady state of affairs, documented and reported to my chain of command at the MSP. They must have talked to the customer because a couple of weeks later my phone rings. It's the customer -- caller ID and I recognized the voice, and it was the late aughts, so AI fakery was not on the table. The FBI was in their office, and would I talk to them? I was asked, and answered, about all of the systems and applications that I'd found which were unlicensed.

Now, I'm not saying the FBI was involved solely because of the licensing issues. I'm sure they wanted the guy for some other thing and this was their way in the door. But yeah, that was fun. And interestingly, that's not the only time I've had to talk to the FBI about "computer fuckery" tangentially related to my employment.

InternetCitizen2 ,

That is wild, did the old IT guy report them or how did the FBI come into it all? Either way I think people are sometimes too comfortable with the fact that windows is “forgiving” with activation at the moment. I would rather have a license than find out the grace period is over and I am locked out of my important stuff. I don wonder why business try and cut corners on some of this stuff. They have to know they are juicy targets for hackers and M$ lawyers.

Nougat ,

Sorry, I wasn't clear enough - FBI was going after the old IT guy who had employed all the fuckery. I have no idea how the FBI got involved. My knowledge went from "Hey, here's what I see going on, and we're going to handle all of that" to "I am on the phone with the FBI."

InternetCitizen2 ,

i see. Still pretty wild.

thefartographer ,

Maybe the beer part is adding context that I’m missing, but MacOS is not free, as proven time and time again by them suing companies who tried using copies of install disks with license workarounds to create various Hackintoshes or iMacs modified into a tablet.

waigl ,

MacOS is basically a different world.

lurch ,

yeah, i think that helped kill a lot of other OSes early (like OS/2, Looking Glass, etc.) and still makes creating new paid ones difficult.

Blue_Morpho ,

I have been running for almost a year and after first setup, didn’t get a nag to activate. Just a watermark on the lower right.

Siegfried ,

Most active way of harassment was changing your background with a black image. I think that was win 7

Boozilla ,
@Boozilla@lemmy.world avatar

It won’t let you customize your settings (change your wallpaper and lots of stuff). It limits the Windows updates you’ll receive. It leaves the annoying “watermark” up. It nags you to activate. I think that’s about it.

KISSmyOSFeddit ,

This basically just keeps companies from using unlicensed Windows for business. Also, Microsoft does go after businesses who are unlicensed. They don’t give a fuck about private users cause that’s not where they’re making money.

ahornsirup ,
@ahornsirup@sopuli.xyz avatar

They probably prefer consumers running pirated Windows over consumers running Linux. As long as most people are more familiar/comfortable with using Windows than Linux, the more likely companies are to not even look at alternatives.

refurbishedrefurbisher ,

AKA “The Adobe method”

lord_ryvan ,

This basically just keeps companies from using unlicensed Windows

You say this but my local boba tea place their touch screen order thingie has Windows’ unlicensed watermark over it but I think even their customers are too Dutch to care (me included, I actually love them for it!)

purplemonkeymad ,

it limits the Windows updates you’ll receive.

I don’t think it does now does it? For the longest time ms wants to make sure all machines are up to date to try and keep, “always getting viruses” moniker away. I think maybe xp did that?

Boozilla ,
@Boozilla@lemmy.world avatar

Pretty sure it used to, but you may be right and my info is out if date. It’s been a minute since I ran commando with it.

neidu2 ,

Nothing as far as I’ve seen. It shows the “activate windows” nagging at the bottom right, but you learn to ignore it and after a while you don’t even notice it anymore.

Source: Installed windows 10 a few years back solely for the purpose of playing GTA5. Once done I didn’t boot windows until I was going to try RDR2 last year. Still worked fine.

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