Windows 10 Key Activation

mizzer

mizzer

Believing is Seeing
So I purchased a Windows 10 key from an eBay seller. I've done this often with no issues. I tend to stay away from the bargain basement "grey market" sellers and only deal with someone who seems legit.

I received the key and a message showing a step-by-step for activation:

"Please simply copy and paste in command prompt as administrator."

slmgr.vbs -upk
slmgr /ipk XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX (this is where the key was written)
slmgr /skms kms.digiboy.ir
slmgr /ato

I thought "Forget that. I'll just copy and paste the code into Windows Activation." No dice. I received the following error message:

"We can't activate Windows on this device because we can't connect to your organization's server. Make sure that you're connected to your organization's network and try again."

So here's my questions: is there a risk if I run the code as suggested? Like, will my machine be tied to an activation server?
 
Just a guess here but it seems like that product key might be for an Enterprise license of Windows, and your system needs to be connected to the company's network that holds the license in order to activate.
 
Meteor_of_War said:
Just a guess here but it seems like that product key might be for an Enterprise license of Windows, and your system needs to be connected to the company's network that holds the license in order to activate.
Click to expand...

That's the conclusion I came to as well.

So if I had run the script, would it have opened a "back door" the seller could exploit?
 
mizzer said:
That's the conclusion I came to as well.

So if I had run the script, would it have opened a "back door" the seller could exploit?
Click to expand...

I have no clue. But I certainly would not be comfortable activating Windows in some unknown way like that. I'd only want to be doing it on the normal Windows Activation screen like you said.

Personally all my PC builds for the last decade have been Enterprise keys issued to me from my work, and I've always activated them the normal way. I sometimes see those deals on tech websites for super cheap keys, usually less than $15. Always was curious if those would work just fine, but never had the opportunity to try them.
 
Meteor_of_War said:
I have no clue. But I certainly would not be comfortable activating Windows in some unknown way like that. I'd only want to be doing it on the normal Windows Activation screen like you said.

Personally all my PC builds for the last decade have been Enterprise keys issued to me from my work, and I've always activated them the normal way. I sometimes see those deals on tech websites for super cheap keys, usually less than $15. Always was curious if those would work just fine, but never had the opportunity to try them.
Click to expand...

I've bought a few $10-15 keys that work perfectly fine. Never through ebay though.
 
Elysian said:
I've bought a few $10-15 keys that work perfectly fine. Never through ebay though.
Click to expand...

Well I might need to try for myself at some point soon for when my son builds a new PC. I think I last saw some ads for them on TechPowerUp. Hopefully I can still find them.
 
I think MS has changed the way they license the OS now, I tried a similar thing a bit ago and while not involving external servers, I had one seller just keep retrying codes that never went through. I eventually got one from someone else that worked but required phone activation (not unheard of for earlier ones), I think it was an OEM key that was resold.

In any case, there is some other kind of digital licensing system they're pushing now that doesn't actually use a key, probably to crack down on this kind of key reselling, not sure of the specifics of it, though.
 
Meteor_of_War said:
Well I might need to try for myself at some point soon for when my son builds a new PC. I think I last saw some ads for them on TechPowerUp. Hopefully I can still find them.
Click to expand...
I bought from a few places and few times, Office , Windows 10 (x4) and worked perfectly. 1/4 of the price.

I think MS wants more people to keep using Windows (hence the cheap keys). They make way more off Azure etc.
 
Commands are fine. It's activating the key against an enterprise KMS server. This is how larger organizations/companies handle Window activation. They have a bulk number of licenses and it activates against the company server. In this case the KMS server is "kms.digiboy.ir" which if you google it, is a very well known KMS server for grey market keys.
 
Trunks0 said:
Commands are fine. It's activating the key against an enterprise KMS server. This is how larger organizations/companies handle Window activation. They have a bulk number of licenses and it activates against the company server. In this case the KMS server is "kms.digiboy.ir" which if you google it, is a very well known KMS server for grey market keys.
Click to expand...
Yes until you find out that your personal information is being leaked regularly to a server without your knowledge and your accounts are wiped out and your wife is talking to an Indian guy giving access to bank accounts and then you end up being homeless and unhappy on the street and poop on the side walk while people go to work on their jump scooters. :bleh:
 
Thread moved to OS forum.

I know some people that activated ebay codes and it was literally just the code, no fancy commands required. This was early last year though.
 
as alreay said, it's simply an enterprise key, nothing to worry about. That being said, 15 bucks keys are fine, with win10 there is also neither a need to buy a key nor a need to activate it unlike with older OS versions. I always find it funny to see shops selling win 10 for around 100 bucks...
 
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