8mo ago

Wanting to dual boot Windows with Kubuntu. Am I fine getting a Windows 10 key instead of 11?

A couple of months ago, I wiped Windows off my old laptop and installed Kubuntu instead. Now, I was thinking of dual booting Windows additionally for a certain game (definitely not League of Legends, for sure not) and will need to buy a new key. Am I fine getting a copy of Windows 10 despite Microsoft's discontinuation, or should I get a Windows 11 key? I have a different laptop I use as a daily driver (11, Surface Go 3), so this would exclusively be for the game that shan't be named.

Sorry if this post isn't fit for this community - I'll delete it if it isn't.

30 comments

You should not have to buy a new key for a machine that came with windows. That will most likely automatically activate back to whichever edition you had before the wipe.
- I haven't used windows in quite a while, but while I did, on laptops sold with windows there was a recovery partition on them you could reinstall windows from. If you removed that partition you had no legal way of reinstalling, because no key was made available to you at any point.
  
  This is not true. OEM serial key is usually tied to the motherboard. I once had to replace my HDD, but granted i downloaded the Windows recovery file from the laptop manufacturer's website. That way it will recreate the recovery partition for you.
  
  Do you know off the top if it's intact if I "fully wiped" it during the installation of a different OS?
  
  This must have been xp or earlier. Since vista there was a shared key and certificate for each OEM that paired with a code on the motherboard. And since 8 or 10 there is now a key in the motherboard that has been pre-registered with the activation servers. Now when you activate a retail key, it registers the motherboard not the install, so a reinstall gets activated automatically.

You can use Windows 10 indefinitely without using a key. You'll lose out on a few settings, mainly to do with personalisation, and you'll have a watermark on your screen - but if it's just for one game, then perhaps that's something you can live with.
...there are also Certain Methods to permanently activate Windows without a key at all if necessary.

Don't go to https://massgrave.dev/ and follow the instructions there, that would be copyright infringement and would deprive an already insanely wealthy corporation of some funds.

Don't buy a Windows key. If Windows was installed initially it should remember your hardware and activate. If it doesn't, there's numerous ways to pirate Windows.

One tip, if Windows 11 is what you want, you can install W10 and it may prompt you to upgrade to W11.
Link directly from Microsoft.

Sorry if this post isn’t fit for this community - I’ll delete it if it isn’t.
You're asking a Linux community about what key you should buy for Windows, how is this at all relevant?
- They are implicitly asking about known compatibility issues.

If you are asking is it OK to use unsupported Windows 10 just for gaming, then probably. If you are using it for the regular stuff probably not.
Your system will be more vulnerable but unless you are torrenting/downloading random stuff you should be OK I guess.

That's a windows issue. Go ask windows people.
- Unnecessary and unhelpful. Plenty of Linux users dual boot with MacOS/Windows. It’s a stretch sure but come on.
  
  Linux is definitely not in the top 5 places I'd think to ask this.
  
  We aren't a support forum, especially not a Windows support forum. So yeah, it was suppose to unhelpful, and it was quite necessary.

Whatever key you had before should work just fine.
If you want another key, I don't have any recommendations, I don't hate Windows 11 as far as the UI is concerned, and I'm not sure you stay any more private with Windows 10, just pick what you like.

Sail the sea.

If you get a windows 10 key, windows 11 gets included for free. But you should not need a new license if you already had it on your device. If you really need it, resellers on aukro.cz are your friend. I got a windows 10 pro key for about 3.5 € lol

Cannot all win10 keys work with win11 too?

30 comments