Windows 11 Pro - $29.97

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Just note, they are not considered legal FYI. (as much as each site claims they are legal) They obtain keys in questionable manners and are not legal resellers. You can read all over of questionable purchases from people that never got the key or activation, and others who followed links to "apparently" MS sites and entering in their MS login.. and ya..,..
 
Gray market scam keys.. they buy keys from 3rd world regions where they're much cheaper, then resell them illegally / against the ToS/EULA. Every so often Microsoft does region matching and purges keys used outside of regions they aren't supposed to be reporting from. This is why the sites often say if a key doesn't work or stops working, message them for a new one. If you're actually paying money for illegal keys, you've been duped.
 
Yea no different from buying game keys from places like cdkeys. Why do people have a problem buying grey keys for windows but not games?
 
I knew G2A was grey market but don't have any experience with Stacksocial or SftKey. Was kind of hoping since an outfit like CNET was openly endorsing Stacksocial it might be more of a legitimate deal but you guys are saying it's the same as all the rest of those sites so if that's the case then might as well go for the cheapest or the massgrave activation hack that some here recommend as opposed to paying for a grey market key.

I'll keep this open for now in case there's any further helpful discussion but if it isn't going to add anything for anyone then I'll just close it and we can move on. :)
 
Out of curiosity, what does Windows 11 Pro offer that Home doesn't? I had a version of 10 that activated to Pro seemingly by accident (an MS rep gave it to me over the phone) and it felt like mostly network admin stuff.
 
w1retap said:
This is why the sites often say if a key doesn't work or stops working, message them for a new one. If you're actually paying money for illegal keys, you've been duped.
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I mean if they actually do give you a new one it cant be that bad.

I'm sure it's a philosophical argument here, but are grey market keys from other regions really that much different than buying stuff on Amazon where locally the price for the same goods may be quite a bit more for reasons such as cost of living, average local wage, etc? Sure it goes from country borders to state borders but it's still just arbitrary borders.
 
w1retap said:
Gray market scam keys.. they buy keys from 3rd world regions where they're much cheaper, then resell them illegally / against the ToS/EULA. Every so often Microsoft does region matching and purges keys used outside of regions they aren't supposed to be reporting from. This is why the sites often say if a key doesn't work or stops working, message them for a new one. If you're actually paying money for illegal keys, you've been duped.
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Windows keys are not significantly cheaper in other regions. Most key sellers are selling oem keys that were never used, for home use I'd not worry about it, it is as good as oem keys from official sellers. I've been using them all my adult life and never had an issue. Just don't buy from marketplaces like G2A where there are actually a lot of scammers selling keys obtained with stolen credit card info and such.
 
sfsuphysics said:
I mean if they actually do give you a new one it cant be that bad.

I'm sure it's a philosophical argument here, but are grey market keys from other regions really that much different than buying stuff on Amazon where locally the price for the same goods may be quite a bit more for reasons such as cost of living, average local wage, etc? Sure it goes from country borders to state borders but it's still just arbitrary borders.
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My view of it is if I'm not paying for legitimate keys, I would rather just use one of the hack activation methods. If I want to pay to support a product, the money should be going to the makers/developers of said product. That doesn't appear to be the case in these grey market keys.
 
Tsumi said:
My view of it is if I'm not paying for legitimate keys, I would rather just use one of the hack activation methods.
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Well that's my question, you are paying for a legitimate key, its just sold in another region and that should in someway make it illegitimate because the makers say it is so?
 
sfsuphysics said:
Well that's my question, you are paying for a legitimate key, its just sold in another region and that should in someway make it illegitimate because the makers say it is so?
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That's where the second part comes in. If I'm trying to be legitimate, I'm trying to support the makers. These keys almost definitely do not support Microsoft and just support opportunists, to put it in a friendly term.
 
Why can't Microsoft simply sell Windows 11 HOME w/no MS account or spyware for $29. I'll buy 5 copies right now. Instead of the zero copies I'm buying?!?
 
M76 said:
Windows keys are not significantly cheaper in other regions. Most key sellers are selling oem keys that were never used, for home use I'd not worry about it, it is as good as oem keys from official sellers. I've been using them all my adult life and never had an issue. Just don't buy from marketplaces like G2A where there are actually a lot of scammers selling keys obtained with stolen credit card info and such.
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They can be significantly cheaper, especially with Microsoft partner programs. Individual licenses are 20% cheaper alone in India. There's also tons of corporate & education program discounts for the 3rd world that gets milked. What they do is sign up for subscriptions where they get 10 or 100 keys under their account, then sell them off individually. Rinse and repeat. It's definitely illegal. I just don't see how paying for illegal activities is any better than just using the various github KMS scripts to bypass activation all together. One has a money trail tied to you, and the other does not. I'm not recommending either, but paying for it just seems odd to me. I'd rather have a known good key that I purchased legitimately.
 
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sfsuphysics said:
Well that's my question, you are paying for a legitimate key, its just sold in another region and that should in someway make it illegitimate because the makers say it is so?
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None of these are legit. The "resellers" here are keeping 100%. Zero goes to MS. Might as well just use KMS activation at that point.

The rot in this market goes far deeper than merely opportunists capitalizating on pricing disparities between regions, and it"s not what's happening with these $30 keys. There's a spectrum of ways they obtain bulk lists of windows keys, none are authorized by MS. This horse has kinda been beaten to death though.
 
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People still buy Windows? I'm sorry, paying $1 is too much (especially for a non-genuine retail copy). You are paying for literal spyware (Yes, I use windows).
 
polonyc2 said:
I'm surprised reputable sites like Cnet are promoting these grey market websites
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CNET is not reputable and has not been for a long time. And most sites now just let anyone buy ad space and crap for profits. Its the same as seeing ads at the top of google and bing which go to malicious sites... they dont care...someone paid them to have an ad.
 
MrGuvernment said:
CNET is not reputable and has not been for a long time. And most sites now just let anyone buy ad space and crap for profits. Its the same as seeing ads at the top of google and bing which go to malicious sites... they dont care...someone paid them to have an ad.
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but the Cnet link wasn't an ad in the traditional sense, it was an article written by someone promoting the grey market site software...with the Google ad crap and other similar things it's easy to tell it's an ad
 
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Was looking for a Windows 11 Pro activation, gave the Stacksocial a try this past weekend. Took them three tries to get me a valid key. Some "stupidity" troubleshooting on their part, i.e. "corrupt install with #1 key", "use Windows 11 pro Generic key with no internet connection, then connect and try their #1 key.", "Reinstall preserving user data/apps, and try key #2". The third key was provided, and worked without issue, affter I expressed my interest for a refund. YMMV.
 
LuvULongTime said:
Was looking for a Windows 11 Pro activation, gave the Stacksocial a try this past weekend. Took them three tries to get me a valid key. Some "stupidity" troubleshooting on their part, i.e. "corrupt install with #1 key", "use Windows 11 pro Generic key with no internet connection, then connect and try their #1 key.", "Reinstall preserving user data/apps, and try key #2". The third key was provided, and worked without issue, affter I expressed my interest for a refund. YMMV.
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Of course, they have to go through the list of keys because they dont know which ones are activated or MSDN or what so they just keep throwing them at you until one sticks.
 
w1retap said:
They can be significantly cheaper, especially with Microsoft partner programs. Individual licenses are 20% cheaper alone in India. There's also tons of corporate & education program discounts for the 3rd world that gets milked. What they do is sign up for subscriptions where they get 10 or 100 keys under their account, then sell them off individually. Rinse and repeat. It's definitely illegal. I just don't see how paying for illegal activities is any better than just using the various github KMS scripts to bypass activation all together. One has a money trail tied to you, and the other does not. I'm not recommending either, but paying for it just seems odd to me. I'd rather have a known good key that I purchased legitimately.
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I disagree. Buying keys from online stores who provide you with an invoice is completely in good faith. While downloading a KMS is bad faith to begin with. The only way you can get into trouble for the former is if they can prove that you were fully aware that the seller was illegitimate. But that's not realistic. And no, it's definitely not illegal. It might be against the TOS to resell keys, but that's a civil court case, not a criminal one, like piracy. And even if we accept that it is against TOS, it is not the people buying licenses online in good faith who are breaking the TOS, but the one who is reselling them without authorization.

Not to mention activation scripts break all the time and you have to run shady software on your PC to mimic activation servers for them to work even temporarily.

As for not supporting MS I disagree about that also. MS already got paid for these licenses,at some point, they are not stolen or generated by a third party.
 
I don't care what people do but stop trying to justify grey key market is legit. Just stop lying to yourself. Paying $20 for a $70 grey market key is no different then pirating.
 
vegeta535 said:
I don't care what people do but stop trying to justify grey key market is legit. Just stop lying to yourself. Paying $20 for a $70 grey market key is no different then pirating.
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Microsoft still got some money from wherever the keys were bought from, right? I mean as long as the way the keys were purchased wasn't illegal. How is that the same as pirating where the company gets zero dollars?
 
wizzi01 said:
Microsoft still got some money from wherever the keys were bought from, right? I mean as long as the way the keys were purchased wasn't illegal. How is that the same as pirating where the company gets zero dollars?
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How do you know it wasn't illegal. Also buying from a region that sells for less to sell it in the states for more is not legit. If MS really wanted too they could kill all those keys. Stop lying to yourself to make you feel better about yourself.
 
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vegeta535 said:
How do you know it wasn't illegal. Also buying from a region that sells for less to sell it in the states for more is not legit. If MS really wanted too they could kill all those keys. Stop lying to yourself to make you feel better about yourself.
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Lol, nothing you said disputed what I said. Stop arguing with emotions and start using facts
 
Buying on price has become a race to the bottom, and the third world is more than happy to take our money to support our greed. Everything has a price for it to sustain properly in a balanced way---proper wages, return on r&d, etc. Once we get into this 'theft of ip and sell it cheap', we're literally destroying the structure of what makes these innovations possible. Like all the knockoffs on aliexpress and ebay and amazon that people buy touting a 'great deal'. The original manufacturers will be gone if we keep doing this. My .02.
 
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