New
#11
My really cheap £2 Windows 7 key activated so I'm totally legal with dual boot Windows 7 64 bit and Windows 10 32 bit installations on my very old 2004 experimental PC.
The only thing is I installed Windows 7 after Windows 10 and have the text based multi-boot start-up menu. Can I restore the better looking Windows 10 blue style boot menu?
Hmmmm that's cheap indeed - Check it with ShowKeyPlus - Windows 10 Forums if you will... I'd be interested to know it's EULA type.
I can confirm the above command restored the Windows 10 style multi-boot GUI screen. I actually used this command for the UK (unsure if it makes any difference) - bcdboot c:\Windows /l en-gb
I lost my Windows 10 Safe Mode boot menu option but kept my Macrium Reflect boot option. I soon recovered the Safe Mode boot option.
The Windows 7 multi-boot menu does have the advantage that you boot directly to the selected OS rather than going through a full restart cycle using the Windows 10 boot menu. Why does the Windows 10 boot menu have this long winded behavior?
As far as I can tell, once you get a digital licence, it is perpetual,and there is no mechanism for voiding it. Equally, there is no history of what key activated it either (hence why activation troubleshooter does not care if original licence was oem or not).
At $2, it is hardly a big risk. If it works once, job done.
Some will say we should not encourage this, but we are not policemen for MS.
MS have relaxed activation rules so much, EULA enforcement is a joke now. Hell, you can run it unactivated permanently if you wish.
I think MS have basically (unofficially) decided that enforcing the EULA is more effort than it is worth, and by relaxing rules, they keep people on Windows who might otherwise defect to Linux or other OS.
It is interesting with FCU, that they do not actually install key anymore, only the generic key i.e. all non-vlk licences are digital now. The key is only used to validate the digital licence first time it is installed.
As far as I can surmise, the side effect of this is tools that used to fool Windows it was activated do not work with non-vlk keys any more. Cannot say this would be true for vlks though.
I bought a cheap PRO key, and it is returned as full standalone status and worked fine. I am sure it was probably a key sold several times relying on the fact you can use a key a number of times before it gets blocked.
In the end, it is up to MS to police their system - if we buy it cheap in good faith and it works, are we being pirates?
Anyway, it is all caveat emptor really. Buy a cheap key, and it may not work.