If its anything like windows 10 was you could just never activate the license and nothing practically would be different, unless you wanted desktop backgrounds I believe. I barely notice the watermark anyhow telling me to activate windows for the last few years.

Use your Windows 7 key if you have one.

Or just get a Windows keygen/updater like KMSpico.

There's a digital license way of activation that doesn't even need an active service like kmspico. Just a one time activation and you're golden.

I've never heard of that one before, but it must be one of the most squatted domain phrases. There's like 20 versions just in top results and I could not figure out which one is official and which one just installs malware...

https://forums.mydigitallife.net/forums/kms-and-other-tools.... You probably need an account to see anything.

What a lame excuse to buy yourself a Mac. Totally recommended :)

Totally recommend it too. There are a few things that I don't like on Mac, but overall, works really well. And you can have a local account

What's frustrating about the Mac is that every time they screw up bad enough that I try to switch back to other options (I was a Windows and Linux, among other things, user for 15 years before I started using Mac) I find they're still so much worse that I'd just be cutting off my nose to spite my face, by switching.

I wish they had actual competition. It doesn't seem like anyone else is targeting the same market at all, despite technically having "competing products".

> And you can have a local account

For now.

That's exactly happened when I disabled GWX in Windows 8 Updater for about third time.

"I'm too old for this sh*t", and by the next day, a new Macbook Pro was on my table.

And how exactly do you plan to install software on this Mac? It is becoming more locked down every day.

You will need an account.

why should I pay more for a luxury car when the SAME MANUFACTURER makes low-end cars, too?

A second-hand Windows 10 Pro license costs like $25 (and used to be $5). That's a pretty small price for a substantially better experience.

This is false. A pirated Windows 10 Pro license costs like $25. These are not legitimate licenses, they're overprovisioned enterprise keys being sold in violation of the license agreement. And yes, they register differently in Windows, and can be easily detected. (Command is slmgr /dli)

Like, if you want to pirate software, go pirate software. If you're going to pay someone on a per-install basis for pirated keys, I'm gonna laugh at how easily you're being taken advantage of.

For $25 I can get a legitimate Windows 7 Pro license sticker that works like any Windows 10 license, which is perfectly legal all the way through.

But depending on your jurisdiction, the $5 enterprise keys can also be entirely fine. Sure, in a way that's outsourcing piracy. But the law doesn't have to see it that way. There's nothing illegal about buying enterprise keys, and if they are overprovisioning keys that's between them and MS, I can't even know if that's the case.

It's not perfectly legal, but reasonably more legal than the alternative (a key bought from a reseller). Those stickers are meant to be affixed to a machine sold by a reseller, and is only meant to be used for that machine. If the machine is destroyed and the sticker/key is kept, then it can be used, and it does register Windows Professional/Home installation rather than an Enterprise/Education installation, but is in violation of the TOS that it's provided under.

That being said it is difficult to shed a tear for Microsoft of all companies over this practice.

Cheap key allows you to activate windows and to bind valid windows license to your hardware, so you won't have to enter any product key anymore. Using cracks is just not safe for most people. I'd recommend to buy cheap key over crack any time.

Wait, are free pirated keys that work as reliably as paid technically-pirated enterprise keys and don't require downloading some probably-comes-pre-botnetted "hacked" Windows installer, but work flawlessly with the installer downloaded straight from Microsoft, readily available? Asking for a friend.