Windows 10 Home license

Myser

Where can I obtain a genuine Windows 10 Home license at a reasonable cost?

There are quite a few websites offering these as well as on auction sites. All claiming to be 'genuine'!

Newcad

You can no longer get a Win10 licence from Microsoft.

You do have to be a bit careful when considering those websites, some are fine others are outright scams. But for the low cost it's probably worth a risk as long as you have done a bit of homework first on reviews.

Most of the 'genuine' ones being offered now are left over computer manufacturers (OEM) licences.  ie. The ones sold in bulk to manufacturers to put on a new machine sold with Win 10 installed. They have no use for them anymore, so to try and get a bit of their costs back have sold them cheap to the resellers, to sell cheap to anyone who wants one.

Even those are running out now so you may find yourself with a Pro or even Enterprise Windows 10 licence.

Despite being OEM rather than retail licences they will still work to activate Win 10, it's a case of shouldn't really but Microsoft are allowing it. (In most cases).

There is a slight question mark though whether you would be able to upgrade them to Win11 if/when wanted, but it should work like any other OEM licence upgrade.

Another option is to simply run Win10 unactivated, that has always been possible to do. I have an old laptop that has been running unactivated Win10 for the past 2-years. (It was XP Pro when I obtained it, I fitted more RAM and a SSD and it runs Win10 no problem).

With unactivated Windows the main issue is that the customisation settings are disabled, but you can do that in other ways. Eg. Right-clicking any image file allows you to set it as your desktop background. There is also a Watermark saying unactivated just above the system tray, set a white background and you'll hardly notice it. (I have a snowscene as the desktop background on that laptop).

You could also buy a cheap second hand machine and get MS to transfer the licence to your machine, but that's a bit of a faff and they'll probably stop doing it when Win10 reaches EOL next year.

The most expensive option? - A new Win11 licence from Microsoft should theoretically also activate Win10, if you are considering that (why?) then check with MS first.

J_B

Someone on here suggested that I use https://softwaresupply.net/ for Office 365.

It worked fine and their website is still running

SimplyBetter

Newcad said:

You can no longer get a Win10 licence from Microsoft.

You do have to be a bit careful when considering those websites, some are fine others are outright scams. But for the low cost it's probably worth a risk as long as you have done a bit of homework first on reviews.

Most of the 'genuine' ones being offered now are left over computer manufacturers (OEM) licences.  ie. The ones sold in bulk to manufacturers to put on a new machine sold with Win 10 installed. They have no use for them anymore, so have sold them cheap to the resellers to sell cheap to anyone who wants one.

Even those are running out now so you may find yourself with a Pro or even Enterprise Windows 10 licence.

Despite being OEM rather than retail licences they will still work to activate Win 10, it's a case of shouldn't really but Microsoft are allowing it. (In most cases).

There is a slight question mark though whether you would be able to upgrade them to Win11 if/when wanted, but it should work like any other OEM licence upgrade.

Another option is to simply run Win10 unactivated, that has always been possible to do. I have an old laptop that has been running unactivated Win10 for the past 2-years. (It was XP Pro when I obtained it, I fitted more RAM and a SSD and it runs Win10 no problem).

With unactivated Windows the main issue is that the customisation settings are disabled, but you can do that in other ways. Eg. Right-clicking any image file allows you to set it as your desktop background. There is also a Watermark saying unactivated just above the system tray, set a white background and you'll hardly notice it. (I have a snowscene as the desktop background on that laptop).

You could also buy a cheap second hand machine and get MS to transfer the licence to your machine, but that's a bit of a faff and they'll probably stop doing it when Win10 reaches EOL next year.

The most expensive option? - A new Win11 licence from Microsoft should theoretically also activate Win10, if you are considering that (why?) then check with MS first.

All somewhat unnecessarily complicated and not particularly accurate. I don't want to go through everything that you got wrong, as it's a lot, but suffice to say that Windows 10 and Windows 11 Digital licences are wholly interchangeable.You can even have Windows 10 & 11 on the same device activated with the same digital licence. OEM or Retail makes no difference.
Your story about OEM not supposed to work is simply fiction, as is your claim of ''finding yourself with Pro or Enterprise''. No, you have full choice over the edition purchased and Pro should be the preferred option for consumers in the first place.No reason to buy Home Edition other than price.

Myser

SimplyBetter said:

No, you have full choice over the edition purchased and Pro should be the preferred option for consumers in the first place.No reason to buy Home Edition other than price.

When upgrading from Windows 8, it automatically installed Windows 10 Home. The computer cannot run Windows 11 due to not having TPM.

Can a Pro license be purchased and entered into a Home installation? If not, is there an easy way to upgrade the install?

SimplyBetter

Myser said:

SimplyBetter said:

No, you have full choice over the edition purchased and Pro should be the preferred option for consumers in the first place.No reason to buy Home Edition other than price.

When upgrading from Windows 8, it automatically installed Windows 10 Home. The computer cannot run Windows 11 due to not having TPM.

Can a Pro license be purchased and entered into a Home installation? If not, is there an easy way to upgrade the install?

It can run Windows 11 regardless of not having TPM 2.0.

Yes, you should be able to upgrade from Home to Pro using the purchased product key. Mention that to the seller in so that they include instructions.
If you already have Windows 10 Home, why are you wanting to buy the same?

Myser

SimplyBetter said:

If you already have Windows 10 Home, why are you wanting to buy the same?

Upgrading from Windows 8 which requires a license. So currently I see the Windows 10 unactivated message on the desktop.

Could you explain how it is possible to upgrade to Windows 11 without TPM? The computer is quite old.

Vitor

 -  The computer is quite old. -

You may also fall foul of Windows 11 requirement for a CPU of at least Intel 8th Generation and a UEFI, Secure Boot capable system. You can hack Windows 11 to still install, check YouTube videos to see if the process to do this is something you feel confident in doing. 

Myser

What is the benefit in having Windows 10 Pro vs Home?

SimplyBetter

Myser said:

SimplyBetter said:

If you already have Windows 10 Home, why are you wanting to buy the same?

Upgrading from Windows 8 which requires a license. So currently I see the Windows 10 unactivated message on the desktop.

Could you explain how it is possible to upgrade to Windows 11 without TPM? The computer is quite old.

Dependent on your CPU, you can use Rufus (stable) to create bootable USB installation media that automates the installation of Windows 11 version 23H2 and prior. If you wish to install Windows 11 version 24H2, you can still do it with Rufus 4.6 (Beta), but your CPU needs to support SSE 4.2: https://www.epey.co.uk/cpu/technologies-supported/sse-4-2/

What do you have?

SimplyBetter

https://rufus.ie/en/
https://www.neowin.net/news/rufus-posts-unsupported-cpu-bypass-for-windows-11-24h2-in-place-upgrade-but-not-for-everyone/

So, in general, there is currently no issue with clean installing nor in-place upgrading.