Windows 10 Home Retail?

Maverock

Does anyone know where or if it is still possible to purchase a RETAIL copy of Windows 10 Home?


I have searched all over the web, and, apart from some dodgy looking 'retailers' on Amazon and E-Bay have not managed to find any.
I have had a retail copy since Win XP but since I downloaded the upgrade to Win 10 it will no longer accept the Activation code.

EveryWhere

Maverock wrote: »

Does anyone know where or if it is still possible to purchase a RETAIL copy of Windows 10 Home?


I have searched all over the web, and, apart from some dodgy looking 'retailers' on Amazon and E-Bay have not managed to find any.
I have had a retail copy since Win XP but since I downloaded the upgrade to Win 10 it will no longer accept the Activation code.

Which activation code?

mksysb

Maverock wrote: »

Does anyone know where or if it is still possible to purchase a RETAIL copy of Windows 10 Home?


I have searched all over the web, and, apart from some dodgy looking 'retailers' on Amazon and E-Bay have not managed to find any.
I have had a retail copy since Win XP but since I downloaded the upgrade to Win 10 it will no longer accept the Activation code.

Yes you can

https://www.ebuyer.com/818640-windows-10-home-box-pack-32-64-bit-usb-flash-drive-haj-00055

bit expensive though.

Neil_Jones

Maverock wrote: »

I downloaded the upgrade to Win 10 it will no longer accept the Activation code.

Well it won't because those upgrade keys were for the most part all the same, during the Windows 10 upgrade period everybody got the same product key (which wasn't needed anyway) and so if you need to reload 10 on a machine that 10 on it in the past then you just skip the key requests and it re-activates itself.

Or have I misunderstood?
What are you trying to do exactly?

Mr_Toad

Any particular reason you want a retail copy?

I had one of the 'free' upgrade licences running on my spare PC. When I upgraded the hardware it wouldn't reactivate.

Rather than mess about calling MS I bought an activation key for the Home version off fleabay for under a fiver.

For the most part these keys come from machines bought for commercial use where the machines are then given an enterprise build leaving the Home keys unused which are then sold on.

Yes there are some dodgy sellers but many are just selling off unused keys and there seems to be tacit agreement from MS that it is OK to resell them as long as keys are only used once.

Neil_Jones

Mr_Toad wrote: »

I had one of the 'free' upgrade licences running on my spare PC. When I upgraded the hardware it wouldn't reactivate.

Rather than mess about calling MS I bought an activation key for the Home version off fleabay for under a fiver.

For future reference if you used the free upgrade that MS pushed out in the early days of Windows 10 and you buy new hardware, you can transfer it to another computer with your Microsoft account:
https://www.groovypost.com/how-to-use-digital-license-to-manage-and-activate-windows-10-anniversary-update-licenses/

Of course the only caveat with this is that the old hardware is working in the first place.

vacheron

I have a couple of retail boxed windows 7 licences and whenever I need a new windows 10 machine I just install these and immediately run the free windows 10 upgrade.

Despite popular belief, the free windows 10 upgrade is is still very much alive and kicking. The last time I did it was about a month ago.

So may be cheaper to buy a windows 7 licence key and run the free upgrade.

DoaM

vacheron wrote: »

So may be cheaper to buy a windows 7 licence key and run the free upgrade.

And then run a clean install of Windows 10 ... the hardware config will be recognised by MS licence servers.

vacheron

DoaM wrote: »

And then run a clean install of Windows 10 ... the hardware config will be recognised by MS licence servers.

Good tip! 👍

EveryWhere

vacheron wrote: »

Good tip! 👍

If it weren't for your unnecessary step of running the upgrade over the top of Windows 7.

You can do a clean install, eliminating the step of upgrading over the top of Windows 7.

vacheron

EveryWhere wrote: »

If it weren't for your unnecessary step of running the upgrade over the top of Windows 7.

You can do a clean install, eliminating the step of upgrading over the top of Windows 7.

Really? You mean you can use a Windows 7 key to activate a clean install of windows 10 on a PC which has never had the 7-10 upgrade previously applied (meaning Microsoft won't have a record of the hardware config)?

I never realised that!