Why are you pirating windows AND paying?

Linus Tech tips is where I saw the ad, I didnt say pirate, i clearly said buy.

You keep bringing up Linus.

With ad networks you cannot use the nature of the site to judge the respectability of the ad. Essentially individual sites rent a chunk of space out to the networks that auction that space to the highest bidder in real time. Even respected sites have from time to time even been used as vectors to infect visitors computers with malware. The only reason Linus Tech Tips isn't serving ads for the virtues of combining zoophilia and narcotics is there isn't much money in it.

The fact that you paid to pirate windows doesn't make your purchase any more legitimate because you paid someone who themselves never paid for it.There simply isn't a credible means for someone to have obtained the rights to sell such thousands of times over AND be able to sell it for a few bucks.

It's like when you see a crackhead selling valuables worth thousands of dollars for 50 bucks. The logical conclusion is that he broke into someone's house and stole it. Enjoy your Rolex for $50 but it's either fake or stolen.

You don't need to buy Pro as you can simply run it unactivated for years. I've done that without incident.

This is true, but in my experience you won't receive updates (and can't force them) on an unactivated version on Win10

Wow, I had to check that it's already been "years" since Windows 10 was first released --- a little over 4, to be precise. No one I know actually likes it, the closest has been "tolerate". MS has done a great job of dragging its users through the mud and beating them into submission.

I love it, tried to go back to 7 and couldn't, it just feels so awkward and unrefined now.

Windows 7 is unrefined? I have the opposite experience. Windows 7 feels like a finished product, that in addition is designed to help me work. Windows 8+ feels more like a Linux distribution in comparison, with inconsistent features & UIs everywhere, as if they were just a mash-up of random packages made by random open-source developers with no leader nor common goal. Actually the only thing that can be compared to a goal is that all the features are in some way or another designed to get in my way, waste my time, compromise my privacy, and just in general prevent me from doing actual work.

Yeah, but only for the hardware you have - the upgrade path seems to force you to a 10 OEM license, I went 7 pro (non-oem) to 10 pro, then changed motherboard, so had to buy a new copy of 10 pro oem, then that CPU stopped working and had to buy a new CPU & motherboard, and so finally I'm on running my own KMS server - fuck paying for windows a 3rd time.

I've had a pretty good run of calling the MS support line and getting them to reactivate if Win10 deactivates due to a hardware change. Takes 5 minutes, maybe. Occasionally if you're on an upgraded-from-win7 or 8.1 OEM license the service agent will tell you that it can't be done for OEMs but hanging up, calling back and getting a less fastidious agent on the line is easily done. Agreed, though - paying 3 times for the same software would be insane, especially at MS prices