This section seems a bit more general purpose, so posting this here.
So, I just found out about the microsoft software swap subreddit, and it seems interesting, potentially fishy, mainly due to how they locked it down, though I suppose blocking out potential scam artists is good.
Going through the comments there are a decent amount of 1 year+ people who left comments, but quite a lot that have only been around a few months, or less too.
It seems like a nice chance to be able to get a real windows server license instead of using an activator to be able to experiment with a server OS, but it seems that yes, these keys work for an install, but you might not know how long they would work. I can't afford several hundred dollars for a license like you usually see on ebay, and yes an activator does work, but having a legit copy would be even better.
I figure maybe it's people that work in the tech area, and grab keys off of decommissioned machines.
Several sellers seem to not use paypal too, maybe as some sort of insurance in case they do plan on ripping people off, though at least one does (and in searching for this very subject he seems to be recommended).
I just want to hear from some people that have had longer term experience, and see if they had any issues come up.
It would seem like maybe it would be good to call microsoft and get them to verify the key after getting it, that way if there is an issue I could get a paypal refund, but I don't even know if microsoft has a number for that. (the only thing I can think of is over the phone activation and going through a support person)
So, I just found out about the microsoft software swap subreddit, and it seems interesting, potentially fishy, mainly due to how they locked it down, though I suppose blocking out potential scam artists is good.
Going through the comments there are a decent amount of 1 year+ people who left comments, but quite a lot that have only been around a few months, or less too.
It seems like a nice chance to be able to get a real windows server license instead of using an activator to be able to experiment with a server OS, but it seems that yes, these keys work for an install, but you might not know how long they would work. I can't afford several hundred dollars for a license like you usually see on ebay, and yes an activator does work, but having a legit copy would be even better.
I figure maybe it's people that work in the tech area, and grab keys off of decommissioned machines.
Several sellers seem to not use paypal too, maybe as some sort of insurance in case they do plan on ripping people off, though at least one does (and in searching for this very subject he seems to be recommended).
I just want to hear from some people that have had longer term experience, and see if they had any issues come up.
It would seem like maybe it would be good to call microsoft and get them to verify the key after getting it, that way if there is an issue I could get a paypal refund, but I don't even know if microsoft has a number for that. (the only thing I can think of is over the phone activation and going through a support person)
/www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-server-2012
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