 So a number of you left comments on our recent video introducing AMD's Threadripper 2 299WX CPU about the overlay on the bottom right corner of my screen prompting me to Activate Windows Now some of you were amused and some of you were upset, but you all had one thing in common You couldn't imagine why an organization like Linus Media Group One with sponsors like CableMod, whose configurator now includes a customizable RGB backplate option that can enhance the look of your GPUs and SSDs It's compatible with R-Sync, RGB Fusion, Mystic Light Sync, and CableMod's own RGB kits and you can find out at the link below Why an organization like Linus Media Group with sponsors like that would need to save a hundred bucks here and there on a legit copy of Windows Well, why don't we talk about that? Intro So let's begin by grabbing a Windows license out of the pile Preferably one that isn't in use by Dennis So by the way, I got these at NCIX So I clearly didn't just run out and buy them for the purpose of making this video So this would be the official procedure for installing Windows on a PC In this case, it's my personal test bench, the one that I usually have in my office here Now I'm basically going to be burning this license for the purpose of creating this video which kind of sucks because it's actually a Windows 10 Pro license But it's important for me to demonstrate my point here to show you guys actually activating Windows and how that might work on a test bench And hey, there we go Activation Windows 10 Pro Windows is activated with a digital license Now let's say that I was working on something like a video card review So typically what we do in those cases is we get our pile of graphics cards ready here Then after we've run our benchmarks on one card, we shut down the system and swap out to a new one There's only one small problem with that Microsoft's activation servers create a unique identifier for your PC based on the hardware that's installed in it So you can see we actually survived one graphics card swap here But if too many things change, let's say you keep swapping graphics cards You wanted to see how the system runs with half as much memory You change out the CPU or Worst of all, you need to change out the motherboard either to try a different platform or as a troubleshooting measure What can happen is that identifier can change and I don't fully understand exactly how it determines when it changes But if it does, it can prompt Windows to deactivate So we had checked this before we started and it wasn't activated yet So that's pretty funny because on this one I had even gone as far as to swap out the boot drive I was using But it still managed to grab something about the hardware ID and managed to migrate the license But the point is that at some point you will get that prompt back Now, in the olden days, and I guess this was probably about seven, eight years ago The solution to getting an activation prompt was to call up Microsoft's activation hotline Try the automated reactivation process Have that error out twice, so this is like a 10-minute project Then press a button to be put through to a representative Explain that you had changed out some of your hardware and you needed a reset on your license But this was time-consuming and it wasn't even a sure thing I actually remember getting into a fairly heated argument with a rep who was telling me that I had run out of reactivations And for my use case, which is swapping hardware out all the time in order to test it I had to just buy a new license every time I got prompted with that activate windows watermark And I mean, she said there was nothing she could do and at some point I went I called up Steve Bollmer himself It was a pretty awkward conversation, but my point is even if she was right According to Microsoft's terms for the license, I'm also right too I can't be expected to run out and buy a new license for windows every time There's some new hardware launch and I've got to do something with my test bench Fortunately around that time I got a subscription to tech net a software subscription service that allowed you to use pretty much any Microsoft software in a non-commercial environment with unlimited activations now that actually worked great for me even though Technically my use was commercial since it was a for-profit endeavor that I was doing this testing At least it was great until they shut down tech net in 2013 now the new legit way to transfer your license Is the activation troubleshooter? So you can see what I've done now is I just linked my digital license to a Microsoft account So I've never done this before But theoretically what happens here is we should be able to even swap the drive and go into that settings menu and Migrate the license to another computer on our own, which is pretty cool and a lot better than the old system So let's give that a shot shall we so we're not going to get to show you guys Exactly how it works because the Microsoft activation servers work in mysterious ways, but overall it sounds Pretty painless. There's supposed to be a prompt Transferring your license blah blah blah blah blah blah, etc. Something along. Yep. They don't have any screenshots either What are those? Anyway eventually no matter how you're moving your license around their terms do state that you will run out of activations at some point, but What that said through this method and then you know maybe some of those cheap? $20 Windows keys that you can get from gray market sources online There should be no justification then for having that activate Windows watermark, right? Like we should just we should just bite the bullet and go through this process Except for one problem those $20 keys that you buy online are not Intended for the North American or the European market and they are therefore not actually legit So if having the watermark removed from your system is Where you draw the line, and that's what helps you sleep at night then that's great But the thing about software is that the license terms are defined by the EULA That the read this first stuff Not by whether a key activates or doesn't activate with Microsoft's servers for example the Windows 10 VM that I have set up for remote access for one of our off-site workers is technically Against Microsoft's license terms. Yeah, I actually found that out just yesterday while I was prepping this video Regular Windows 10 is technically not allowed to be used Exclusively for remote access the more you know right in much the same way if you've got a buddy Who's got a volume license agreement or a a site key? That's not legit either It'll activate for you, and it'll get rid of the watermark, but that is still software piracy So at the end of the day there are inexpensive and even free ways For us to make sure that that watermark never shows up in one of our videos again But they involve either gray market software or violation of the license terms anyway So for a use case that's unsupported anyhow our whole thing where we're using test benches to validate hardware The best solution that we've actually found is just to leave the software unactivated Forever, so here's the regular installer and you might not have ever noticed this before but Microsoft actually has a bug But Microsoft actually has a built-in way to run Windows for testing purposes So check out this button here Depending on the version of Windows the amount of time that you're allowed differs But if all we do is click skip instead of entering a product key the Windows installation will proceed Exactly the way that it normally would we still get Windows updates Performance of our hardware isn't impacted whatsoever We don't have to waste time tooling around with any activation nonsense and for my part Honestly, I sleep just fine at night knowing that my pile of Windows keys downstairs More than covers the test benches that we have deployed so if you ever see our Activation watermark in one of our videos again. You will understand why I'm just avoiding some paperwork It has nothing to do with saving a buck on Windows 10 Speaking of saving a buck Anchors upcoming Soundcore Flare Plus is not going to help you save a buck because you might want to buy it It's a wireless speaker that allows you to amplify the atmosphere with their 360 degree sound So there should be no concerns about positioning You've got the ability to pair two of these speakers for stereo sound and their beat-driven light show will sync up to your music It's got IPX7 protection that keeps it pool party approved And it can effortlessly withstand spills rain and even complete submersion in water The large capacity battery will keep your music playing for up to 20 hours And it can even help charge your device at the same time So check out the link below to learn more about this speaker and get a chance to win one So thanks for watching guys if you disliked this video you can hit that button But if you liked it hit like get subscribed or maybe consider checking out where to buy the stuff we featured at the link in the video description Sure, go buy Windows 10 While you're down there you can check out our merch store which has cool shirts like this one and our community forum You should definitely join that