I’m looking to test out Windows, but I don’t want to download it without my VPN. I’m trying to use it in a virtual machine with GPU passthrough so I can play all my games. I also obviously don’t want to pay for a copy. TIA!
The fact that this is available on a Microsoft-owned source code repository is bonkers to me.
Because they get your data as long as you install Windows and your data over time is worth more than you would pay for the OS.
Not really as that brings pennies. The logic is the same as WinRar. Basically they don’t care about users pirating since it helps them retain the market share since middle aged or older people aren’t that tech savvy.
The biggest moneymaker in retail sector is laptop manufacturers bundling windows with their laptops and companies/corporations using legit windows copies.
They get ridiculous amounts of money just to provide security updates to windows XP because there are loads of equipment that can’t be run without the specific software that is incompatible with later versions.
And they will get ridiculous amounts of money 20 years down the line for doing the same with windows 10 too as long as they retain the massive market share and middle aged people will be accustomed to win 10.
I’ve heard that that’s similar to why Adobe creative cloud was so easy to pirate for years (maybe it still is, idk, I switched to affinity forever ago). Adobe is the industry standard because everyone uses it -> person wants to learn photo/video editing, digital illustration, etc, but can’t afford it -> pirate Adobe instead of trying cheaper/free alternatives, because it’s the industry standard -> person with Adobe skills gets hired by business that pays for Adobe legitimately because that’s what most people know -> Adobe is the industry because everyone uses it, and the cycle goes on…
You are probably talking about future me…
It comes to everyone. At a certain point you just lose the energy to keep learning new tech.
I heard from someone that MS support just tells people to use this if something goes wrong with their key.
They use it internally as well.
These days the best way is to download the official ISO, install without key, open powershell with admin rights and run the massgrave one-liner script with a quick copy/paste.
Just download it from MS directly and use it unactivated (select “I don’t have a key” when prompted). Why anyone would f- around with their OS, of all things…
If you care to activate, it’s trivial to get a grey key or to find an activation script (though I think they patched out the script – even though MS Support themselves used it)
Or just use ohook
https://massgrave.dev/ohook.html
Used this about 4 times in the past month alone lol
That looks like for Office? Not Windows?
It’s both
This is the way
There’s also Tiny10/Tiny11 on Archive.org.
I use it in VM’s for testing.
How can you ever trust something like that?
That’s why they’re using a VM.
Google massgravel
You download the iso from microsoft.com then if the watermark really bothers you, get massgrave from GitHub (also Microsoft)
Nowadays getting a pre cracked copy of windows is a security issue, also don’t work really good as many times is the enterprise version tied to some online KMS that would 100% go offline someday
Massgrave/Massgravel is not from Microsoft.
I think they were referring to GitHub
i mean hosted on github, bandwidth/compute paid by microsoft
Are you one of those fabled pure Linux virgins the prophecies speak of? Untainted by Microsofts corruption? Or are you a decadent MacOS slut looking to debase yourself even further?
Could you say that last line one more time? Me and my MacBook Air are almost there…
Lmao this is a banger of a comment.
IM JUST TRYING TO GET TO THE FACEPALS. JIMMY PUPT UP PICTURES OF THE KIDS AND I WNATED TO SEE THEM BUT THE DAM COMPUTER KEEPS PEEPING AT ME
Best comment in this whole thread.
Windows is free now! No license required. They’re a data company now.
You can actually just use Rufus to create the bootable USB, and it gives you option to disable telemetry and other tracking shit.
I’m not sure if there is a utility for windows as there is for Nvidia drivers (Nvinstall), which automatically downloads the files, removes all the unnecessary shit as per your preferences and creates a new installer.
I’ve used Rufus to create a Windows USB from ISO and I didn’t see any options to remove telemetry, but that was years ago. There may be such options now that it’s known how much they’ve become a spyware company.
For the actual Windows image you can legitmately download ISOs for most every version of Windows from Microsoft directly, you just need your browser’s user agent to say you’re using a non-Windows OS. Since you say you’re looking to “test Windows” it sounds like you’re on another OS, so you should be able to just download an ISO normally.
You don’t have to download pirated Windows. Microsoft offers free versions of Windows (at least 10, not sure about other versions) on their website for making a bootable usb.
Hardly ever use Windows myself, but I’m pretty sure you can just download it from Microsoft and refuse all the nags to register it when you are installing it.
You can indeed. You end up with a permanent small water mark on bottom right hand side of the screen as a reminder to activate. Currently you can keep it like this indefinitely.
You cannot personalise the desktop but I think that is all.
You end up with a permanent small water mark on the bottom right-hand side of the screen as a reminder to activate. Currently, you can keep it like this indefinitely.
There are tricks to make the watermark invisible without activating Windows. It works just fine if Windows 10 is not your primary operating system and you don’t plan to personalize your operating system after fiddling around a bit just after you get it installed. You can personalize it for about a couple months before the activating logo shows up; at least that’s how I always experienced it.
You only need a key to activate Windows. Windows 10 and later will install and run just fine without activation.
Download the official iso from Microsoft, install it, then run MAS on it if you really want to activate it.
I used to just buy a key from Kinguin or similar. It’s usually around 2-3 usd for an OEM key (only usable on 1 computer) and you can pay with PayPal. Never had issues yet.
Next time around I might try this activation script that was mentioned here though.
Haitch tea tea pea colon slash slash double you double you double you dot microsoft dot com
