Kinguin trustworthy?

[cinelli]

Has anyone had dealings with kinguin?

https://www.kinguin.net/category/22175/ ... e-oem-key/

They sell cut price Windows keys. Youtube poster Paul’s Hardware, who I think speaks with authority, recommends them and he says he has no links.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXTqz3Fd28M

Cinelli

[Itsallaguess]

Has anyone had dealings with kinguin?

I can't vouch for them personally, but I can tell you how I went about getting a cheap Windows 10 install when I last did so, and it looks like the route is still available -

1. Purchase a Windows 7 key from Software Geeks (I have used these guys a few times, without any issues at all) -

https://tinyurl.com/yb87ekkf (£13.99 for Windows 7 professional, which helps in Step 3..)

2. Install Windows 7 Pro onto your machine and activate it.

3. Download the Microsoft Windows 10 installation tool, which still seems to be available via the link below -

https://tinyurl.com/q8oqvug

4. Use the Windows 10 installation tool to upgrade your Windows 7 Pro install to a Windows 10 Pro install.

Obviously you've also got the slightly more expensive option of simply purchasing a Windows 10 installation key from Software Geeks as well (https://tinyurl.com/y6ujrmcf), but I wanted to option of reverting back to a Windows 7 Pro install if I didn't like Windows 10, so I used the above process as I saw it as a route to effectively buying two Windows-install options for one cheap price.

As it turns out, I've been quite happy with the Windows 10 Pro install, so I've stuck with it.

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[Itsallaguess]

Has anyone had dealings with kinguin?

Reddit has a forum discussing kinguin, and after a quick check there seems to be lots of malcontent threads -

https://tinyurl.com/yd497fns

This isn't to suggest that they are unreliable, and I can't possibly comment having never used them to purchase anything, but just something to take into consideration if you're thinking of using them.

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[cinelli]

Thank you. I can confirm that the Windows 10 download works and I currently have it installed. It is not yet authorised and I have read somewhere that a key-less installation is no longer limited by time, although perhaps it is not fully functional.

Thank you too for the Software Geeks link. Unfortunately the Windows 10 home licence is currently out of stock.

Cinelli

[cinelli]

Just a quick update on my attempts to activate my newly installed Windows 10 Home.

To buy a “proper” Windows package, you pay upwards of £100. You can download and install Windows free of charge but it remains unactivated. As far as I was able to tell, Windows worked perfectly well in this state except for an annoying message on the screen at bottom right. It didn’t become unusable after 30 days as, I think, earlier versions of Windows did. But I wanted to activate it to have a bona fide set up.

I came across kinguin.com on a YouTube video selling cheap licence keys for about $20. But Itsallaguess drew my attention to bad reviews. As an alternative he recommended Software Geeks. I kept returning to the Software Geeks website but they were always out of stock. I then came across another cheap site, scdkey.com. As I understand it this doesn’t actually sell keys – it is like an ebay for other sellers. And there are dozens of sellers, many of whom claim to have sold thousands of keys to the satisfaction of 99.x% of their customers. At a cost of about £10 I could afford to take a chance. I went to the website and got my key within minutes at a cost of £9.23. It works! The only slight concern is that the wmic DOS command (which you can use to confirm one’s key) doesn’t display anything.

I am not necessarily recommending scdkey.com but it worked for me.

Cinelli

For completeness, this is the DOS command mentioned above:
In a command window with admin rights, type
wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey

[Breelander]

...You can download and install Windows free of charge but it remains unactivated. As far as I was able to tell, Windows worked perfectly well in this state except for an annoying message on the screen at bottom right. It didn’t become unusable after 30 days...

No, it will never expire. Apart from the message you noted there are a few other minor restrictions when not activated - the most noticeable one being that you cannot set a wallpaper.

...The only slight concern is that the wmic DOS command (which you can use to confirm one’s key) doesn’t display anything ...In a command window with admin rights, type
wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey

I wouldn't worry, mine doesn't show anything either. This is on a machine that took the free upgrade from Windows 7 to 10.

That command retrieves the original product key (if any) that's embedded in the BIOS/UEFI firmware. Any machine supplied by an OEM with Windows 8/8.1/10 pre-installed will have the full key in its firmware. A machine built for Windows 7 will have an SLP marker in the BIOS that identifies the edition of Windows its entitled to run but it's not a full key, that's on the CoA sticker.

You can get the Software Licencing Manager to show detailed licencing information for your Windows 10. In a command prompt type

slmgr /dlv

The name should say Core (aka Home) or Professional. The description should say RETAIL channel. An activated Windows 10 does not have a unique key, even if you used one to activate it. Your licence for Windows is a Digital Licence stored on the Microsoft activation servers and tied to the unique hardware ID of the PC. This means you can do a clean install of the same edition (Home or Pro) without a key and it will activate automatically. Windows itself will show a generic key. For Home that ends with 8HVX7 or 3V66T for Pro.