Airbrushkid
2[H]4U
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- Aug 27, 2007
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What's the difference between Windows key and COA? I see tons of COA forsale on ebay.
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What's the difference between Windows key and COA?
- Thread starter Airbrushkid
- Start date
D
Deleted member 245375
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A Windows Product Key is just that: the actual 25 digit alphanumeric sequence written like AAAAA-BBBBB-CCCCC-DDDDD-EEEEE - that is simply used to activate when necessary since Windows 10 now uses a different scheme if you upgraded to it as part of the free upgrade path offer - there's still an actual Product Key if you purchase it in retail channels however but it's only needed one time to generate the original activation hash which now gets stored on Microsoft's servers for later use.
Having a Product Key does not necessarily mean you're licensed to use the OS which is what the Certificate of Authenticity aka the COA is for. That is the actual license itself (more or less) which does mean you're legitimately licensed (give or take the situation) to have/install/use the given product.
So, no they're not one and the same thing and in the case of Windows 8, 8.1, and 10 you can find COA stickers attached to laptops and desktops and the stickers probably don't even have a Product Key printed on them at all because it's stored in the BIOS/UEFI nowadays as part of the software licensing system in use. It can be extracted with a software tool (there are quite a few of them) but it's tied to the given hardware/OEM brand and can't be used for general purpose installations anyway.
What you see for sale on eBay and other places is more than likely spare COA kits that usually come with a small insert of information, the COA sticker or printed COA card, and whatever other stuff Microsoft chose to include. That kind of stuff is usually sold in volume (large quantities) to resellers and OEMs making machines as they don't get the full retail boxed product. A lot of times what you're buying as originally sold to a reseller or OEM and they're dumping it from non-use or just not being able to sell them with actual computers since the licensing usually requires it to be included with the hardware as a package deal.
There's also the System Builder COA versions which are basically the same thing, typically sold to smaller computer resellers like ones you might find locally aka "Mom & Pop shops" as well. It's usually legit software but since they were originally designed for OEMs while you won't necessarily get in trouble for using them they don't come with any support from Microsoft in terms of phone/online/etc like a legit license would come with meaning from the OEM that sold you the hardware it was already installed on, that sort of thing.
Having a Product Key does not necessarily mean you're licensed to use the OS which is what the Certificate of Authenticity aka the COA is for. That is the actual license itself (more or less) which does mean you're legitimately licensed (give or take the situation) to have/install/use the given product.
So, no they're not one and the same thing and in the case of Windows 8, 8.1, and 10 you can find COA stickers attached to laptops and desktops and the stickers probably don't even have a Product Key printed on them at all because it's stored in the BIOS/UEFI nowadays as part of the software licensing system in use. It can be extracted with a software tool (there are quite a few of them) but it's tied to the given hardware/OEM brand and can't be used for general purpose installations anyway.
What you see for sale on eBay and other places is more than likely spare COA kits that usually come with a small insert of information, the COA sticker or printed COA card, and whatever other stuff Microsoft chose to include. That kind of stuff is usually sold in volume (large quantities) to resellers and OEMs making machines as they don't get the full retail boxed product. A lot of times what you're buying as originally sold to a reseller or OEM and they're dumping it from non-use or just not being able to sell them with actual computers since the licensing usually requires it to be included with the hardware as a package deal.
There's also the System Builder COA versions which are basically the same thing, typically sold to smaller computer resellers like ones you might find locally aka "Mom & Pop shops" as well. It's usually legit software but since they were originally designed for OEMs while you won't necessarily get in trouble for using them they don't come with any support from Microsoft in terms of phone/online/etc like a legit license would come with meaning from the OEM that sold you the hardware it was already installed on, that sort of thing.