3 ms·
And how do you propose Regular Joe procure a license? Not trying to be snide, but LTSC is an enterprise product that is only available with volume licensing. S
by fuzzy2 2y ago
And how do you propose Regular Joe procure a license? Not trying to be snide, but LTSC is an enterprise product that is only available with volume licensing.
So unless you want to pirate it…
- GreenVulpine 2y agoNo need for a license. Just activate it with one of the many activation scripts around.
- Zhyl 2y agoSo pirate it
- Novosell 2y agoIt's using a legit copy of windows and performing a legit activation, no exploits or anything. To call it piracy is the same as me telling you my pin and calling you a hacker when you login to my account, no? Microsoft could fix it, but they don't.
- ToucanLoucan 2y agoI genuinely wonder why they haven't. Those activation githubs have been around for what feels like forever at this point, and you just activate copies of Windows acquired from Microsoft for free, and they just... don't seem to care?
- 0xcde4c3db 2y agoI have no direct knowledge, but my best guess is that they have significant legit customers using these as an alternative to Microsoft's own Key Management Services. Historically, some stuff like this has even turned out to be used by the company themselves (e.g. a few Steam/GOG releases have been found to use old warez scene cracks, official arcade emulators using bootleg sets from MAME, etc.).
- t0bia_s 2y agoI use my MSDN keys generated back in 2015 over and over. It works great 9 years later.
- toast0 2y agoWas it piracy to install windows 95 on 100 computers with one cd and one product id and no outside licensing? Of course it was. Just because it lets you do it, doesn't mean it's not piracy.
- Novosell 2y agoWell, that activation was entirely offline, wasn't it? With the tech at the time, would it really be possible to stop multiple activations? Windows 11 now requires you to log in using email and that you have internet, so they could easily pull the plug on the MAS scripts. Yet they don't.
- toast0 2y agoIMHO, you have more of an obligation to pay for a license than they have an obligation to enforce payment through technical means.
- sakjur 2y ago> To call it piracy is the same as me telling you my pin and calling you a hacker when you login to my account, no? Somewhat absurd linguistically and morally ambiguous, yet possibly legally accurate?
- michaelt 2y agoSome would say, if you already have a legal, paid-for license to run Windows on a given PC, and you merely want a slightly different version which is older and doesn't add any extra features, that's a lesser form of piracy.
- JeremyNT 2y ago"This one weird trick makes Windows not suck" - except that the weird trick is... piracy! I get that people really like Windows, but all these contortions just to delay the inevitable... yeesh. At some point, people either need to get onboard with the MS vision for the product, or accept that it's time to switch to something different.
- toast0 2y agoYou can get LTSC through microsoft resellers. Last I heard, you have to buy at least 5 licenses to be in Volume Licensing, but if you only have one computer, you can buy one LTSC license ($270-$300) and then 4 low cost filler licenses (I think seats for something were $10-$30 each?) And the LTSC license is an upgrade license, so the computer needs licensing for Windows already (maybe needs Pro and not Home, too). But it ends up being a large amount of money to run wierd windows.