Windows 10 (x64) Education Edition - What is it?

Kari said:

MAK keys are used for volume licensing, activating multiple devices with one single key. That was my point. They are very clearly volume licensing keys.

I agree. I was thinking KMS but said Volume License.

And just to confuse things even more, at least for me anyway, MAK keys now get a Digital License, even Enterprise. < IMHO that should never have happened.

@Kari -

The W10 custom system that I have is from Dell (OEM) and I still get that message even before I used O&O.
Therefore, something else is at play here. I wonder if my Norotn AV/FW can be doing this.

Also have the same on my Dell (OEM) laptop, using W10 Home, again with the same Norton AV/FW.

Thoughts?

It's currently (I hate to use the word) normal to see that message on the Windows update page, if you turned on active hours etc. Its not persistanly there anyway. Not for me.
Where I see that message in Education, there are options greyed out that I cannot change. They are locked out. Even on a clean install with a local account and accepting the defaults during setup. Do you see any settings that are locked out / greyed out?

Two "duh" questions -

What happens with the Education edition after you leave the .edu environment?
Is it only good for a period of time then reverts back to the original level of the OS?

Thanks.

Compumind said:

Two "duh" questions -

What happens with the Education edition after you leave the .edu environment?
Is it only good for a period of time then reverts back to the original level of the OS?

Thanks.

That depends on how its activated. If its activated with a Digital License its good for the life of that device. Its permanently activated. It's yours to keep.
If its Volume License (KMS) activated, its use is licensed to the organization that bought that license. That install activates against that organizations on site KMS server. If they block it, or it can't connect to that sever, activation will time out and it will show as unactivated.

titetanium said:

It's yours to keep forever if the key is listed as retail. If listed as volume/mak, that would depend on the issuing school's policy.

Exactly.

Microsoft did not fully think the digital licensing through before starting to use it, leaving a major loophole in the system. From user's point of view it's OK, valid and legal, no worries. Any specific Windows edition on any device activated once will be assigned a digital license which will remain valid the lifetime of that device, subject to hardware setup remaining the same.

What this means, assuming the device license is MAK, not KMS, is that before her school removes her license, you just need to clean install the same edition (Education in this case) on that device, without entering any product key. The clean install will be automatically activated, this time with a digital license tied to her Microsoft account.

In my tests, MAK volume licensed Education shows license type as volume when checked, but after wiping the disk and clean installing without product key and checking again, it has been changed to retail.

Determine if Windows License Type is OEM, Retail, or Volume | Windows 10 Tutorials

Kari

Kari said:

Exactly.

Microsoft did not fully think the digital licensing through before starting to use it, leaving a major loophole in the system. From user's point of view it's OK, valid and legal, no worries. Any specific Windows edition on any device activated once will be assigned a digital license which will remain valid the lifetime of that device, subject to hardware setup remaining the same.

What this means, assuming the device license is MAK, not KMS, is that before her school removes her license, you just need to clean install the same edition (Education in this case) on that device, without entering any product key. The clean install will be automatically activated, this time with a digital license tied to her Microsoft account.

In my tests, MAK volume licensed Education shows license type as volume when checked, but after wiping the disk and clean installing without product key and checking again, it has been changed to retail.

Determine if Windows License Type is OEM, Retail, or Volume | Windows 10 Tutorials

Kari

Totally agree, big loop hole with DL's as far as MAK keys go.

I don't even bother entering a product key when installing Education or Enterprise, if it was previously activated with a MAK on that device. It activates with the DL it already had.

If you go to Settings > Update & security > Activation, if it says activated with a Digital Licence..... you are activated forever. If it says "activated with a product code via your organizations activation server" may not be the exact wording, its KMS.

Something that I've always wondered, is it even legit for an organization to activate a production (non test) device with a MAK key? Aren't they just "for testing" to be used in leu of a KMS key "for testing"?
Before Windows 10 and Digital Licenses, you would only get "so many uses" (activations) with any one MAK key. Eventually it would stop working and not activate any more devices. Thats my understanding anyway.
Wouldn't be the first time I got it wrong and misunderstood or miss read terms of use. But Microsoft won't even tell what the "Multiple" limit is in MAK. Not that I could find? They are pretty well mum on anything to do with actual details of activation. For good reason if you think about it.