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I don't know if it still works, but I found a "cheat" for free windows back in the day that I even upgraded into 10 with lol
My friend had an "upgrade" code for XP that he gave me, so when I installed windows and tried to use the code it gave me the whole "this is an upgrade code not a new code" kind of message. I rebooted the PC and used the same installer to "upgrade" my newly installed windows XP to windows XP. Same install, just did it again basically. It then accepted the code as valid lol
Today's kids use the activation scripts on GitHub which is owned by Microsoft. Just open cmd and run
irm https://massgrave.dev/get | iexIt will download the code storef here: https://github.com/massgravel/Microsoft-Activation-Scripts and run it, then windows is activated.
you can also use it to upgrade from home to pro/enterprise for free
I used it for the office suite. I should really look at using it for an OS upgrade one day
For a while you could just remove all the permissions from the activation nagware on a trial install and it would run fine, and you'd even get updates. At some point they added some service which would periodically check those permissions and revert them, and I was never able to figure out what that process was.
Which means that there is apparently now a hidden user and access tier which exists solely to monitor windows system permissions, and I feel like this is my most noteworthy legacy in a small way.
Much like the abrahamic god, I love loopholes.