Genuine Windows 11 Key Vendors

felixfurtak on 15/04/2025 - 22:34
Last edited 15/04/2025 - 23:05

I just bought a mini PC from AliExpress and it came with what initially appeared to be an activated copy of Win 11 Pro. However, after poking around for a while I noticed that it was KMS volume license activated and after a bit more poking around found that it had some Auto KMS process running in the background. Not ideal IMHO.

So I'm going to wipe the PC and put a legitimate copy of Windows on, but was wondering if any fellow Cheapies can point me towards a reasonably reliable source of genuine Windows activation methods that don't need a potentially malicious KMS tool running in the background.

Googling around, there are plenty of vendors claiming to sell keys, but how legitimate are they?

Or is it best to buy from Microsoft? If so are there any VPN tricks that could be used to get a better price?

General Discussion

Comments

  • Kiwi on 15/04/2025 - 22:44
    +7

    How legit? Probably no more than any ebay or aliexpress seller also selling "genuine windows keys".

    You can use https://massgrave.dev - HWID activation option, if you want. Source code is here: https://github.com/massgravel/Microsoft-Activation-Scripts/b…

  • felixfurtak on 15/04/2025 - 23:08

    Cool, cheers. Will look at that.

    • Kiwi on 15/04/2025 - 23:15

      No worries, used it a bunch, mostly when going from home to pro, never had any issues just running the PS script on the website and following the prompts, the rest of the source is in the GitHub.

  • Pedro on 16/04/2025 - 07:05

    Isn't Win 11 free? I thought you could download and install it but you just won't be able to activate it without a key, which means it will be limited.

    • felixfurtak on 16/04/2025 - 07:20

      Yes, you can download the ISO and install it for free directly from Microsoft, and it does have almost full functionality, apart from the persistent 'Windows is not activated' watermark and a few UI restrictions. You can also upgrade older PCs with Windows 10 installed for free and maintain activation (provided it meets minimum Win 11 spec.). However, new barebones PCs (and motherboards) don't have any previous Windows activation and need a new license key to activate. Unless you use above work-arounds.

  • Alan6984 on 16/04/2025 - 08:34

    You can likely pick up a second hand, completely legit, non-OEM, Win10 (Home or Pro) license on TradeMe or similar for very little - we have sold off licenses like that in the past for $49 each (none currently though sorry).

    You could then install Win10, and upgrade for free to Win11 (assuming the machine(s) are compatible… or even if not perhaps but that could be risky, and it sounds like you have modern kit anyway).

    If it was me, I would always completely wipe the machine first, but I'd do that in almost any scenario. If you do, make sure you can get a copy of any required drivers before you proceed, although with desktops it is very rarely an issue. If you aren't sure, just image the machine before doing anything (I prefer dd from a live Linux USB for simplicity and reliability, but whatever you prefer should be fine), so that you can always get back where you were if you get stuck.

    • felixfurtak on 16/04/2025 - 14:15

      Trouble with Trade Me is it's full of resellers. You buy a Win license of there you might as well be buying one from 'totallylegitwindowskeys.com'

      • Alan6984 on 16/04/2025 - 15:37

        Trouble with Trade Me is it's full of resellers.

        If you check the age of the account, and their feedback profile (say, a couple of hundred sales over more than twenty years, being about ten a year on average … just as a random example), you can easily find non-resellers, but there are certainly other options maybe like the one that you gave. Personally, I wouldn't go there, but many will.

        • Garry on 16/04/2025 - 16:05

          why you wasiting money on third party unknown traders on trademe, go to stacksocial.com, there is deal on window and office key , which is genuine key provided by them

          • 1ys23 on 16/04/2025 - 16:27

            @Garry: What is stacksocial are they legit?
            They have electronics on there as well

            • Jexla on 16/04/2025 - 17:26

              @1ys23: No, do not use.

            • Garry on 18/04/2025 - 11:12

              @1ys23: yes it is legit seller, i am using office and windows key from past 2 year and it register on the Microsoft account as well

          • Alan6984 on 16/04/2025 - 16:50
            +1

            @Garry:

            why you wasiting money on third party unknown traders on trademe

            I'm not - I occasionally sell off surplus retail keys on TradeMe, as posted above.

          • Jexla on 16/04/2025 - 17:26

            @Garry: Yeah, no. They claim to be a marketplace and recycle keys to people and have them reset the activation when they get flagged via the phone process which then kicks everyone else off who has used the key before. It's a scam.

  • sroby on 16/04/2025 - 18:01

    First thing , as mentioned above , you need to Wipe that PC . You cant trust it .

    2nd thing
    You allready have one very dodgy Win key.
    So why go & buy another :-)

    If you want NOT DODGY, buy a full retail key from PB Tech. It wont be cheap.
    Its that simple.
    I used to be in IT , Ive seen plenty of these dodgy keys & issues they caused(they company I worked for even sold them)
    They can cause issues

    If you see something really cheap , its dodgy . Its breaking MS's T&C's .
    Also, you cant re-use OEM keys . So I would be carefull buying used keys .
    MS can easily de-activate a dodgy Win(or office) licence . The have done that on-masse in the past .

    • kfr23 on 16/04/2025 - 18:56

      Don't buy a key, use https://massgrave.dev/

    • felixfurtak on 17/04/2025 - 14:13

      I agree with your sentiment, and I am considering this.

      But PB Tech wants $390 for a retail Win 11 Pro Key and $309 for an OEM one, hence my original question on where to get a legitimate key that doesn't cost almost the same price as the mini PC that I just bought !

      The Mass Grave HWID method looks safe in as much as once the activation is is bound to the hardware, it is persistent so even if you completely wipe the PC and re-install windows it will automatically re-activate. So you can be 100% sure there is no potential malware running on the machine to maintain the activation status.

      But yeah, it's not legitimate. I checked a few official vendors in places like Turkey, Argentina, etc. where people often get cheap Netflix subscriptions, but the price for a retail copy of Windows seems fairly consistent worldwide.

  • Dunno on 16/04/2025 - 18:13

    I wouldn't blink at the thought of buying/using a key that was generated for other purposes that you can buy at 10% of the cost of the retail product. It will never be deactivated. For business use I would go legit as they will target such volume use.

    Theres a reason why the likes of technet/msdnaa etc let you generate tens of key per OS and its because they would rather you pirate or get their software cheap than you using a competitors OS.

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