Sign up for a Microsoft small business account. Via that, you get a MSDN (or whatever they call it these days) subscription. Then you can download any version of the OS and get a license key from the same webpage to activate it.

While you can download it from MSDN, and it will activate, check your licenses. In most cases, these licenses are intended for development and it is forbidden to use them in production.

In the past, you weren't allowed to use MSDN distributions for everyday business purposes. Is that no longer the case?

Any chance you have a link to this offering? Not seeing MSDN being listed as included with anything buyable.

Apologies, it seems the program was discontinued in 2018. Lookup details on Microsoft’s BizSpark program for more info.

This program replaced it, but I have zero info besides knowing it replaced BizSpark so might not be comparable:

https://startups.microsoft.com/en-us/

Not sure if this is what the poster above was referencing, but here's an offering: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/pricing-details/

On ebay for $10.

Ah, yes, the Virus Of The Month club.

Have you ever had that actually occur to you with software bought on eBay that's non-physical?

I've bought numerous Windows 7 and a couple of Windows 10 keys, plus a few MS Office keys, never had any issues.

Sometimes, the keys would require phone activation, but that was ages ago. Nowdays they just work.

The providers give you a key that you can use to activate, and a link for the ISO, but that part is optional. The keys work with untouched ISOs, too. FWIW, I once downloaded the seller's ISO and compared the hashes, and they matched up.

I may have to add, I live in Germany, which is part of the EU, and the courts here have decided key resale is completely legal and MS has to tolerate it.

["Volume license software may be sold individually"]: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https...

[original]: https://www.golem.de/news/bgh-urteil-software-aus-volumenliz...

Virus in the product key? That's something incredible.

True, I was thinking of software distributed on DVDs or ISOs.

A stolen or misappropriated product key is almost as bad as a virus, though. It will work great... but only at first, until Microsoft notices that 50,000 customers are using it.

I bet on some level they know and don't care. If you're buying a cheapo key off of ebay then chances are you were never going to pay the full price. Meanwhile they're still using the software, learning how it works, and growing the Windows ecosystem further. Vaguely like a loss-leader that gets people in the door.