this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2023
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That's because even a grey market Windows key costs US$20 nowadays and that's over ₹1,600. For comparison purposes, the largest Indian banknote is ₹500.
Do you have to pay for Windows still? I thought they made it free to download
While it is free to download it, the license still costs. Though they seem to let you use it unlicensed for an unlimited amount of time with some restrictions (like not being able to change the background image and an ever present watermark). At least this was true for windows 10. No telling if/when they will drop that feature though, especially if loads of people start using it unlicensed like that (though I doubt that has any effect on people using it that way or not).
Only for existing users+machines who are upgrading. New machines gotta pay up.
I mean you can use it unactivated for ever or just use a script
I haven't found a reliable system that gets around activation (had a friend ask me recently) and I personally can't live with the watermark, but I also have sensitive data on my machines and networks so I don't risk getting a sketchy iso from tpb with activation nuked.
Use MASS and you can install a legit copy of windows and have it activated
https://github.com/massgravel/Microsoft-Activation-Scripts
Works great, is well documented and trusted. If I remember correctly it has multiple ways of activating stuff and you can select the one you want with explanation and pros/cons of each method.
EDIT: Documentation is here: https://massgrave.dev/ And it can even activate Office or change Windows edition.
Looking into that, thanks =)