Gentle reminder to everyone that support for [#windows10](https://mastodon.social/tags/windows10) ends in about 90 weeks. Many computers can't upgrade to Win 11 so here are your options:
Ajay Iyer@mastodon.social to 
Gentle reminder to everyone that support for #windows10 ends in about 90 weeks. Many computers can't upgrade to Win 11 so here are your options:
- Continue on Win 10 but with higher security risks.
- Buy new and expensive hardware that supports Win11.
- Try a beginner friendly #Linux distro like #linuxmint. It only takes about two months to acclimate.
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I would advise #linux over anything proprietary to begin with.
If you want to really go the w11 way it is not as restrictive as they make it sound, in fact in 90% of the cases it says it can't it can.
8GB of ram and GPT partitioning!
Many w10 were upgraded from w7-8-9 and retained the DOS/mbr and w10 would work with either part.table. Win-setup says it can't auto-upgrade but it can install if you delete the partitions and start with clean disk.
@ajayiyer @nixCraft @linux @windowscentralbot
@yianiris @ajayiyer @nixCraft @linux @windowscentralbot most of windows users don't even know what is a partition... talking about GPT, you can be sure they'll interpret this as something related to ChatGPT... :ablobcatknitsweats:
also on my side, I have a w10 running in VM, with MBR.
cloned the VM and upgraded it to w11 took me time and I had to do a lot of tech stuff for the GPT
not hard, but technical; too technical for most of Windows users probably..
Some people have spare time to learn a thing or two, some people have spare cash to buy new hw when MS tells them to.
We are not all equal :)
We have a government that enforces and maintains inequality, otherwise equalization would come natural, and with some social organization.
@grum999 @ajayiyer @nixCraft @linux @windowscentralbot
I was reading what it would take to run a legal copy of w10/11 in a vm since the vm doesn't provide the chip to embed the license (post 5th gen intel and similar amd) and I almost threw up with MS disgusting policies of trying to sell more and more for every use.
If your mb gets fried you have to call up and authorize the transfer of license ...
You can't buy a $50 refurbished with sticker and get a free license for w11 :)
@grum999 @ajayiyer @nixCraft @linux @windowscentralbot
@yianiris @ajayiyer @nixCraft @linux @windowscentralbot I bought a valid license key product of W11 of 0.14eur :ablobcatcoffee:
(And my w10 also have a valid license key bought for similar price)
It's an OEM license so once it's used, I can't reuse it on an another computer
But at this price I think it's Ok to buy a new one if the MB is dead 😅
But an another side, MB of a VM normally won't die 💪
I'm not sure what you mean by "since the vm doesn't provide the chip to embed the license"?
sudo strings /sys/firmware/acpi/tables/MSDM
So if you create a windows vm vb/qemu provide a virtual MSDM chip you can modify the value of?
@grum999 @ajayiyer @nixCraft @linux @windowscentralbot
@yianiris @ajayiyer @nixCraft @linux @windowscentralbot it seems not (cf. screenshot)
What I use is a digital license: it seems the digital license is not stored in the hardware
I suppose when it's activated, windows send information to a MS Server
They store the information the digital license is used by this user/hardware
If you try to reuse the digital license key, you'll be rejected during activation because it's already flagged as used on MS side
Something like this I think 🙃
If it was done online alone 1st it would have been cracked globally, then the machine/hw needs to be identified uniquely. How can this be done if you change disk and reinstall?
The way they do this is a chip intel/amd_x86-64 boards provide called MSDM and a unique key is embeded to it.
You plug a new disk, install, reboot is is already activated.
@grum999 @ajayiyer @nixCraft @linux @windowscentralbot
@yianiris @ajayiyer @nixCraft @linux @windowscentralbot I don't know. If they have a database were used keys are checked during activation process, it could be difficult to globally crack this... 🤷
if you change hardware and want to reuse the same digital key, as the key has already been used, activation on MS side will just be rejected: you have to buy a new digital key
digital keys don't work the same way than product keys (that are stored on hardware)
Not all MS licenses are the same, some you can reuse 1 time, you just have to call up cus.support if the key was registered in your name.
@grum999 @ajayiyer @nixCraft @linux @windowscentralbot