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prophesi

Microsoft actually offers Windows 10 for free, with some cosmetic restrictions until you pay for the license.

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Restrictions:

https://windowsreport.com/windows-10-used-without-activation...

Yeah, these days Windows is like Fortnite: free with cosmetic IAP.

This is also why "Windows is a service" according to those Windows Update nag screens, but if Windows is a service and it's free, are you the customer... or the product?

Could you please provide information we're I can get that free of Windows?

I swapped motherboards recently. Despite /specifically/ getting a Microsoft account, thinking that it would link my account to my licenses and allow for seamless transfer, it seems I need to call into microsoft for them to re-activate my install. So first off, fuck you Microsoft.

To the question: I have a watermark in the corner of my screen saying I need to activate, and I am unable to change my desktop background and some other things. Besides that, the OS is functioning normally.

I haven't used Windows in over a decade now, and this behaviour boggles my mind... Imagine losing access to parts of your OS because you switched hardware around.

It's odd because a decade ago I would've probably been fine with it, too.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10I...

I don't know whats up exactly but I actually tried installing this last week and it didn't let me. Said I could only install without a product key on a system that already has a windows install.

you can download it for free from microsoft, install it and use it no problem. like he said it has limitations until you pay, but you can use it forever without paying

The "cosmetic restrictions" are the "Activate Windows" watermark and the inability to change any setting under Personalization in Settings.

The best part being if you don't allow it to get online during the initial setup you can go change all the personalization settings. It will only lock you out once you get online and it verifies its not activated. I can deal with just having that watermark when I only boot into win10 for a few specific programs.

It's also pretty straightforward to emulate a KMS server and activate Windows that way. Technically against the EULA, I'm sure, but Microsoft doesn't seem very motivated to do anything about it (certainly not for individual users).

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