What's the best way to get Windows for selling refurbished / rebuilt / custom built PC's to people?

What's the best way to get Windows for selling refurbished / rebuilt / custom built PC's to people?

Is my only option to pay $100 for a license?

And no, Linux is not an option. People don't want to buy Linux PC's.

pirated windows and pray they don't realize or sue you

install linux

Make your own Linux distro that looks and functions similarly enough to Windows that they can't tell the difference.

Not an option.

I do IT for my company, it's just a small company with 7 employees and about 15 computers. I was looking and saw that you can get volume licensing. If I got our business as a qualified volume license buyer, does Microsoft care if you purchase a bunch of licenses, above what the organization would use? Is it something that they'd start looking into if you say you have 15 computers, and end up buying 100 licenses?

I'm fairly certain that if you actually qualify, they won't care as long as you're buying.

Cheapest barely legal way is to transplant OEM stickers from dead same brand machines, more expensive is to trawl ebay for "unused" OEM stickers, still more expensive are "unused" OEM license packs. Any of those will give you plausible deniability.

buy cheap $2 key from ebay
add $2 to the final pc's price
??????
profit

GNU
It's better than Windows

That's great if you only want to sell a few PC's, but if you're selling a bunch you don't want a ton of people getting pissed all the time, giving away address, etc, because after a few months their license was revoked.

install a pirated version, make sure to state clearly that "an OS has been pre-installed to demonstrate full functionality and compatibility: obtaining a license is the buyer's responsibility"

If a buyer wishes to have a fully legal, licensed copy of a particular OS on their system, they can obtain it themselves, or pay you the required fee to obtain and install a legal license. Also, for refurbished items, there should already be an affixed license on the system. Install whatever that license is good for; if a customer wants a different version, see all the above.

With a little creative web searching, you can buy OEM license keys (ebay, for example) for $3 or $5.

This doesn't happen unless you live in a cucked country that doesn't respect consumer rights

gnu/linux

So most western countries.

I've been installing unregistered windows 10 for now on PC's that I couldn't re-use the oem for whatever reason. I simply explain that they can use it like that and live with a watermark, or buy a code. I find it really reduces the potential buyers though.

Throwing a ~$150 (CAD) license on a $200-$300 computer isn't really viable.

>People don't want to buy linux PCs
Tons of people buy linux PCs from google. Put chrome OS on them

install pirated windows 7
upgrade to windows 10 from within windows 7
free and legit windows 10 activation from microsoft itself, tied to the motherboard
???????
profit

You can install windows 10 for free straight from microsoft

That's actually a really good idea, and I hadn't thought about it. I'm going to give that a try I think for some of my lower end stuff.

This is what I have been doing, and you can use it indefinitely with a watermark.

Still, most people want an activated windows.

Just die

What would be the legality of having the auto activator already on the computer, and explaining to somebody that if they wanted to activate it, they'd have the means to do it, and it would be their own responsibility.

Is being in possession of the activator, or distributing it against the law? Or would the actual activation be the illegal bit?

just an fyi u can get win 10 free and activate it with the old oem coa sticker for win7 it lets you use it as an upgrade and activates.

I'll have to try, didn't think that worked anymore.

it works forever, albeit the tool called mediacreator tool or whatever is annoying to find from Microsoft site.

Already have it on a thumb drive, so shouldn't be a problem.

google "media creation tool" and browse the first 20-30 links for various interesting web pages that cover different aspects of this method. After the first few pages, you will have enough knowledge and keywords to google further resources, You'll be at Above Expert Professional level with one evening's worth of study. At the very least, you'll be able to bullshit your way around any unhappy customers in the event of any "accidents," and you will be able to fix any "accidents" as a customer service in the rare event of any such.

Any computers that you are refurbishing that have already had Win10 installed (legitimately) will take a reinstall and automatically activate. Those motherboards are already permanently registered. Make sure to explain to your customers that computers upgraded from Home editions will be Home, and professional upgrades to Professional. If someone then insists on a Professional edition with a refurbished system that was upgraded from Home, it is legitimately their responsibility to purchase whatever license they want that doesn't come with a refurbished system. People who don't understand that reality are already just wasting your time and you are better off sending them away to be someone else's problem.