Many of you may have seen web ads or entire websites purporting to sell you a Microsoft license for $29 – these are usually the work of pirates or counterfeiters.Ĭonsider this favorite example – You find websites selling keys to houses and buy a key for $29. Retail channels tend to be the most expensive and OEM channels the most cost-effective. The price of the license varies significantly across channels and with volume. The above table summarizes the license and product key implementations that Microsoft employs to safeguard against piracy and offer flexibility to channel stakeholders across various business use cases. To further understand the licensing model, let’s examine the licensing and product keys’ implementation in the channels.
Microsoft product keys enable the product to function with full features.A Microsoft product key is “NOT” the license.6 essential facts about Microsoft product keys: Microsoft designs the COA sticker licenses to help prevent counterfeiting and changes the COA sticker every couple of years. The COA is a physical sticker printed by authorized replicators and utilizes some of the same technology to print money. The license ties to the channel, and in the OEM channel, it comes with a Certificate of Authenticity (COA). They must purchase more licenses, and the key is the part that enables the product to work. The actual license is a physical COA sticker – not the key.
TIP: The key is what enables the product to function. In truth, they are needing to purchase additional licenses – not keys. Many customers will email or call inquiring to purchase additional keys, which is a common mistake. Almost everyone assumes the product key is the license. The most misunderstood topic with Microsoft involves the product key. With numerous products and several channels, understanding Microsoft’s specific licensing model by channel and product requires some experience. Customers often run into problems with product keys, and Arrow helps customers with frequent questions like “My key isn’t working” or “My key is bad, can you replace it?” or “My key fails activation, can you replace it?”. Product key issues are my favorite topic.