The real problem here is that Microsoft does not allow resale of Volume license keys, so our key is obviously not in line with the MS licensing rules. MAK version of the keys can be used only once, while KMS can be used multiple times.įurther, we opened command prompt in Windows 10 and entered following command:Īfter pressing “Enter” we got the following message:Īs you can see, the first key we bought is obviously Volume licensing (MAK) key which means it can only be used once (eBay seller stated the same thing). Those are the keys sold in bulk for the need of the company. Large companies and enterprises can decide to buy Volume licensing keys from Microsoft. Key is tied up with the given machine and cannot be moved or transferred to another machine. Basically, they build machines with preinstalled and activated Windows 10 copies. This is the license Microsoft gives to hardware manufacturers. This is the license and a key for Windows 10, which you get when you buy it directly from Microsoft store or any other software retail store. To find more about what licenses we’ve got and how these guys can sell it for so cheap, we tried digging into Microsoft licensing system.Īs it is known, Microsoft has three types of license for Windows 10 Pro systems: So, one would say this system works, but legality of the licenses is questionable. We went to Settings -> Update & Security -> Activation – > Enter Product Key and copy/pasted our Windows 10 Professional license keys there.Īfter a couple of seconds, Windows 10 connected to Microsoft servers and verified our keys as valid and voilà – Windows was activated for less than $5, quite different from $90 which is what Microsoft sells it for.īoth machines were activated and working… Keys arrived via eBay message system within two hours.

We are not lawyers and this text isn’t legal advice on Windows 10 product licensing.įor the purpose of this article we downloaded Windows 10 from Microsoft website, installed it on two machines and went straight to eBay where we bought two Windows 10 Professional licenses from two random sellers. These license keys are exploiting Microsoft licensing rules, and are sort of piracy. Everyone wonders, do these keys work and are those legit? The answer is, they do work, but are not the legitimate Windows license keys. Recently, there has been a surge of very cheap Microsoft Windows 10 license keys on eBay, Amazon and other online stores.

Windows 10 key cheap reddit