4 ms·

Anyone can buy LTSC for a few hundred dollars. I cobbled together a post last year on acquiring it: https://tinyapps.org/blog/201811300700_windows_10_ltsc.htm

by miles 7y ago

Anyone can buy LTSC for a few hundred dollars. I cobbled together a post last year on acquiring it: https://tinyapps.org/blog/201811300700_windows_10_ltsc.html https://tinyapps.org/blog/201811300700_windows_10_ltsc.html However, it does require a willingness to enter into a VL agreement with Microsoft.

steve19 7y ago
Can I buy from someone who went to all the hassle already? Or are those organizations not allowed to distribute keys?
herpderperator 7y ago
I recently found out that people are selling legitimate keys on eBay for a few bucks: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=windows+10+ltsc https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=windows+10+ltsc According to people who have purchased from there, they're VL keys that can be used many times (e.g. 2500 times), so they just sell the same key over and over to multiple people: > ...sellers on eBay are probably people that work for companies that get GVLK and MAK Product Keys from MSDN/Microsoft and then just sell 'em off because the companies they work for more than likely would never even notice? I mean, with MAK Product Keys having from 2500 to 5000 activations per key, at least if they still work the same way they did in Vista/7 days, most companies that pay for volume licensing never ever actually use anywhere near that many. [0] > after about 3 hours I got a mail with a key and a link to download "LTSCX64.2019.ENU.JAN2019.iso" from googledrive. I did not download the ISO, so I cannot comment on that, but I typed the key into VAMT and its description is "Win 10 RTM EnterpriseS Volume:MAK" and the key had 50 activations left. I tried it on one of my LTSC 2019 installations and it worked fine. I assume that the remaining activation count will decrease over time, even when I do not use the key on my other installations, as I suspect that the seller sells the same key to more than one buyer.. [0] > so, after about a week all 50 activations of the key I got are gone. since I only used 8 activations, one can be sure that the key was sold to multiple buyers. business as usual on ebay.. [0] It's probably against some contract somewhere, but IANAL. [0] https://forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/windows-10-enterprise-ltsc-2019-can-one-actually-buy-a-unique-key.79241/ https://forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/windows-10-enterpri...
- michaelmrose 7y ago
  They are pirating windows. They could be fined anywhere from hundreds of dollars to 150k per installation. They are also participating in a commercial piracy endeavor that the company who was issued the key AND Microsoft have an interest in shutting down. Ms because such endeavors attract customers who could otherwise trivially be converted into buyers. Companies because they could get audited and fined. This is as illegal and higher risk than torrent sites.
  - josefx 7y ago
    Depends on the country. I think the EU declared the resale of Windows licenses legal a few years ago. Microsoft trying to fight that doesn't make it illegal.
    - gruez 7y ago
      Source on this? I think that only applies to retail licenses.
    - GordonS 7y ago
      Even if true, I rather doubt that extends to an employee selling access to their employer's volume licensing key (it seems clear that's what's happening here)
    - michaelmrose 7y ago
      When you bought a physical item in a store you have a right to resell it be that a computer or a disk. Even if you can resell a key as part of selling a copy of windows you paid for you can't sell your employers property, can't sell part of a contract, can't sell more than you actually paid for. If the company purchased the right to have n machines at their company run windows and each key can be activated n * x times nobody sold you the right to sell n * x copies of windows to everyone on the internet. Like it or not those agreements aren't sales and the keys aren't a physical item you have purchased they are just a technical measure to constrain users from sharing a single ISO file to their million closest friends.
- 7y ago
petepete 7y ago
Would Window 10 for Workstations be an alternative? I believe it is ad-free, although if someone could confirm that it would be helpful. https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/p/windows-10-pro-for-workstations/dg7gmgf0dw9s https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/p/windows-10-pro-for-worksta...
- ComputerGuru 7y ago
  That link implies RDMA SMBd is not available on regular Windows 10 Pro. I wonder if that’s really true.

by miles 7y ago

steve19 7y ago

Can I buy from someone who went to all the hassle already? Or are those organizations not allowed to distribute keys?

herpderperator 7y ago

I recently found out that people are selling legitimate keys on eBay for a few bucks: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=windows+10+ltsc https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=windows+10+ltsc According to people who have purchased from there, they're VL keys that can be used many times (e.g. 2500 times), so they just sell the same key over and over to multiple people: > ...sellers on eBay are probably people that work for companies that get GVLK and MAK Product Keys from MSDN/Microsoft and then just sell 'em off because the companies they work for more than likely would never even notice? I mean, with MAK Product Keys having from 2500 to 5000 activations per key, at least if they still work the same way they did in Vista/7 days, most companies that pay for volume licensing never ever actually use anywhere near that many. [0] > after about 3 hours I got a mail with a key and a link to download "LTSCX64.2019.ENU.JAN2019.iso" from googledrive. I did not download the ISO, so I cannot comment on that, but I typed the key into VAMT and its description is "Win 10 RTM EnterpriseS Volume:MAK" and the key had 50 activations left. I tried it on one of my LTSC 2019 installations and it worked fine. I assume that the remaining activation count will decrease over time, even when I do not use the key on my other installations, as I suspect that the seller sells the same key to more than one buyer.. [0] > so, after about a week all 50 activations of the key I got are gone. since I only used 8 activations, one can be sure that the key was sold to multiple buyers. business as usual on ebay.. [0] It's probably against some contract somewhere, but IANAL. [0] https://forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/windows-10-enterprise-ltsc-2019-can-one-actually-buy-a-unique-key.79241/ https://forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/windows-10-enterpri...

michaelmrose 7y ago
They are pirating windows. They could be fined anywhere from hundreds of dollars to 150k per installation. They are also participating in a commercial piracy endeavor that the company who was issued the key AND Microsoft have an interest in shutting down. Ms because such endeavors attract customers who could otherwise trivially be converted into buyers. Companies because they could get audited and fined. This is as illegal and higher risk than torrent sites.
- josefx 7y ago
  Depends on the country. I think the EU declared the resale of Windows licenses legal a few years ago. Microsoft trying to fight that doesn't make it illegal.
  - gruez 7y ago
    Source on this? I think that only applies to retail licenses.
  - GordonS 7y ago
    Even if true, I rather doubt that extends to an employee selling access to their employer's volume licensing key (it seems clear that's what's happening here)
  - michaelmrose 7y ago
    When you bought a physical item in a store you have a right to resell it be that a computer or a disk. Even if you can resell a key as part of selling a copy of windows you paid for you can't sell your employers property, can't sell part of a contract, can't sell more than you actually paid for. If the company purchased the right to have n machines at their company run windows and each key can be activated n * x times nobody sold you the right to sell n * x copies of windows to everyone on the internet. Like it or not those agreements aren't sales and the keys aren't a physical item you have purchased they are just a technical measure to constrain users from sharing a single ISO file to their million closest friends.
7y ago

petepete 7y ago

Would Window 10 for Workstations be an alternative? I believe it is ad-free, although if someone could confirm that it would be helpful. https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/p/windows-10-pro-for-workstations/dg7gmgf0dw9s https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/p/windows-10-pro-for-worksta...

ComputerGuru 7y ago
That link implies RDMA SMBd is not available on regular Windows 10 Pro. I wonder if that’s really true.