Windows 10 Pro OEM and Office 2016 Lifetime Keys at Up To 92% Off

[Blaylock]

OEM license must stay with the original equipment. Volume licenses typically can be used however the company wants to, as long as they don't exceed the number allowed and the licenses stay "in house".

If this is true, and I don't doubt your knowledge, then these are in fact OEM licenses and not volume licenses. These can only be installed on one system and swapping motherboards will make the key invalid. What are the chances they are buying OEM licenses in bulk, not the "volume licenses" you are referring to?

 

[Alaric]

^This. My phone conversations involved being told that I indeed had an OEM product key-that I should not have unless I was an OEM, not an end consumer. Think of it as a wholesale part intended for a manufacturer's production line. Cheap, but no warranty or factory support at all. My first OEM OS that I installed came from Tiger Direct and had the physical media, too. The practice is much more widely spread and accepted than just through a few "fly by night" outfits. You can buy OEM operating systems from newegg, Tiger Direct, mWave, etc..

 

[knoober]

^This. My phone conversations involved being told that I indeed had an OEM product key-that I should not have unless I was an OEM, not an end consumer. Think of it as a wholesale part intended for a manufacturer's production line. Cheap, but no warranty or factory support at all. My first OEM OS that I installed came from Tiger Direct and had the physical media, too. The practice is much more widely spread and accepted than just through a few "fly by night" outfits. You can buy OEM operating systems from newegg, Tiger Direct, mWave, etc..

This post kind of settles it for me then. LTT had a vid a while back that explained what these keys are. They are basically region locked keys meant to be sold in other markets. Not as bad as volume licensed but still described as 'gray market' in the vid. I will leave the fine points of the discussion to the wiser minds

I may have the wrong video as I didn't take the time to re-watch, but I'm pretty sure this is the right one.

 

[Bill_Bright]

But I'm not sure it is the case that you cannot sue an international entity.

Sure, you can sue just about anyone anywhere - but at what cost? And don't forget, any time Microsoft goes after another entity, the MS bashers go after MS for acting like "Big Brother". So then there is a bunch of bad press. It is just easier, cheaper in the long run, and less "noisy" for MS to keep quiet.

If this is true, and I don't doubt your knowledge, then these are in fact OEM licenses and not volume licenses. These can only be installed on one system and swapping motherboards will make the key invalid. What are the chances they are buying OEM licenses in bulk, not the "volume licenses" you are referring to?

Huh? Of course you can buy OEM "volume" licenses "in bulk". Companies do it all the time. Dell, HP and Acer do it by the millions every year! Smaller custom builders do it all the time too with a small a 10-pack volume licenses.

Back when I had a real job, we built 300 PCs to be used in general aviation flight planning weather terminals. These were (really cool! ) kiosks in smaller airports where pilots could access National Weather Service (NWS) data and file their flight plans with the FAA too right from our terminals. They were based on modified (by us) Windows PCs we assembled then installed OEM Windows on from our 500 pack volume license. We had to judiciously keep track of the COAs and keys to ensure none were used twice as they were OEM licenses.

I think all you need to do is look at Walmart - arguably the most cutthroat and aggressive retailer in the world. If those licenses were legitimate at those [too good to be true] amazingly cheap prices, why is Walmart selling W10 OEM for $99.99?

 

[Alaric]

My example was just my experience. I replaced a CPU, which required a mobo, which required DDR3, and so on. My W7 wouldn't activate so I called MS. That's when I found out about the "key" with 'OEM' in it wasn't the actual product key and I wasn't supposed to have installed it, etc.. The lady was very nice, and actually activated the install on a rig that only shared a HDD and case with its original activation build. She was very gracious and understanding, but she did tell me OEM copies were not intended for retail sale. Tiger Direct selling it as part of a bare bones kit borderline skirted the "builder" clause of the EULA. So, it is indeed a "gray" market deal. That was when I found out Microsoft doesn't sell operating systems. They lease them for a one time payment. They still own every copy of Windows they ever made.

 

[EarthDog]

why is Walmart selling W10 OEM for $99.99?

Because they can and is what most of those in the world 'know' the price is.

I am also a bit confused because a volume license can be used on any number of different PC configurations while an OEM is tied to one and one machine. For example, is it still an OEM license, which as was explained is good for ONE PC and not transferable, when the key can be used on several different configurations and PCs? It seems like there is a bit more grey area to this.........or I am simply not understanding how it works.

 

[Blaylock]

Sorry for the confusion Bill, this thread has bounced around a little.

You claimed that the selling of these licenses to be illegal as they are only a portion of the volume that they bought. But what I'm suggesting is that these are not volume licenses but in fact OEM licenses that are bought in bulk. Is it illegal to buy OEM licenses in bulk and sell them individually? Of course the answer is no. Walmart, newegg, Amazon, hell everyone is doing it. URCDKEYS is just giving us a deep discount where as the others are keeping the profit.

 

[Alaric]

Is it illegal to buy OEM licenses in bulk and sell them individually? Of course the answer is no.

Exactly. While the sellers may be on the margins with it, the EULA states the rules and it is the end user's responsibility to read the EULA and adhere to it.

 

[chop_wood]

Sorry for the confusion Bill, this thread has bounced around a little.

You claimed that the selling of these licenses to be illegal as they are only a portion of the volume that they bought. But what I'm suggesting is that these are not volume licenses but in fact OEM licenses that are bought in bulk. Is it illegal to buy OEM licenses in bulk and sell them individually? Of course the answer is no. Walmart, newegg, Amazon, hell everyone is doing it. URCDKEYS is just giving us a deep discount where as the others are keeping the profit.

Back when XP was the thing, I asked a lot of questions when I did purchasing for a fairly large PC retail store. Our margins on oem microsoft windows and office COA's were like most parts (cpu's , mobos, gfx cards) easily under %20 markup. I really dont think walmart , amazon, newegg is making $80 selling it for $99. I think we made like $10/per after buying 1k copies of xp home..

 

[trents]

I can easily imagine that Microsoft has different OEM pricing schemes for different classes of customers. Don't you think huge volume customers like Dell and HP get a huge volume discount for OEM windows? And how many OEM copies of Windows does Walmart purchase and sell vs. HP and Dell? I mean really, what percentage of end user computer owners will buy and install/upgrade their own OS such that Walmart is doing a big business in selling Windows? Not that many I think. I would think that this OEM thing operates just like health insurance in that the big volume customers (healhtcare provider systems) give huge discounts on medical procedures to their insured patients because they have volume deals with the insurers. Have you ever looked at hospital charges before insurance discounts are factored in? Those without insurance get charged the full amount while those with insurance pay a small fraction of the actual charges. So with Windows, the consumer pays the full charge when they buy it at Staples or Walmart.

 

[Bustos]

I am little confused on the insurance analogy where the customer is concerned between Dell and Walmart. If they both charge $100 for the OS, the customer is paying the same price. It’s how much profit per key that Dell and Walmart makes that would be different. Yes?

 

[trents]

No. It's what Microsoft charges Dell vs. what Microsoft charges Walmart for the OEM OS that I'm referring to. Since Dell purchases OEM Windows in such huge volumes as opposed to what Walmart purchases, Microsoft gives Dell a steep discount. That's what I'm suggesting. Since Walmart pays considerably more for it, they charge the customer more.

The other part to this is that most people don't know they can get OEM copies of Windows online for much less than Walmart charges so Walmart gets away with charging more. Consumer ignorance. Don't forget, most computer users out there are not like you and I. They aren't immersed in the tech world day in and day out and are very unaware of how it all operates.

 

[Alaric]

Consumer ignorance. Don't forget, most computer users out there are not like you and I. They aren't immersed in the tech world day in and day out and are very unaware of how it all operates.

"Push button. Make innernet". *sips coffee while flames shoot out of the PSU* "Innernet broken".

 

[trents]

"Push button. Make innernet". *sips coffee while flames shoot out of the PSU* "Innernet broken".

Or (And I get this all the time from my customer base):

Customer: "My computer is broken. It won't come on."

So I make trip to customer's house. I expect to find a fried PSU. However, I actually find the computer is doing just fine but there is no internet connection so the customer wasn't able to send or receive email. The router just needed a power cycle to be done and the Internet was back on. "My computer is broken. It won't come on" is the customer's way of saying I can't do email. It was the email that wouldn't come on.

 

[tRidiot]

The key I purchased last month failed today. First time use, fresh install. At least I only lost like $12, and I used PayPal.

 

[trents]

This post kind of settles it for me then. LTT had a vid a while back that explained what these keys are. They are basically region locked keys meant to be sold in other markets. Not as bad as volume licensed but still described as 'gray market' in the vid. I will leave the fine points of the discussion to the wiser minds

I may have the wrong video as I didn't take the time to re-watch, but I'm pretty sure this is the right one.

Some of them are, yes. I've had the experience of installing one of those on a customer's computer and realizing that the default language and keyboard nationality were wrong. Had to go back and change things in settings. But I don't think this explains the totality of the products found on the discounted software market.

 

[trents]

The key I purchased last month failed today. First time use, fresh install. At least I only lost like $12, and I used PayPal.

I've had that experience too so I make sure I install the software right away. Those situations are probably due to multiple copies being made of the same key. It takes Micorosoft or Adobe or whoever a bit of time to catch up to it but when they do they invalidate that key in their data base such that it cannot be used thereafter to activate the product. That one is a pirating operation for sure.

 

[Alaric]

I've seen reports of that occurring sometimes, usually followed up with the seller providing a valid key immediately. I wonder if MS just sends the sellers a key generator and there is the occasional duplicate produced, and easily solved.

 

[trents]

I've seen reports of that occurring sometimes, usually followed up with the seller providing a valid key immediately. I wonder if MS just sends the sellers a key generator and there is the occasional duplicate produced, and easily solved.

Yea, the bottom line is that there is a lot we don't know. Some discount software vending IMO is legit and some isn't. It's a bit of a crap shoot. That's why I prefer to purchase through established discount vendors like kinguin.net who have an abiding internet presence as opposed to fly by night vendors like you typically see on ebay. You pay somewhat more with kinguin but they back up their product sales and offer support.

 

[EarthDog]

so I make sure I install the software right away.

In cases like this I would use it IMMEDIATELY so that does not happen. Sitting on keys like this is a bad idea.