this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2025
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[–] artyom@piefed.social -5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Don't you need a Windows account to buy a key?

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Back in the days of Dinosaurs and AOL CDs, you could just go to Best Buy and buy a CD with the Windows software and a key was printed on a scratch-off panel.

You could even just buy a key electronically from some grey market websites.

[–] swelter_spark@reddthat.com 4 points 3 days ago

It was still like that up until Windows 8, at least.

[–] artyom@piefed.social -5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Right, well, its not 2003 anymore

[–] isVeryLoud@lemmy.ca 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

What's your point? Is it now somehow no longer physically possible to sell product keys in store due to some higher decree?

[–] JeremyHuntQW12@lemmy.world 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Because it doesn't prevent piracy. Are you dense ?

[–] isVeryLoud@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Why yes, our bodies, and our brains, are designed to be as dense as possible to be more efficient! This is why our brains' gray matter has a lot of crevices so it can fold onto itself.

You can prevent piracy using a stronger keygen algorithm and online activation.

Valve sells product keys all the time, you don't hear about them having a keygen problem. People just bypass the authentication altogether and simply torrent the software, which is something people still do with Windows 11.