Why Does Linus Pirate Windows??
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2019-05-06
·
1,827 words · ~9 min read
0:00
So a number of you left comments on our recent video
0:03
introducing AMD's Threadripper 2 2990WX CPU
0:07
about the overlay on the bottom right corner of my screen
0:11
prompting me to activate Windows.
0:16
Now, some of you were amused and some of you were upset,
0:19
but you all had one thing in common.
0:21
You couldn't imagine why an organization
0:24
like Linus Media Group,
0:26
one with sponsors like Cablemod,
0:29
whose configurator now includes
0:31
a customizable RGB backplate option
0:33
that can enhance the look of your GPUs and SSDs,
0:36
it's compatible with RSync, RGB Fusion,
0:38
Mystic Light Sync, and Cablemod's own RGB kits,
0:40
and you can find out at the link below,
0:43
why an organization like Linus Media Group
0:44
with sponsors like that
0:46
would need to save a hundred bucks here and there
0:49
on a legit copy of Windows.
0:52
Well, why don't we talk about that?
1:03
So let's begin by grabbing a Windows license
1:06
out of the pile,
1:07
preferably one that isn't in use by Dennis.
1:11
So, by the way, I got these at NCIX,
1:15
so I clearly didn't just run out and buy them
1:17
for the purpose of making this video.
1:19
So this would be the official procedure
1:23
for installing Windows on a PC.
1:24
In this case, it's my personal test bench,
1:27
the one that I usually have in my office here.
1:30
Now, I'm basically going to be burning this license
1:33
for the purpose of creating this video,
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which kind of sucks,
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because it's actually a Windows 10 Pro license,
1:40
but it's important for me to demonstrate my point here
1:43
to show you guys actually activating Windows
1:47
and how that might work on a test bench.
1:50
And hey, there we go.
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Activation Windows 10 Pro.
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Windows is activated with a digital license.
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Now, let's say that I was working on something
1:59
like a video card review.
2:01
So typically what we do in those cases
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is we get our pile of graphics cards ready here,
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and then after we've run our benchmarks on one card,
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we shut down the system and swap out to a new one.
2:12
There's only one small problem with that.
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Microsoft's activation servers create a unique identifier
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for your PC based on the hardware that's installed in it.
2:24
So you can see we actually survived
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one graphic card swap here,
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but if too many things change,
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let's say you keep swapping graphics cards,
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you wanted to see
2:35
how the system runs with half as much memory.
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You change out the CPU,
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or worst of all,
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you need to change out the motherboard,
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either to try a different platform
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or as a troubleshooting measure.
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What can happen is that identifier can change,
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and I don't fully understand exactly how it determines
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when it changes,
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but if it does, it can prompt Windows to deactivate.
3:03
So,
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we had checked this before we started,
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and it wasn't activated yet.
3:10
So that's pretty funny because on this one,
3:12
I had even gone as far as to swap out the boot drive
3:15
I was using,
3:15
but it still managed to grab something about the hardware ID
3:19
and managed to migrate the license.
3:21
But the point is that at some point,
3:26
you will get that prompt back.
3:28
Now, in the olden days,
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and I guess this was probably about seven, eight years ago,
3:32
the solution to getting an activation prompt,
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was to call up Microsoft's activation hotline,
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try the automated reactivation process,
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have that error out twice,
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so this was like a 10 minute project,
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then press a button to be put through to a representative,
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explain that you had changed out some of your hardware
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and you needed a reset on your license.
3:54
But this was time consuming,
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and it wasn't even a sure thing.
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I actually remember getting into a fairly heated argument
4:00
with a rep who was telling me that I had run
4:03
out of reactivations and for my use case,
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which is swapping hardware out all the time
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in order to test it,
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I had to just buy a new license every time I got prompted
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with that activate Windows watermark.
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And I mean, she said there was nothing she could do,
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and at some point I went,
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I called up Steve Ballmer himself.
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It was a pretty awkward conversation,
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but my point is, even if she was right,
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according to Microsoft's terms for the license,
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I'm also right too.
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I can't be expected to do that.
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I can't be expected to run out
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and buy a new license for Windows
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every time there's some new hardware launch
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and I've got to do something with my test bench.
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Fortunately, around that time,
4:43
I got a subscription to TechNet,
4:45
a software subscription service that allowed you
4:48
to use pretty much any Microsoft software
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in a non-commercial environment with unlimited activations.
4:57
Now that actually worked great for me,
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even though technically my use was commercial
5:02
since it was a form of software,
5:02
it was a for-profit endeavor that I was doing this testing.
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At least it was great until they shut down TechNet in 2013.
5:10
Now, the new legit way to transfer your license
5:15
is the activation troubleshooter.
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So you can see what I've done now
5:19
is I just linked my digital license to a Microsoft account.
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So I've never done this before,
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but theoretically what happens here
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is we should be able to even swap the drive
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and go into that settings menu,
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and migrate the license to another computer on our own,
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which is pretty cool and a lot better than the old system.
5:40
So let's give that a shot, shall we?
5:43
So we're not gonna get to show you guys exactly how it works
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because the Microsoft activation servers
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work in mysterious ways,
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but overall it sounds pretty painless.
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There's supposed to be a prompt transferring your license,
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blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, et cetera, something along.
6:01
Yep, they don't have any screenshots either.
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What are those?
6:07
Anyway, eventually,
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no matter how you're moving your license around,
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their terms do state that you will run out of activations
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at some point.
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But with that said, through this method,
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and then maybe some of those cheap $20 Windows keys
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that you can get from gray market sources online,
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there should be no justification then
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for having that activate Windows watermark, right?
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Like we should just,
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we should just bite the bullet
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and go through this process.
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Except for one problem.
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Those $20 keys that you buy online
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are not intended for the North American
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or the European market.
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And they are therefore not actually legit.
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So if having the watermark removed from your system
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is where you draw the line
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and that's what helps you sleep at night,
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then that's great.
6:59
But the thing about software
7:00
is that the license terms are defined by the EULA.
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The read this first stuff.
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Not by whether a key activates or doesn't activate
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with Microsoft's servers.
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For example, the Windows 10 VM that I have set up
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for remote access for one of our offsite workers
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is technically against Microsoft's license terms.
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Yeah, I actually found that out just yesterday
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while I was prepping this video.
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Regular Windows 10 is technically not allowed to be used,
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exclusively for remote access.
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The more you know, right?
7:37
In much the same way,
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if you've got a buddy who's got a volume license agreement
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or a site key,
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that's not legit either.
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It'll activate for you
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and it'll get rid of the watermark,
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but that is still software piracy.
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So at the end of the day,
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there are inexpensive and even free ways
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for us to make sure that that watermark
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never shows up in one of our videos again.
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But they involve either gray market software
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or violation of the license terms anyway.
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So for a use case that's unsupported anyhow,
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our whole thing where we're using test benches
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to validate hardware,
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the best solution that we've actually found
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is just to leave the software unactivated forever.
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So here's the regular installer.
8:28
And you might not have ever noticed this before,
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but Microsoft actually has a built-in way
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to run Windows for testing purposes.
8:34
So here's the regular installer. And you might not have ever noticed this before, but Microsoft actually has a built-in way to run Windows for testing purposes.
8:34
So here's the regular installer. And you might not have ever noticed this before, but Microsoft actually has a built-in way to run Windows for testing purposes.
8:36
So check out this button here.
8:37
Depending on the version of Windows,
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the amount of time that you're allowed differs.
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But if all we do is click skip,
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instead of entering a product key,
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the Windows installation will proceed
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exactly the way that it normally would.
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We still get Windows updates.
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Performance of our hardware isn't impacted whatsoever.
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We don't have to waste time tooling around
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with any activation nonsense.
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And for my part,
9:02
honestly, I sleep just fine at night.
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Knowing that my pile of Windows keys downstairs
9:07
more than covers the test benches that we have deployed.
9:12
So if you ever see our activation watermark
9:16
in one of our videos again,
9:17
you will understand why.
9:19
I'm just avoiding some paperwork.
9:21
It has nothing to do with saving a buck on Windows 10.
9:26
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So thanks for watching, guys.
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If you disliked this video,
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you can hit that button.
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But if you liked it,
10:16
hit like, get subscribed,
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or maybe consider checking out
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