My mum’s computer is on Vista currently and it’s just stopped being supported by MS so she needs a new OS. The computer is (just) fast enough to run Win10 so no reason not to go that way and it makes it more future proof.

I don’t want to have to spend £120 if there’s cheaper ways of doing it and I’ve noticed that there’s some very cheap deals on eBay with “unwanted” software licenses that come with a motherboard and have good feedback.

Has anyone had any experience of these?

Cheers

Gary

I got a win 10 pro licence only from Softwaregeeks.
Has worked fine, all updates etc.
Win 10 pro £25
Win 10 home £23

https://softwaregeeks.co.uk/product/windows-10-home-2/

Apprehensively I used software geeks too, but worked.

Following a recommendation from here I used a license from Software Geeks a couple weeks ago to rebuild my dad’s Vista laptop with Win10.

Worked fine.

Awesome cheers guys. 😀

Bookmarked … coz I might want to build a new pooter in summer.

Nothing to add regarding W10 licences….but if it runs Vista (even slowly) it’ll be like a breath of fresh air with W10!!

Yeh win 10 will run better than vista if anything.

OEM licences on EBay – I’ve bought two, around a fiver – both have worked just fine with the linked system install image downlaod (from MS). Both working just fine. I always buy ‘Pro’ if that helps at all.

I’m in a very similar position to the OP, unsupported vista laptop.

Not particularly confident with computers and changing an operating system isn’t something I’ve done before.

That recommendation for software geeks seems ideal cost wise, but I worry is it a bit technical for a beginner?

Is there much to it ?
And are the any tips or tricks, or silly mistakes to try to avoid?

Thanks

As others have said, there’s not much to fear from any of the licenses above, once connected to the MS server and updated it’s like it never happened.

‘Pro’ adds some functionality to work within a server controlled network, it’s ‘professional’ as in for work use, rather than ‘Pro’ as in better – there’s no extra features for home users, but if that’s all you find it won’t hurt you, I doubt the size of it on the hdd is meaningfully different. I use ‘Pro’ or ‘Enterprise’ on my home PC because that’s the ones that came with our Action Pack and it doesn’t pine for a more focused environment rather than just running Minecraft all day.

It’s not that technical. Back everything up first, install the W10 download onto a USB thumb drive, plug it in, restart the machine pressing F12 I think to choose what you boot from, boot from the USB.

At some point it will prompt you for the licence key.

I’m in a very similar position to the OP, unsupported vista laptop.

Not particularly confident with computers and changing an operating system isn’t something I’ve done before.

That recommendation for software geeks seems ideal cost wise, but I worry is it a bit technical for a beginner?

Is there much to it ?
And are the any tips or tricks, or silly mistakes to try to avoid?

Thanks

There will be an easy Youtube video to follow, but it sort of depends on how important the data on it is to you. On the face of it you boot to a USB drive and it does it’s thing “all your files are were you left them” it will tell you over and over and in 99% of cases they will be, 1% will brick at some point and you’ll have to start all over again and sometimes they won’t be where you left them.

If you can, back-up your data to an external drive, or if you’ve got a few hours to kill the cloud, then do it.

Same as brassneck – eBay. Seller was gone a week later, but hey-ho, my Windows 10 (and Win8 ) still works 🙂

Is there much to it ?
And are the any tips or tricks, or silly mistakes to try to avoid?

This person needs a link to tell them all the shit you have to turn off when installing Windows 10! I’ll be back with one…

This person needs a link to tell them all the shit you have to turn off when installing Windows 10! I’ll be back with one…

Better yet, I created a custom installer that doesn’t include it all in the first place.

On the face of it you boot to a USB drive and it does it’s thing “all your files are were you left them

I’ve not tried it so I’m not 100% sure, but I don’t think you have this option coming from Vista, it’s a wipe and clean install. So the bit about booting off a DVD / USB is sound and the procedure is simple, but you’ll need to back up your data first.

TBH, it’ll be an ideal time to buy an SSD. It’ll speed it up no end, and you’ll have the old HDD as a backup.

Better yet, I created a custom installer that doesn’t include it all in the first place.

Riiiight… how does that help Mr Loum?

Thanks everyone

I’ve got use of an external hard drive so I’ll copy all my photos to that first. And buy a new usb key drive.

Sometimes this place is great for advice, and little confidence boosts.
Gonna give this a go this week.

Thanks again

Yeah, there’s stuff I’d recommend turning off in Windows 10 – this article covers it pretty well http://www.windowscentral.com/how-turn-cortana-and-stop-personal-data-gathering-windows-10
But you can do a custom install and stop it turning that stuff on in the first place – it’s just a bit long-winded.

If you want to turn off some of the annoying crap in Windows 10 I recommend this tool:

ShutUp10

Much simpler than doing it all yourself.

Anti 10 spyin stuff

🙂

Yes done the Ebay thing, its a way to get around the licensing side as they say they have supplied hardware so your OEM key works fine for whatever machine its first run with.

For £4 it was worth a punt and now have done 3 machines this way and all good so far, I have received no hardware through the post either

Riiiight… how does that help Mr Loum?

Well, I was considering making it available online, but if you’re going to be grumpy about it…

I thought you were just being a smug 😆

Update (not that anyone really cares 😀 )

I bought a license from an eBay seller for the grand sum of £2.75 and apart from the issue of taking 2 hours to figure out how to “boot from disc” (turns out it was press delete repeatedly on startup) it all went fine and my mum’s old Vista computer now runs much better on Windows 10.

Thanks all for the advice. 🙂

Gary

Speeder – Member

Update (not that anyone really cares )

I care coz I may need to build a second pc … 😀

Yes done the Ebay thing, its a way to get around the licensing side as they say they have supplied hardware so your OEM key works fine for whatever machine its first run with.

For £4 it was worth a punt and now have done 3 machines this way and all good so far, I have received no hardware through the post either

It is illegal though.

I fought the law

MSP – Member
illegal

Really? On what grounds? It’s 2nd hand goods. That it’s software and they like to restrict it to a one time use type scenario, changes this not one bit. Unless there’s something I’m missing?

Really? On what grounds? It’s 2nd hand goods. That it’s software and they like to restrict it to a one time use type scenario, changes this not one bit. Unless there’s something I’m missing?

If its an OEM key, it’s only licensed for the original hardware its installed on – the broken bit you are (supposedly) sent. As it’s broken you can’t reinstall on it, but neither do the licence terms technically allow you to install it on a new PC you built from other hardware. So you have a key that works, but was sold on something else, and the new hardware isn’t entitled to use it. In theory, MS know this as the hardware id is generated and registered during install so when you represent the key it should (you’d think) not activate – and yet they do.

Supposition: MS aren’t massively concerned with home users – especially since Apple made OS X updates free, and Linux got usable. They’d rather lose a licence sale and keep you in their ecosystem.

So not “illegal” just against their conditions of sale? (but they’re ok with that as it’s using the printer/ink business model)

In theory, MS know this as the hardware id is generated and registered during install so when you represent the key it should (you’d think) not activate – and yet they do.

It might well never have been used. I’ve got a stack of unused Windows 7 OEM keys here – they came with laptops and were never activated as they were built using a corporate image with an Enterprise key. In any case, it doesn’t really matter – at the server end it’d be the same change as if you’d swapped the motherboard and that’s perfectly acceptable.

So not “illegal” just against their conditions of sale?

It’s illegal in so far as you’re using a licence key in violation of the terms of the licence; ie, the licence is invalid and you’re effectively using pirated software. If you bought car insurance for domestic use and then drove on business, you wouldn’t then be able to argue that you had perfectly valid insurance and it was just against the conditions of sale.

In practical terms MS don’t overly care for home use (I’d concur with Brassneck’s supposition that they want everyone on W10). There used to be a loophole years ago where Windows 98 OEM could only be sold with approved hardware – so you could buy it with a mouse and save a chunk of cash over the retail product.

you can still get Win10 direct from Microsoft, for free. If you ‘use’ assistance technology.

It doesn’t say what that/they are/should be.

I’ve done it. No issues at all. See the guardian here

Yep. You still need a W7 / W8.1 licence to upgrade from though.

My conscience is clear whatever as it was a migration from Vista which they’ve dropped support for (and was sh!t) and would have got a free “upgrade” through the usual channels if we’d gone that route.

Not from Vista you wouldn’t. The free upgrade applied to W7 / W8.1 only.

So what was their upgrade path from Vista? Was it just to hope that it died of natural causes as everyone replaced their useless PCs as they slowed to a crawl rather than try and do something useful?

So would it work in the same way if I took my W10 recovery media from one of our laptop’s and used it to boot from on my other one which is running 8.1, or am I missing something. Did have W10 until hard drive went wrong and hadn’t made any recovery media

So what was their upgrade path from Vista? Was it just to hope that it died of natural causes as everyone replaced their useless PCs as they slowed to a crawl rather than try and do something useful?

they had to draw a line somewhere. should they have allowed free upgrade from xp? 3.1? dos?