Hi Looking to rebuild a windows 7 laptop and putting on win10. I see on ebay you can pick up a licence for under a £5, has anyone used ebay to get reliable keys? Or is it all some sort of scam?
Thanks
This is a legally difficult area. Technically, European law allows the resale of software so you can buy a key off of the internet, so long as the person selling it 100% relinquishes ownership of the software and never uses either that key or that copy of Windows again.
Microsoft itself does not put any realistic "technical restrictions" in place to stop you from doing it either. So, you could technically take a fresh computer and put a fresh copy of Windows 10 on it, and use that key and it would act exactly as if it were a store brought copy.
BUT, website that sell these keys could STILL be pulling a scam. The keys could be duplicate keys that get sold to many people or which are still being used by the company that originally purchased the OEM. In which case your key could be deactivated pretty much on a whim by Microsoft if it decided to do so. You'd have no recourse if the company was pulling a scam, as you'd have to get your money back from the website and ... they probably will tell you that you had a set period to complain and that because you waited too long you can go whistle.
If the keys were American, or the website is American, then you could also be covered by US law which says that reselling OEM keys is a violation of the original sale, in which case you're copy would be considered pirate.
Generally, any website that sells software for so much below market value is suspect. It's like a website selling last years best selling clothes for cost price. It might be a warehouse sale, but they might be counterfeit.
They could sell a legal copy for 10 times that price.