I am getting a pos terminal from alibaba. The OS is windows 7 free version.
The seller said that the free version works the same as licensed one. Hence he assure me that i do not have to buy the licensed OS.
Is it true?
Depends what they define as free version?
- They could have reused a broke/old computer’s ginuine windows 7 key which is okay.
- They could have pirated windows, which is technically not legal and sometimes detected by microsoft causing an annoying message saying “This is not a valid copy”
- They could just install windows 7 and not put in a key causing windows to keep asking you for a key.
There is no such thing as a free version for windows 7 as far as I know!
Free version of Windows 7 does not exist. I would be very concerned and not buy from that vendor.
Unless it’s just a translation issue for included.
Either way you would want to confirm before committing.
I have purchased POS terminals in the past from various sellers on Alibaba, they usually have a non-genuine Windows 7 installed - it may be a cloned copy from another system or may be cracked. The moment you try to use Windows Update, you get warnings about it being not genuine. It is very common in China unfortunately.
Like others have said, there is no free version of Windows 7.
Thats what i suspected as well when the sellers told me there is a free version.
https://www.reddit.com/r/microsoftsoftwareswap/
have you guys bought Windows copy from here before?
Is it legit and safe?
I would not recommend purchasing Windows through any unofficial channels. It is very likely against the license terms to sell the license and it means you end up paying for an unlicensed copy.
You are at your own risk, someone could sell you a fake product license and you have no way of knowing and nothing you can do about it afterwards.
I’ve bought 5 Windows keys from here over the course of 3 years (back when they were just /r/softwareswap). Only one of them became disabled (I think after 1.5 years since activation).
That’s bad. I would never risk my money like that honestly.
Back then, the keys were only $5, since there was competition from many other users. Now, the moderators restrict the number of concurrent sellers, which drove the prices up a bit.