Microsoft could sign the end of the recess for the resale of Windows OEM license keys at knockdown prices. The implementation of a system for detecting the validity of the license during the installation of the system would be under study.
Getting Windows 11 for 15, 10 or even 5 euros is quite possible, without turning to obscure websites. Amazon, Rakuten, Cdiscount or YesLicense to name a few, regularly offer the latest version of Microsoft’s system (or earlier versions like Windows 10) at rock-bottom prices…. Starting with that of Microsoft itself, which markets Windows 11 at the official price of €159 for the Family version and €209 for the Pro version. The same goes for the Office suite which can sometimes be negotiated for less than one euro as we have already mentioned (see our article).
Alas, Microsoft could put an end, in part, to this global sale organized around the license keys (the famous serial number to enter to register your product with Microsoft) dedicated to its operating system. In one item entitled Instructions for Windows Autopilot devices published in Microsoft documentation online and reported on Twitter through Doc TB (alias Samuel Demeulemeester, founder and ex-chief detractor of Canard PC Hardware magazine), the firm gives “Guidelines for hardware and software best practices for Windows Autopilot”. The Autopilot, as Microsoft indicates in its documentation, “is a set of technologies used to configure and pre-configure new devices in such a way as to prepare them for productive use”. In short, a system makes it possible to check, among other things, that the machine on which you want to install Windows is indeed compatible. But the publisher wants to push the plug further.
Which Windows licenses are checked?
To install Windows on their computers, PC manufacturers use OEM licenses (for Original Equipment Manufacturer). Purchased in large volumes from Microsoft at preferential rates, they are not necessarily all used by the manufacturer. So much so that resellers buy them back at low prices to market them themselves. A practice tolerated until then and which Microsoft would like to put an end to by modifying the famous AutoPilot. This would make it possible to verify the concordance between the Windows OEM license and the hardware for which it was designed. Clearly, it would then be impossible to use, for example, a Windows OEM license established for an Acer PC in order to install Windows on an HP PC. It is also impossible to use this same OEM license on an Acer PC whose components are different from those indicated in the AutoPilot.
With each OEM key purchased from Microsoft, manufacturers would therefore be obliged to assign the digital fingerprint of the PC for which it is intended. Cannot use this license elsewhere. “We have been hearing about such a system for years”tells us David Abitbol, president of LicencesInfo, owner of the site YesLicense which sells Windows and Office license keys. “I don’t think there’s anything to worry about, since the majority of the keys found on the web are licenses from retail versions or from less clear sources. OEM licenses do not represent only about 3% of the available quantity. If Microsoft decides to cut these licenses, it will not have much impact”. It remains to be seen whether the purchased key is from an OEM, Retail or other license. Not easy.
When will the Windows OEM Key Control System be active?
We do not know the date of the application of this measure or even if it will be imposed on all PC manufacturers. Some also imagine the worst: Microsoft could also apply this control retroactively. Which would mean that millions of PCs running with an OEM Windows license acquired outside the official circuit and not originally designed for their computer, could well be disabled. The only solutions: turn to Microsoft to take advantage of an official license (the publisher may provide a special price by then) or return to a license site at knock-down prices to try your luck again.