[FrostyBirth]

Hey, I was wondering if anyone here knew a good place to buy a copy of this OS. I had installed mine with a cd, but I keep being told that my product key is invalid and can't be used. Since Microsoft is pushing Windows 10 like crazy, they have removed the ability to purchase 7 & 8 from their website, and I can't get the free upgrade to 10 because my PC thinks that my copy isn't genuine.

Any help would be lovely.

[Bu1ld0g]

Have you tried going into one of the smaller PC shops and asking if they have any OEM copies?
There are sites like G2A.com that sell keys, how legit they are is questionable though.

Or you could try ebay

FYI this is the last month for the free "upgrade" to Win10.
Personally I like it but I know others that don't share the sentiment.

[eah]

I built a new computer recently and installed Windows 10 fresh. I don't like Windows to begin with, but, in comparison with Windows Vista, the last Windows OS I used, it's pretty good. After some amount of use, a watermark appears in the bottom right corner of the screen telling me to enter my product key. It seems shutting down Windows for some amount of time makes it go away, so I installed Linux Mint and use them half and half. I really would like to migrate to linux entirely, though.

Doing this could be a solution. However, I'll bet Windows will sabotage my computer at around the 30-day mark.

[TechnoProdigy]

Have you tried going into one of the smaller PC shops and asking if they have any OEM copies?
There are sites like G2A.com that sell keys, how legit they are is questionable though.

Or you could try ebay

FYI this is the last month for the free "upgrade" to Win10.
Personally I like it but I know others that don't share the sentiment.

DO NOT USE G2A. They're a scam website that uses stolen keys for games/software.

[Tee]

DO NOT USE G2A. They're a scam website that uses stolen keys for games/software.

Nah, they sponsor Pewdiepie and he's so famous and stuff. They must be legit.

/s

[FrostyBirth]

Have you tried going into one of the smaller PC shops and asking if they have any OEM copies?
FYI this is the last month for the free "upgrade" to Win10.
Personally I like it but I know others that don't share the sentiment.

I've tried a few places, but none seem to have anything anymore that isn't 10.

And yeah, I had upgraded, but I have lost quite a lot when I did, and I wasn't in the mood to reinstall 400gb+ of stuff on internet that caps at 300 kb/s.

[quote="eah"It seems shutting down Windows for some amount of time makes it go away, so I installed Linux Mint and use them half and half. I really would like to migrate to linux entirely, though.
[/quote]

I've never used Linux before, so I'm not sure where I'd stand on that really, but it's something I could look into.

[eah]

You'll undoubtedly run into more problems using linux than windows. Sometimes you'll have hardware issues. For example, my front headphone port doesn't work on linux mint, but the one on my monitor does. Also, many games are built for windows and not linux. There's a thing called "wine" that may resolve this, providing a required environment for the windows program in question. Sometimes you'll find an open source project that has binary releases for windows, but linux users are required to compile it themselves.

But I think it's worth trying out so long as it runs / you can install it properly. I had an interesting issue where linux overwrote the master boot record with its own boot loader (invisible by default) and wouldn't recognize my windows partition (because apparently windows always hibernates upon shutdown, causing it to be in something of an un-mountable state), so I was stuck in linux until I resolved the issue. It was a new computer, so I had the fortune of being able to run the windows installation tool from USB, wiping the hard drive, and reinstalling windows if I had to.

With some amount of guessing, googling, reading manuals and documentation, and sometimes programming, all problems are solvable. Linux is a learning experience, but some people may prefer to cough up $120 for microsoft's ready-to-go OS.

[Bu1ld0g]

DO NOT USE G2A. They're a scam website that uses stolen keys for games/software.

Prove it! /s

Like I said, "how legit they are is questionable"
I've used them in the past, no issues, immediate key delivery, no dramas. A lot of the keys on there console wise at least are bundle keys and no less legit than buying from ebay.
Use your common sense.

Do not buy from second hand stores, their stuff is stolen too....

[eah]

I've heard several theories for the source of G2A's keys:
1. It's a form of money laundering. Stolen credit cards are used to buy legit keys, then the keys are sold on G2A at a lower price, thus transforming dirty money into clean money.
2. Someone buys keys from microsoft in bulk at a reduced price (as a computer manufacturer or school typically does) and then sells the keys individually at a higher price on G2A (likely in violation of an agreement with microsoft).
3. Microsoft employs regional pricing. Because it costs nothing to make a copy of an OS, the price is lower in parts of the world where people are unwilling to pay a high price.
4. The keys themselves are somehow stolen from buyers before they're activated.
5. Microsoft intentionally sells keys at different prices knowing that there will be suckers who will pay full price and then there are those that will seek out alternatives. So same as #3 except it's not regional. Better to sell a licence for $20 than not at all, right?

I find #3 unlikely. If #1, #2, or #4 is used, then the keys have the potential to be deactivated. A key purchase on a stolen credit card can be reversed, thus pushing microsoft to deactivate the key; if microsoft learns that someone is not using their bulk purchase as agreed, then they too can be deactivated; and if a buyer reports to microsoft that their key doesn't work, the old one is deactivated and they receive a new one.

[Tee]

I have a theory with respect to G2A and Steam keys, at the least. It ties in nicely with the current csgolotto.com scandal if you've been following that.

In CS:GO you can earn weapon crates via gameplay or purchase them on the Steam Market, which you then unlock using a key purchased from Valve (microtransaction) or via trade with other players. That key lets you unlock the crate which then gives you a random skin or sticker.

Within the Steam ecosystem, these skins only have value as a tradeable item - ie they can't be bought or sold for real cash. They can be sold for Steam Dollars though, which allow you to purchase game keys.

They can also be gambled on external sites such as csgolotto.com or csgowild.com. These sites typically skim 8% of each pot as the house edge, and the turnover is huge - one corrupt YouTube personality was/is receiving ~US$150,000 per MONTH just for advertising a gambling site on his channel. You can only imagine that the site must be raking in >$1M per month to pay out that kind of money for advertising.

So as a result of the house edge, these gambling sites are ending up with huge numbers of CS:GO skins that they need to cash out. How do they do that though, because they can only be traded or sold for Steam Dollars within the Steam ecosystem?

Simples. They sell them for Steam Dollars and then buy game keys with those Steam Dollars. They then on-sell the game keys to G2A for cash, and G2A completes the transaction by selling them for hard currency. Voila - cheap keys bought with shady gambling profits as a method of laundering Steam Dollars into currency. Just beautiful - it brings a tear to my eye.

With respect to eah's five theories re Microsoft keys, I wouldn't be surprised if all of them are correct. Almost certainly shady regardless.

--

Edited to add that most of the currency transactions (other than the G2A storefront) actually take place in Bitcoin. Wouldn't want to have to declare and pay tax on any of that tasty gambling revenue, would we now?