I bought a no-brand laptop a while back, it wasn't super expensive nor super cheap, but I wanted it for a particular purpose. Anyway, it being a no-brand laptop, I wasn't expecting very much of it. However, it did come with Windows 10 installed which I upgraded to Windows 11. I did not bother to check which version of Windows 10/11 was installed, since that wasn't super important to me.
Now I have to say to be fair, I never checked if it was an activated version of Windows. However, I believe it was activated at first because of the following reason: one of the things I did was to change the theme to a premium theme from the Microsoft store. This was, in fact, how I found the problem, because I put the laptop away for a while, and a few months later, while using the laptop, I decided to go with a different theme. When I tried changing the theme, Windows informed me that I couldn't do that because my Windows wasn't activated. I tried rebooting and running the troubleshooter, and sure enough, the license was missing. Windows informed me that this was a Windows Workstation license and would cost over $300 to buy, so I had no choice but to downgrade to a Windows Pro license at $200. So now $200 poorer, I am beginning to wonder, was I scammed? Is it possible to remotely deactivate a license from a laptop you sold to someone? Otherwise, the scam could have been that the license never was activated to begin with, but since I was able to set my theme when I got my PC (not to mention upgrade to Windows 11), this seems unlikely. Also, it seems very unusual to include a Windows for Workstation license to a laptop being sold to a consumer, so now I am feeling this whole thing is sketchy.
Now I have to say to be fair, I never checked if it was an activated version of Windows. However, I believe it was activated at first because of the following reason: one of the things I did was to change the theme to a premium theme from the Microsoft store. This was, in fact, how I found the problem, because I put the laptop away for a while, and a few months later, while using the laptop, I decided to go with a different theme. When I tried changing the theme, Windows informed me that I couldn't do that because my Windows wasn't activated. I tried rebooting and running the troubleshooter, and sure enough, the license was missing. Windows informed me that this was a Windows Workstation license and would cost over $300 to buy, so I had no choice but to downgrade to a Windows Pro license at $200. So now $200 poorer, I am beginning to wonder, was I scammed? Is it possible to remotely deactivate a license from a laptop you sold to someone? Otherwise, the scam could have been that the license never was activated to begin with, but since I was able to set my theme when I got my PC (not to mention upgrade to Windows 11), this seems unlikely. Also, it seems very unusual to include a Windows for Workstation license to a laptop being sold to a consumer, so now I am feeling this whole thing is sketchy.
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