<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>kotaKat</author><text>There are what Microsoft calls &amp;quot;generic volume license keys&amp;quot; or GVLKs which are used to target a specific edition to install from Windows media that holds multiple edition images (eg, Home, Pro, etc). GVLKs only install but don&amp;#x27;t activate Windows -- they tell Windows to begin the Key Management Services client activation procedure and look for a corporate KMS server on your network to activate against.&lt;p&gt;Most of the time if a home user is reinstalling Windows the setup is picking up on the license &amp;#x27;embedded&amp;#x27; on the device in the BIOS&amp;#x2F;EFI so you don&amp;#x27;t ever get the key prompt. If you&amp;#x27;re using multi-edition and volume license ISOs you&amp;#x27;re often asked for the key to select edition.&lt;p&gt;They&amp;#x27;re also not a secret by any stretch of the means -- &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;learn.microsoft.com&amp;#x2F;en-us&amp;#x2F;previous-versions&amp;#x2F;windows&amp;#x2F;it-pro&amp;#x2F;windows-server-2012-r2-and-2012&amp;#x2F;jj612867(v=ws.11)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;learn.microsoft.com&amp;#x2F;en-us&amp;#x2F;previous-versions&amp;#x2F;windows&amp;#x2F;...&lt;/a&gt;</text><parent_chain><item><author>NoZebra120vClip</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not sure I understand the point of these keys. &amp;quot;These make it possible to install the operating system or upgrade to the operating system in question, but they are not the same as activation keys. You can use the OS, but it will run in an unactivated mode with limited features.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Last time I checked, I was able to download a bootable ISO of Windows 10, I boot from that disc&amp;#x2F;USB, and I install the OS. I didn&amp;#x27;t need no key for that. Are they saying that some sort of key is required just for an install to go forward now? Separately from the activation process? Is the generic key supposed to cost money or something? It doesn&amp;#x27;t represent an OS license though, just license to install? This is all new news to me.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>ChatGPT, Google Bard Generates Generic Windows 11, Windows 10 Pro Keys</title><url>https://www.tomshardware.com/news/chatgpt-generates-windows-11-pro-keys</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>ocdtrekkie</author><text>So most computers sold with Windows have their actual key embedded in the BIOS on the motherboard. Others, which were upgraded to Windows 10, send Microsoft&amp;#x27;s servers their hardware ID, and are activated based on a digital license stored server side.&lt;p&gt;So the generic keys will allow the installer to proceed, but won&amp;#x27;t actually provide a Windows license... but most computers already have that anyways and will activate themselves when they go online using one of the above ways.</text><parent_chain><item><author>NoZebra120vClip</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not sure I understand the point of these keys. &amp;quot;These make it possible to install the operating system or upgrade to the operating system in question, but they are not the same as activation keys. You can use the OS, but it will run in an unactivated mode with limited features.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Last time I checked, I was able to download a bootable ISO of Windows 10, I boot from that disc&amp;#x2F;USB, and I install the OS. I didn&amp;#x27;t need no key for that. Are they saying that some sort of key is required just for an install to go forward now? Separately from the activation process? Is the generic key supposed to cost money or something? It doesn&amp;#x27;t represent an OS license though, just license to install? This is all new news to me.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>ChatGPT, Google Bard Generates Generic Windows 11, Windows 10 Pro Keys</title><url>https://www.tomshardware.com/news/chatgpt-generates-windows-11-pro-keys</url></story>