Cheap way to install Windows 11?

Valnar

Supreme [H]ardness
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Apr 3, 2001
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I have a variety of PC's at my house running Windows 10 and many came from Win7 or 8.1, via upgrades. Now I'm building a Windows 11 PC brand new from parts... Is there a way to use one of those licenses to get me Windows 11? Or is there a cheap <$200 way to buy Windows 11 Pro? The catch is I want this to be a clean install, not go through various OS upgrades.
 
I have a variety of PC's at my house running Windows 10 and many came from Win7 or 8.1, via upgrades. Now I'm building a Windows 11 PC brand new from parts... Is there a way to use one of those licenses to get me Windows 11? Or is there a cheap <$200 way to buy Windows 11 Pro? The catch is I want this to be a clean install, not go through various OS upgrades.
You need to install win 10 first, then upgrade I think. It's perfectly fine to do it that way, no junk left over from an upgrade like the old days.
 
Know a guy who has purchased many Windows and Windows Server keys from g2a.com without issue. Same guy also acquired keys from folks in the for sale area of [H]. Would not recommend selling a machine with one of those keys on it. Haven't heard of any issues.
 
I really dont know why they dont give Windows Home away for free now and just charge $10 for Pro. I've not had to buy a copy of Windows since Windows 8 first came out.
 
I am getting better with linux but mint makes it a lot easier. Win 11 games only system.
 
Pick a donor machine, back it up, switch to a microsoft account, make sure activation says 'digital license connected to a microsoft account', transplant the hard drive into the new pc, reboot and check activation until it yells at you, in troubleshooting login to microsoft and select the name of the donor pc, reboot a couple more times for luck. Now you can move the drive back into the donor pc, and restore the backup if it won't let you switch back to a local account, install your new drive in the new pc and it shouldn't ask you for a key.
 
I've just finished building a new rig yesterday and fired it up. I've been transferring the Win license since the 2500k build which I initially bought on the FS section for cheap...
Looks like this time around is just $119 for the Home version because I am still planning to use the old PC unless I can keep running un-activated?
 
I've just finished building a new rig yesterday and fired it up. I've been transferring the Win license since the 2500k build which I initially bought on the FS section for cheap...
Looks like this time around is just $119 for the Home version because I am still planning to use the old PC unless I can keep running un-activated?
find yourself an old 7/8 key and feed it that during install, old oem systems all have a key on the case...
 
Looks like I can use the Win10 key from my NUC
Will that work?
probably. most oems use a volume license key to install and the sticker is just meet MS's requirements. when installing, dont connect your network cable/wifi, feed it the key and it should take it just fine. once windows it up and running, connect you network and it should auto-activate itself.
 
For what it's worth, I used a Win7Pro upgrade key (boxed, "Designed for Windows Vista") to activate Win11Pro last week. I did/do have a Win11Pro key from G2A available, but figured I'd give my old PC's key a shot. Worked straight away, no issues.

PXL_20230727_025633538.MP.jpg


My Office2010Pro still activates, too - it's so damn snappy on new hardware.

-bZj
 
Edit autoexec.bat with "open config.sys"
Edit config.sys with "open autoexec.bat"

Let your son start the PC and blame him to fix it.

Best Regards
Son
 
But sysadmins are not. With Linux, you either have someone run it for you or you have to learn to admin that shit yourself.
Now pressing the Windows "easy button" to disable Microsoft Teams permanently.
 
But sysadmins are not. With Linux, you either have someone run it for you or you have to learn to admin that shit yourself.
So right now I'm being forced to use Linux because of a program I need that is available only on Linux. Years ago, I worked at an early UNIX business workstation company, and we had only the cli interface and primitive editors like vi. Then I worked at Sun Microsystems, where fortunately we could mostly use the desktop included with Solaris. That was then, like last century.

For my personal use I started with CP/M, then DOS, and now Windows of course. Since I'm being forced to use Linux, I've installed Windows Subsystem for Linux. What I've discovered is that things that are no-brainer easy in Windows are pretty complex in Linux. And by the way, there are Debian-based distros and there are RH-based distros. And for some things, a Google search turns up instructions that are different between Debian or RH. And I certainly don't need to spend time deciding which distro to use, and keeping up with newly announced distros.

Companies don't have to worry about the UNIX wars of years past, there it was Solaris vs. HPUX vs. AIX. Thank goodness for POSIX.

In the year 2023, who needs this time-wasting crap? Imagine if either iOS or Android had a cli?

Or to use a different technology for comparison. When I first started doing serious photography, I had to use a light meter (or guess the exposure). And focus was entirely manual, so I had several different focusing screens for my Nikon F. Then we got built-in match-needle metering. Now my DSLR has autoexposure and auto focus. Sure I can override either, which I sometimes do. (And I can fix the exposures in Adobe Lightroom). And the capacity of a memory card is many, many times the 36 exp on a roll of film, so I'm not wasting time changing film rolls. So why would I go back to manual everything on a film camera?
 
In the year 2023, who needs this time-wasting crap? Imagine if either iOS or Android had a cli?

Windows has a CLI and it's very powerful. A lot of people considered Windows incomplete prior to PowerShell and I don't blame them. I've used PowerShell to fix things that Windows does not have GUI options for.

Manual control is the point of running Linux. Also, not having all your telemetry scraped and sold off.
 
Windows has a CLI and it's very powerful. A lot of people considered Windows incomplete prior to PowerShell and I don't blame them. I've used PowerShell to fix things that Windows does not have GUI options for.

Sure, but for the vast majority of Windows users, they can do what they want without PowerShell. If they even know that it exists.
Manual control is the point of running Linux. Also, not having all your telemetry scraped and sold off.
True, but besides the point in a world where lots and lots of programs, phone apps, etc, are all collecting user data and selling it to anyone with the money.
 
You have to use operating systems like apps, each OS has it's set of pluses and minuses. There is some OS's that have network connections and some that don't. Its up to you to figure out which one and when.
 
Sure, but for the vast majority of Windows users, they can do what they want without PowerShell. If they even know that it exists.
So can the vast majority of desktop linux users, nowadays. The only problem is that internet tutorials still haven't caught up with that fact.
 
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So can the vast majority of desktop linux users, nowadays. The only problem is that internet tutorials still haven't caught up with that fact.

I hate Linux tutorials...they all skip the "well you know how to do all the initial steps cos you are not a NOOB obviously.." initial steps that get you to the meat of what you want to do and start at step 6. Windows tutorials will 99.99999% of the time start with "Click the Start button..."

Then if you dare to ask on a Linux forum how to do the inital 5 steps...oh boy...the fury...the sneering...the being called "NOOB!" and told to "gtfo and go learn it like we all did!" or "how dare you waste our time asking than working it out for yourself!".

Not to mention being told 5 times at least "you picked the wrong distro noob!" Hey guys...I was at least having a go...you know like you happily encouraged me to when I said I'd like to try something other than Windows. At that point I was feeling all warm and fuzzy.

I now await the usual "No it's not like that you *ucking stupid noob! Just cos you are too lazy..." responses that prove my point but the irony is lost... ;)
 
I hate Linux tutorials...they all skip the "well you know how to do all the initial steps cos you are not a NOOB obviously.." initial steps that get you to the meat of what you want to do and start at step 6. Windows tutorials will 99.99999% of the time start with "Click the Start button..."

Then if you dare to ask on a Linux forum how to do the inital 5 steps...oh boy...the fury...the sneering...the being called "NOOB!" and told to "gtfo and go learn it like we all did!" or "how dare you waste our time asking than working it out for yourself!".

Not to mention being told 5 times at least "you picked the wrong distro noob!" Hey guys...I was at least having a go...you know like you happily encouraged me to when I said I'd like to try something other than Windows. At that point I was feeling all warm and fuzzy.

I now await the usual "No it's not like that you *ucking stupid noob! Just cos you are too lazy..." responses that prove my point but the irony is lost... ;)
daglesj

+1 to what you said. I'm following this other thread (with some posting of my own). https://hardforum.com/threads/ranking-of-linux-distrubitions-from-best-to-evil.2029243/ All I can say is, "these people are in a different world, far, far away." Talking with each other over esoterica. And do they understand that most people don't inhabit their world? Or even know how to talk to them in terms these people understand? Or is it always RTFM? Man pages, what an abomination.

I just tried out WSL2. I wasted over 2 hours trying to do some file copying and moving that would have taken like 20 seconds and just a few clicks in Windows. Linux may be fine for companies that have skilled IT administrators on staff. Or maybe software developers. But for a Joe Sixpack Linux noob like me? I don't think so. And I'm put off by all the "cute" names for software packages. Plus, depending on your Linux distro, there are different ways to install software.

I like that Microsoft is being a "benevolent dictator" here in setting clear standards for Windows. I don't use Macs, but I could say the same thing about Apple and MacOS.
 
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I really dont know why they dont give Windows Home away for free now and just charge $10 for Pro. I've not had to buy a copy of Windows since Windows 8 first came out.
I imagine entreprise-oem sales still exist if you give home for free they would want to pay nothing to sales a computer with windows installed and entreprise would want to only pay $10 for them.

They do not mind (do not expect) people to go and pay over $100 to upgrade their windows and prefer having them keep up than stay forever on 7, but still want entreprise or computer sold at walmart-bestbuy with windows on them to pay for their new license, those force created the strange situation/equilibrium we see. Can you run windows forever with just a little reminder to pay for it that pop up from time to time like Office ?
 
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