So I just did a fresh install of w11 and im wondering where to buy a "non-expensive" windows 11 keys....

you know on other pc-based forums having people tell you why you should never pay 100 bucks for a windows key...

1 year ago

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Win 11 keys are significantly more expensive as Win 10 keys which you can upgrade to Win 11 without additional cost.
Have a look at this channel https://odysee.com/@coreteks:5 or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCopiE5vdL8

1 year ago
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Heh I was typing out a reply for OP that mentioned the youtube channel techyescity until I checked your youtube link.

But yea to OP click on his youtube link and in the description there's a link to buy legit retail window keys for very cheap (don't forget to use the coupon code).

1 year ago
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That's an OEM key though, which means that it will be tied to the mainboard it will be activated with.

1 year ago
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True but if you have to change your motherboard you can always call up the activation number and tell them your motherboard died and you had to replace it and ask if they can activate it again. From what I heard they will usually agree to do it.

1 year ago
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And what when windows 10 is totally ditched and you need a new installation?

1 year ago
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By that time W11 keys will probably go down in price.

1 year ago
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You can buy a Win11 key at that link for $20 with the coupon code. That's pretty reasonable

1 year ago
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If you "upgraded" a win10 -> win11, you can reinstall it from scratch. Just save your key / activation in a MS account.

After reinstalling Win11 from scratch, login with MS account => activation works and you can ditch the account, if you like.

1 year ago
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If you upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11 you own Windows 11, there is no need for any other purchase... I've been using Windows 8.1 keys to activate Windows 10 for years and never failed.

1 year ago
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It's best not to buy pirated keys for an operating system or you might run into issues in the future. Do you have any local repair shops that can install it for you? The reputable ones usually use MAR licenses, which are legal and not likely to cause issues in the future.

1 year ago
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usually nobody buying pirated keys, 'cause if it's pirated than it's free....
just saying)

1 year ago
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yea, buying pirated keys must be on another level lol

1 year ago
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Well...it's not like there're no instances when/where someone could indeed buy/sell something pirated (like for example a dvd-disc with some pirated movies), but now it's already a piece of history at best XD

1 year ago
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The grey market might be a better term? Either way, these types of keys may have activation issues down the road.

1 year ago
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They actually just concluded the sales of licensed windows ten installs last week I think.
The time is now to learn Linux young son

1 year ago
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The year of Linus Desktop!

1 year ago
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YES! To the moon!

1 year ago
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Not sure if this is allowed

this title probably will make MSKOTOR pay closer attention to this thread :)

View attached image.
1 year ago
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View attached image.
1 year ago
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You can only buy legit windows CD keys from microsoft. Or boxed ones from official retailers. Any "non-expensive" keys are license violation, so your copy will be considered pirated. There is no reason to pay money to pirated windows - either buy legit key, or just use some activator from internet - it's the same as illegal key, but free.

1 year ago
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They are not pirated or illegal keys. They are genuine keys sold from cheaper regions like Asia or South America except unlike video game keys, Microsoft does not region restrict their Windows keys.

1 year ago
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That's not true. Those are key from msdn subscription, intended for internal use (for testing, etc). They are supposed to be used by subscription holder only, instead they are sold - that's violation of license, and effectively makes your windows pirated. You may like or dislike it, but that's true.

1 year ago
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Not true.
Keys can be sold legally in Europe for example.
They usually come from big bundles for business users etc. Also, Microsoft does not have a monopoly on reselling unused licences.

1 year ago
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When you start using windows you agree to it's license agreement. This license agreement says, that you can only obtain license from Microsoft or official reseller. You agree to it, so you already agreed that reselling unused licenses is license violation. And no, there is no windows that cost few bucks in any country, prices are more or less the same in every region. If you are buying a key that costs much less than price in official Microsoft store - it's 100% illegal, and your windows is hence pirated. I'm not blaming people for pirating software, I'm just saying that PAYING for pirated software is EXTREMELY DUMB thing to do.

1 year ago
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EULAs don't supercede National Laws.
Or in this case EU Law.
Once MS (or resellers) have sold licenses (in bulk) they no longer have any say what the initial customer is allowed to do with them.
It's like with physical items. A car manufacturer can not prohibit you from selling it on outside of their network.
On a side note, a key alone is not a valid MS licence. Usually it's the key, a licence sticker and some paperwork.

1 year ago
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Well, especially for you they specify in the EULA that it's NOT sold to you, it's LICENSED. There is a difference, in EU law too. You can't sell what isn't yours to begin with.

1 year ago
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cough "Windows MAS" cough

1 year ago
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If you already have a Windows 7/8.1/10 key, it'll activate Windows 11 fine. I've activated 10 using a 7 key before, no issues.

1 year ago
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the problem is i can't find my windows 8.1 keys lol... i was thinking of using it to see if i can activate it for windows 11 lol...

1 year ago
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wait, people actually pay money for windows?

1 year ago
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My thoughts exactly lol

1 year ago
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Yes. Not all people are dishonest.

1 year ago
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Using the free version of the software provided by Microsoft is being dishonest?

1 year ago
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There is no free version. Read the damn license.

1 year ago
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actually yeah, you can download windows straight from microsoft and install it, say you don't have a product key, and still get almost full functionality out of it.

1 year ago
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If you are able to read - please, read license agreement, it will explain why you are wrong. If you are unable to read - please, spare me from your meaningless answers.

1 year ago
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sorry if i struck a nerve, but there's really no reason to be an asshole. or so pedantic. everything i wrote in my previous reply is correct. whether you wanna define that as a "free version" is beside the point. i'm not reading through the license agreement to shed light on whatever minor point you're weakly trying to prove. you're getting upset over something incredibly stupid and resorted to basically name-calling. i'm really not into this stupid shit. so, i'm done with this. have a wonderful day.

1 year ago
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I politely asked you to stop bothering me with this nonsense, and you did not, so who is an asshole now? When you install windows you have to agree with their license term, there is no other way. And since you agree to it - you agree that that there is no free version, and that you can't use it without activation. If you alreadty agreed with that - it's extremely stupid to deny it and pretend that there is a free version, because "lol, didn't read". Stop acting like a five-years old.

1 year ago
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I've won't spend any more time on people incapable to read.

1 year ago
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Do not worry, it is allowed to buy Windows 11 keys on digital and physicals stores.

Jokes aside, as others have pointed out, it's cheaper to purchase a Windows 10 key in any digital store of your choice and then upgrade to Windows 11 for free. The key will then be linked to your Microsoft account, so you'll be able to use it again with the same account. (You do have to manually remove it from any old PC before installing it again.)

If you want a specific store, sadly that might count as promotion, but a quick google search will yield you results and you can then check opinions on the store on reddit or similar to see if it does work.

1 year ago
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Yes. To be a bit more precise though, there are two types of keys, and OEM keys can not be reused with another mainboard.(Which is why OEM keys usually end up being the cheapest on offer).

1 year ago
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If you already have a Windows 7/8.1/10 key, it'll activate Windows 11 fine. I've activated 10 using a 7 key before, no issues.

That is correct any Win key of Win 7 or higher will still work.

In case you don't have a Win key the most cost effective method is to buy a Win 10 key and go from there. After upgrading to Win 11 I'd recommend to do a Win 11 re-install from scratch to avoid any possible issues.

Of course you can buy a Win 11 key for a little more money.

Are the keys genuine? You can contact Microsoft support and they'll tell you your activation is valid. That's good enough for me.

1 year ago
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When I was using Windows, I used this program to get my new key after upgrading from Windows 8 to Windows 10. I did this because I had no key to begin with since it was a BIOS-integrated key. Depends on the computer, Windows might not accept the older keys, but this way there was no problem.

So after upgrading to Win 11, this might be a good idea just in case.

1 year ago
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Activating via old keys isn't the only solution, there's also activation via telephone. I'm not sure if it works with Windows 11 (or at all), on Windows 10 I get this, maybe because it's already activated, who knows. If you wanna access it yourself, open run and type "slui 4". I'll try to whip up a fresh Windows 10/11 install and try it out.

1 year ago
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Unfortunetly, it doesn't work anymore. Seems like it got phased out some time ago. I couldn't get slui 4 to open without a product key and I managed to get it to open by inputting a KMS key from Microsofts site, but that showed the same thing as on Windows 10. If someone has any ideas, I'll be more than happy to try them.
Before someone else asks, yes it's the latest version and despite me adding Chrome and Spotify to it, it was a fresh install. I only added them because I wanna find a solution to get the music flyout back, as it's the only thing stopping me from switching to 11.

1 year ago
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more important question is: why would you do that to yourself and install win11 at all?!

1 year ago
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Because my 12th gen intel could benefit from ecore usage... and also use directx12 in the future...

yes i've done some research on the pros and cons of current w11 build...

it's the same thing that people said on windows 10, when 7 was good... same when w8 and eventually w8.1, when 7 was still solid...

1 year ago
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Windows 11 at launch was pretty rough, not gonna lie. A lot of usability features were missing, small things like how it was difficult to change the volume, connect to bluetooth devices or that the taskbar didn't have any drag'n'drop functionality.

All those things has since been resolved though. It's currently as solid as Windows 10 was imho. In fact... I prefer it as the way the Start-Menu is structured in W11 makes more sense to me than the ugly, hard-to-use, tiles of W10.

1 year ago
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If you ever figure out how to swap the left and right speakers in Win 11 let me know.

1 year ago
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That's a super specific thing to need though... pretty sure Windows 10 doesn't have that built-in either? Don't think any modern OS does?

There's a program called Equalizer APO however, that lets you do any such modifications to the audio output you'd ever want. That works on Windows 7 and forward. Absolutely easiest solution would of course be a hardware one, just a couple of RCA male/female connectors where you can swap the cables physically. Wouldn't cost more than a few bucks. Equalizer APO would be the only way to go if it's a USB connection ofc.

1 year ago
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Hardware would be a safe solution without potential software baggage.

Issue is with speakers, they have power provided on one siide.
For handicapped people, wiring can be an issue.

1 year ago*
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sites like G2A sell keys for windows with pretty cheap prices
anyone ever buy keys from this kind of sites?
I would want to, but I ever heard somewhere that sites like this are unhealthy for the business or something... I forgot XD

1 year ago
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The problem lies in the fact that these "grey market" sites have sellers who get their keys through credit card fraud. A practice hitting small game developers/publishers.
On the other hand stolen phones are sold on ebay so G2A isn't more morally corrupt as much bigger companies.

1 year ago
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yea yea, that fraud stuff, and also the bad impact to the indie developer 0.0,
That being said, does the game keys or software keys are considered legal?

1 year ago
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There's a small chance your key gets revoked. Not all sellers are criminals though have a look a their rating essentially same spiel as on ebay.

1 year ago
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ok so there are 3 types out there :

retail which are sold via authorized distributor at full price or a slight discount
OEM licenses comes with hardware manufacturer and are often integrate/embedded into bios
volume licenses are granted to businesses and organizations and sold in third party market due to people abusing the system and reselling them for profit. These are legit keys.

but then there are keys which require you to install or run some script or command on powershell and if i were you i'd stay away from those as they are easily revoked/dont work at a later time

as always, if you own windows 10, you can upgrade it to 11 for free! good luck!

1 year ago
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im curious what features are not available to you if you went with an oem license?? i was watching a youtube video and i recalled that sometimes the license is you get a "educational" version over the home/pro version...

1 year ago
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ok so there are no difference other than support channel.. oem support channel are through manufacturer and retails are through microsoft.. however there are different versions of windows so make sure you buy the one that you are looking for.. oem versions are mostly home user edition.. you can check diff edition and what they offer on microsoft website

1 year ago
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The only difference between OEM and Retail Keys is that an OEM is bound to the Machine where you install it, while an Retail Key can be transfered between Machines. So If you have an OEM Key and your Motherboard breaks you gonna need to get a new Key, while if you activated that Machine with an Retail Key you simply can replace the Motherboard and then reactivate Windows on it.

That the Reason why I always buy Retail Keys.

1 year ago
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I think small amount of keys also come from Microsoft Imagine or old Dreamspark which allowed certain students get full licenses...

I'm still using one of them somehow... Even on new PC...

But resale of those is not allowed, but I'm not sure they are tracked.

1 year ago
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yeah totally forgot about that program. speaking of which, if you are a student, and your institution is eligible, you can apparently get a free windows 11 key from onthehub.. note that its a student edition ( full feature of home plus more )

1 year ago
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1 year ago
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1 year ago*
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You can get Win10/11 OEM and Retail keys for under $1 at https://royalcdkeys.com but unfortunately they are all out of stock currently.
There are currently only some WIn10 Home available. I can also confirm that the site is serious and clean, because I bought 5x Windows 10 Pro retail keys there a while ago and everything went and is going smoothly.

1 year ago
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HRK Game has the cheapest, official windows keys.

1 year ago
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