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 Linux@lemmy.ml – 368 points –

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:

  1. Continue on Win 10 but with higher security risks.
  2. Buy new and expensive hardware that supports Win11.
  3. Try a beginner friendly #Linux distro like #linuxmint. It only takes about two months to acclimate.

@nixCraft @linux @windowscentralbot

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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)