Any way to activate Windows 10?

[rcajun90]

I’m not talking about pirating it.  Mine tells me it costs $139 which seems really expensive to me.  Is there a cheaper way?

Edited May 21, 2022 by rcajun90

[bfollowell]

I always download the USB Windows installers from Microsoft and I buy my licenses from Kingiun.net or G2A.com I rarely play more than $30.

 

[+joeatari1]

You can also go the E-Bay route.  I see one on THIS PAGE for $15.  I have done this in the past and they work.

[RadiATIon]

I don't understand. 

I had W7 and I payed for an update for W8. When W10 came out, I update my W8 -> W10. Since that, I have installed W10 on 2 VCS without paid anything.

So, If you have already an account under W10 on another PC, you have just to type your mail and password, so you can connect with your Microsoft Account.

[bfollowell]

3 minutes ago, RadiATIon said:

I don't understand. 

I had W7 and I payed for an update for W8. When W10 came out, I update my W8 -> W10. Since that, I have installed W10 on 2 VCS without paid anything.

So, If you have already an account under W10 on another PC, you have just to type your mail and password, so you can connect with your Microsoft Account.

Well, it's not supposed to work that way, but if you say it is, I'm certainly not going to argue with you. However, the way it is supposed to work is that every unique machine is supposed to have its own Windows license. Who is logged into it makes no difference at all. The Windows license if for the machine, not the person.

 

[Matt_B]

If you register a Microsoft account with a Windows machine it'll associate the license with it and store it online. You can check which computers are registered to you on the devices page at account.microsoft.com which will also give you their licensing status.

 

You can keep reusing a retail license to register new computers as many times as you want; only the OEM ones are tied to a particular machine and require permission from Microsoft support, which they'll usually give if you just say that you changed the motherboard, to move. Either way though, any previous machines using that license will eventually become deactivated when they go online. Stuff still works, you'll just start seeing the nag messages.

 

If you're anything like me, you've probably picked up enough Windows licenses over the years that you can endlessly recycle them and never have to buy new ones. Just be careful not to reassign ones that are currently in use.

 

 

[rcajun90]

I want to thank everyone.  I have legitimate options I would have never thought of on my own.