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Hey so what's the cheapest way to get windows 8?

D

desura

Diamond Member
I'm guessing a student edition? Not in school anymore, but I still have old school ID's and I guess that they don't check too closely.
 
So the newegg one actually has like a $10 off promo code.

Anyways, here's what I'm wondering.

I'm thinking about buying an old laptop which I intend to wipe and have run linux.

The old laptops have win7 installed. They were designed for XP so it has to be some sort of...legit install. Non-OEM.

Can I extract the cd key from the laptop and use it to install Win7 on another machine?
 
desura said:
So the newegg one actually has like a $10 off promo code.

Anyways, here's what I'm wondering.

I'm thinking about buying an old laptop which I intend to wipe and have run linux.

The old laptops have win7 installed. They were designed for XP so it has to be some sort of...legit install. Non-OEM.

Can I extract the cd key from the laptop and use it to install Win7 on another machine?
Click to expand...

What are you asking? Can it be done, yes. Does it comply with the license agreement, No.
 
Steal it from walmart. Stealing makes everything cheaper 😛

Or yeah maybe give dreamspark a try, students get it free there.
 
Didn't a bunch of people stockpile win 8 pro keys on the cheap when MS was doing the download release special last year? I know I got 2 as well as a retail copy for $40. Surely there are plenty of people out there looking to sell (no, not me)
 
Raincity said:
What are you asking? Can it be done, yes. Does it comply with the license agreement, No.
Click to expand...

How does this not comply with the license agreement? It is presumably a purchased, non-OEM copy of Windows 7 being removed from one computer and put on another.
 
douglasb said:
How does this not comply with the license agreement? It is presumably a purchased, non-OEM copy of Windows 7 being removed from one computer and put on another.
Click to expand...
As long as it really is a retail copy (and not a retail upgrade copy) then that would indeed be legitimate. But it would be really weird for an XP-era machine to be running a full retail copy of Win7.
 
Are you part of a professional technology-aligned organization? IEEE, ASME (I think) among many others will have free copies courtesy of MSDNAA as part of membership benefits. I believe IEEE offers 8 free keys. 😀
 
ViRGE said:
As long as it really is a retail copy (and not a retail upgrade copy) then that would indeed be legitimate. But it would be really weird for an XP-era machine to be running a full retail copy of Win7.
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Why wouldn't upgrades be able to be moved? I've moved retail upgrades between machines before. They are both retail (movable) licenses, both the full retail and the upgrade retail.
 
I have a case of Win8 Pro retail that an overzealous client bought, that we're not going to be using. They'll either be resold or trashed I guess. We got about 30 new units with Win8 pre-installed, and had about 30 additional units still on Win7, and the idea apparently was to update everyone to Win8. Instead, we're getting 30+ copies of Win7 Pro and tossing Win8 to the curb.
 
VirtualLarry said:
Why wouldn't upgrades be able to be moved? I've moved retail upgrades between machines before. They are both retail (movable) licenses, both the full retail and the upgrade retail.
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It's not that he can't move the upgrade, it's that he needs a base OS to sacrifice. It sounds like he doesn't have an OS at all right now.
 
ViRGE said:
It's not that he can't move the upgrade, it's that he needs a base OS to sacrifice. It sounds like he doesn't have an OS at all right now.
Click to expand...

In my experience, every upgrade works on a bare drive (assuming you get the upgrade version on CD and not as a exe). Secondly, you should be able to use the key with an ISO that you find.
 
Did MS have low pricing until the end of Jan, Feb, or Mar to incentive us consumers to buy? Either way i am confident it expired.
 
Eureka said:
In my experience, every upgrade works on a bare drive (assuming you get the upgrade version on CD and not as a exe). Secondly, you should be able to use the key with an ISO that you find.
Click to expand...
It's not a technical limit, it's a legal limit. It's not legal to use an upgrade version unless you have another Windows license to sacrifice.
 
Okay, so.

I got the laptop. Extracted cd key with magic bean something.

Downloaded Win7 ult (amazed they put win7 ult on a laptop that I bought for less than $150, but whatever)

Installed on desktop.

typed key.

activation error. I can't even go on the internet or use ethernet on this machine.

How in the world do they know these things? I'm guessing like the windows install knew from the key itself that it was like the wrong type or something.
 
desura said:
Okay, so.

I got the laptop. Extracted cd key with magic bean something.

Downloaded Win7 ult (amazed they put win7 ult on a laptop that I bought for less than $150, but whatever)

Installed on desktop.

typed key.

activation error. I can't even go on the internet or use ethernet on this machine.

How in the world do they know these things? I'm guessing like the windows install knew from the key itself that it was like the wrong type or something.
Click to expand...
Because the license type is coded into the key itself. There's OEM, VLK, and retail, not to mention full version vs. upgrade. Just because there's a key on that laptop doesn't mean it's a full version retail key, which is the only thing you can take to another machine.

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