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Windows 10 Professional for $40 PCWorld??

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tomos:
Another possibility:
Andre Da Costa

    MVP |
    Volunteer Moderator

They are likely selling MSDN licenses.

About MSDN or TechNet Product Keys They are genuine Microsoft product keys, they are actually retail licenses, but it is intended for a particular product channel either the Microsoft Software Developer Network (MSDN) or TechNet for IT Professionals who pay a subscription fee.

The main purpose is for evaluation purposes. The great thing about them, unlike trial Microsoft software, MSDN or TechNet keys don't expire. Because the agreement under which the subscription is provided is a single license, none of the software should be distributed outside of it. Even though its $50,000 worth of licenses, it is for one person only to use and no one else.

Unfortunately, regardless of the licensing terms, persons still abuse the program, either giveaway product keys or resell it on auction sites. Microsoft licenses it in good faith that customers won't do so, but I guess human nature wins out.In your case, what probably happened is, you bought an MSDN licensed key, which carries up to 10 activations unlike full packaged retail licenses which only carry 1 activation.

The person who sold it to you probably sold it to 10 other persons. Somewhere along the way, one of those persons might have installed it on a second system, activated it, because it went past 10 activation threshold, Microsoft detected it that it was being abused and blocked the key from further use.

Best,
Andre
Windows Insider MVP
MVP-Windows and Devices for IT
twitter/adacosta
groovypost.com
--- End quote ---
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-windows_store/legit-software/83268869-6180-4128-bf58-af4caaeb2f13

KynloStephen66515:
PCWorld are...huge so I see absolutely no reason why it wouldn't be legitimate, personally.

x16wda:
1 - PC World is huge, however it's likely they sell the ad space on their site to an ad network or broker, and and it is unlikely they they have a staff that checks out every ad that is shown on their site.
2 - Technet was discontinued in 2013. MSDN is still around. But selling MSDN licenses is still not legitimate.
3 - Keys from OEM machines are tied to those machines, so selling those is not legitimate either.
3 - Whatever happened to "if it's too good to be true then it probably isn't"?

KynloStephen66515:
1 - PC World is huge, however it's likely they sell the ad space on their site to an ad network or broker, and and it is unlikely they they have a staff that checks out every ad that is shown on their site.
2 - Technet was discontinued in 2013. MSDN is still around. But selling MSDN licenses is still not legitimate.
3 - Keys from OEM machines are tied to those machines, so selling those is not legitimate either.
3 - Whatever happened to "if it's too good to be true then it probably isn't"?

-x16wda (September 07, 2020, 03:05 PM)
--- End quote ---

1. What ads?
2. There is no indication they don't just buy in volume from microsoft and are able to offer them at heavily discounted prices (huge companies can and do; do this.)
3. There is no indication these are "recycled" keys
4 (3?). Huge companies can afford to sell stuff for cheap...it's not like it's some dodgy grey market site like G2A...

Going on the assumption that it's the same PC World as we have in the UK (I can't find anything to suggest it isn't...but also can't figure out if it actually is) - PC World are HUGE electronics stores based all around the UK, owned by a bigger tech corporation which obviously affords them the ability to purchase things for cheap in large volumes and sell for cheap when they want to.

(The reviews tomos posted are for PCWorld.co.uk, which is what I'm talking about and assuming is the same overall company as pcworld.com)

I mean, it's fair enough to say PCWorld is mostly super over priced stuff that you can get way cheaper from almost anywhere else...but to say they aren't legitimate would be wrong.

KynloStephen66515:
Additional:

Even if it's not linked to the EU/UK PCWorld (and associated brands) [which would be odd to have a company of the exact same name without it ever being questioned]...PCWorld Magazine (and the other IDG mags like Macworld, InfoWorld, JavaWorld, Computerworld, etc) is a HUGE publication (Which has promoted DC software several times, in fact) and I genuinely can't see a legitimate, HUGE publication/company standing to gain anything from selling anything less than legitimate. That and the fact that it includes official microsoft support just goes to solidify my thinking on this.

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