Anyone know a cheap/trustworthy place to buy a windows 8 key (oem)

Hercule

I have just finished a new self build and have installed windows 8 using a windows 8 pro x64 disk - does anyone know how I go about activating it on the cheap? - There seems to be a lot of the "cheapcheapwindows8keys.com" websites that look extremely dodgy.

I don't want to drop money on the "upgrade" versions as its a clean install and I don't have an activated copy of w7 about - I am told they work when upgrading only - so in short does anyone have experience in activating a copy of windows 8 in this circumstance (or is there some "trick" I am missing to buy a key?)

Fysh

OEM pricing on Win8 is ungenerous compared to the upgrade cost, apparently. I can see it on £110, but that's not really what I'd consider "cheap"

Capt'n Midnight

preinstalled OEM is dirt cheap

separate OEM prices have never been great - this is a real disincentive to build your own windows system. :mad:

retail upgrade might be the cheapest if you can find a transferrable license to base it on - even then Microsoft tried to change the rules to prevent people moving licenses as much which they had to roll back on when too many diy builders got upset.

if you upgrade windows OEM you are NOT allowed move it to a different machine

If you don't like the rules then complain to microsoft


simply put
it's very hard to save any money on a low spec machine if you build yourself, when you add in the license fee
if it's high spec then you probably have the money to do it

Overheal

Plenty and plenty of sites out there aimed at attacking you because they know you don't want to get windows the right way, you want it the cheap way. And that's just one example, I had to find a missing dll file online and had to sort through plenty of phishing attempts before finding something reliable. Even trying to get VLC, people have got copycat attack programs out there for it.

This is cyber Monday, so you can expect 7 and/or 8 to go on sale somewhere. The disc went on sale on Friday already. Look today.

You can of course always buy a full retail version, then avail of upgrade versions forever more.

uncle_sam_ie

Get a copy of XP with the key and then do an upgrade to 8.

Capt'n Midnight

uncle_sam_ie wrote: »

Get a copy of XP with the key and then do an upgrade to 8.

it has to be a non-oem copy for the license to be used on a new build

choons

Have a read of this:

www.reddit.com/r/windows/comments/13ixok/microsoft_is_accidentally_giving_away_windows_8/

Microsoft is giving away free upgrade codes to Windows 8 media center but it will activate any copy of 8 as far as I can make out.

I've gotten the key but haven't tried it yet!

windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/feature-packs

Overheal

Frankly I've looked the Windows 8 Pro box up and down, and nothing on this thing says it's an Upgrade license. Buy it in retail, it looks FPP to me. The only thing it talks about is the technical requirements, it doesn't mention requiring a previous Windows license at all. €70. I got it Black Friday for €55 (equivalent $)

uncle_sam_ie

Overheal wrote: »

Frankly I've looked the Windows 8 Pro box up and down, and nothing on this thing says it's an Upgrade license. Buy it in retail, it looks FPP to me. The only thing it talks about is the technical requirements, it doesn't mention requiring a previous Windows license at all. €70. I got it Black Friday for €55 (equivalent $)

I know a few people that upgraded to 8 from pirated copies on windows. I guess MS figure they can make some money off them.

Overheal

uncle_sam_ie wrote: »

I know a few people that upgraded to 8 from pirated copies on windows. I guess MS figure they can make some money off them.

What im saying is the DVD is the full package product, its not an upgrade. It requires no previous installation of Windows. At least in theory. There is nothing saying such on the package.

Capt'n Midnight

uncle_sam_ie wrote: »

I know a few people that upgraded to 8 from pirated copies on windows. I guess MS figure they can make some money off them.

M$ might not be the only one who made money off them.

Dodgy software can have trojans etc.

kirving

Not directed at the OP, but I always laugh at people willing to spend 50+ quid on the new Call of Duty, but get annoyed at MS for charging €100 for the ENTIRE operating system. Same with MS Office. The amount of people pirating it is unreal!

My upgrade copy has it mentioned on the disc rather than the packaging - something like "upgrade eligibility requirements apply" or something to that effect.

Capt'n Midnight

Kevin Irving wrote: »

Not directed at the OP, but I always laugh at people willing to spend 50+ quid on the new Call of Duty, but get annoyed at MS for charging €100 for the ENTIRE operating system. Same with MS Office. The amount of people pirating it is unreal!

One of the reasons piracy is wrong is that it kills off the competition. It's very hard to compete with software people didn't pay for. Microsoft have been accused of this in the past and if you believe in the conspiracy theories the plan was to take an income hit for a while and then get the BSA to enforce licensing once the monopoly was established.

Anyway back in the real world , pre-installed windows is essentially free when you have the likes of Tesco selling €299 laptops. I'm pretty sure that nothing like €100 of that will go back microsoft.

I think the big problem people have with microsoft pricing/licensing is the wide variation in price depending on how / where you buy for what is essentially the same product. It's an ideal demo for an economics class.

It would be nice if you could get windows for the same price as the OEM's pay for it when putting on thousands of machines. And since it's downloadable there are no technical reasons why they could not do this.


At present windows 8 upgrade is more or less the same price as Mac OSX upgrade !!!

Of course you just need to get you hands on a transferable license to upgrade from...

choons

choons wrote: »

Have a read of this:

www.reddit.com/r/windows/comments/13ixok/microsoft_is_accidentally_giving_away_windows_8/

Microsoft is giving away free upgrade codes to Windows 8 media center but it will activate any copy of 8 as far as I can make out.

I've gotten the key but haven't tried it yet!

windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/feature-packs

If you install without a key and try to use the add features (aka Windows Anytime Upgrade) facility with the MC key it will tell you that the OS needs to be activated before the new key can be used. The pirates are getting around this a different way but I won't mention it on here.

Overheal

Karsini wrote: »

My upgrade copy has it mentioned on the disc rather than the packaging - something like "upgrade eligibility requirements apply" or something to that effect.

They really should have put that on the Box, but yes, I see that on my discs as well.