[SOLVED] Whats the cheapest way to get windows 10 OS?

[memydidydo]

My friend wants to start buying old PCs and selling them on.

He asked me what is the cheapest way to install windows on them and for how much?

All i know of personally is to get an OEM key for around £5. Is there a cheaper way to do this?

 

[COLGeek]

Those cheap "grey market" licenses are not without risk. Not something to pass along to customers, with the risk of the license de-activating.

If he is going into the PC business, only use reputable sources and pass the cost to the customer.

 

[USAFRet]

My friend wants to start buying old PCs and selling them on.

He asked me what is the cheapest way to install windows on them and for how much?

All i know of personally is to get an OEM key for around £5. Is there a cheaper way to do this?

No, and THAT "£5" is not valid either.
The cheapest and best way is to pass the cost of a valid license through to your eventual customer.

2 options:
1. Install Windows 10, leave it Unactivated. Notify the customer of this, and let them work out their own license.
or
2. Purchase a valid Windows 10 license, and add that to the cost of the system.


There is no shortcut for this.

 

[Zerk2012]

My friend wants to start buying old PCs and selling them on.

He asked me what is the cheapest way to install windows on them and for how much?

All i know of personally is to get an OEM key for around £5. Is there a cheaper way to do this?

The best way to get it is to buy a legit copy of it not from some hack site.

The cheapest way is to just install it and run it inactive till you can buy a legit copy.

 

[USAFRet]

Option 3:
Discover if that system ever had a valid Windows 7/8/8.1 license. That can often/usually be upgraded to Windows 10, for free.

 

[geofelt]

What kinds of pc's is friend buying?
What value is he adding to them?
How is he going to make a profit?
Options 1,2,3 above are all good.

The problem with the £5 option is that it will likely be infected with malware or other issues.

I would favor option #1 if option #3 does not pan out.

 

[hang-the-9]

MS has a refurb license, however the cost is likely to vary based on how many are purchased. I'm sure Dell will get a better price for 1,000 than a random person would buy 10 for.

This document is good at explaining what is what https://www.msregrefurb.com/RRPSite/Information/LicensingGuide/LicensingGuide_en.pdf

Selling computers with grey market licenses is a risk, what if there is an issue, they try to activate it again and then point the finger at your friend who used an illegal license to sell the system? Sorry MS I don't know how this illegal code got on my system, we bough it from Joe, here is his address and number.

Using the existing license code on the system is probably the easiest way, if it's a newer one it may activate Windows on it's own though the license stored on the motherboard for the system. I sell a handful of used laptops a year and just use the Win 7 OEM code, most of the time it works fine for Win 10 and have never heard from anyone about the license having an issue over time.

 

[MPF-Dean]

No, and THAT "£5" is not valid either.
The cheapest and best way is to pass the cost of a valid license through to your eventual customer.

2 options:
1. Install Windows 10, leave it Unactivated. Notify the customer of this, and let them work out their own license.
or
2. Purchase a valid Windows 10 license, and add that to the cost of the system.


There is no shortcut for this.

100%, option 2 is the most preferred way. So dangerous for your self as well, forget the lic de-activation, MS will send you a cease and desist and then take further legal action, i have see it at other companies.

 

[johnbl]

I would not recommend a business actually hand over a machine with windows installed without a valid key.
you would just be asking for problems. Rules and expectations for a business would be different than for a single user.

 

[USAFRet]

For your buddy to grow his business, he will rely on word of mouth. Good reputation. Customer satisfaction.

Many of you have heard my tale of woe from last year.
Bought a refurbished Asus Transformer T100T, from a reseller on Newegg. Nice little travel system, $200.
Advertised as having Windows 10 installed.
Got it, cranked it up.
Hmmm...Win 10 Pro. Thats odd, in a $200 laptop.
But, it seemed to be fully licensed/activated.
Laptop worked perfectly.

Exactly 6 months later (180 days), it Unactivated itself.
WTF?!?
Emails back and forth to the reseller..."You're past the 30 day refund or repair"
"I just want a valid OS!"
'crickets'

This turned into a 3 way between the reseller, Newegg, and Asus, with an irate customer, me, in the middle.
Asus finally fessed up the original license key it came with, for Win 10 Home.
All that reseller had to do was to install Win 10 Home and sell it. Would have worked perfectly.
But no...instead they install a Win 10 Pro from 'who knows where'.

Going back to my first sentence....how likely do you think I'll be to recommend that reseller to anyone I know?