Limitations of unactivated Windows, in some detail??

zbook said:

Once Windows 10 or 11 is updated licensing data is entered into Microsoft servers.

This enables the movement from one version to the other (upgrade then go back: clean install downgrade, etc.)

What advantages were you looking for by not activating?

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Fishmill said:

I'm aware of the MS server situation.

I'd rather be frustrated once than twice....therefore I'd prefer to go through activation once rather than twice. Twice might happen if I have early hardware failures after a first activation and have to replace the failed stuff.

At my highly advanced age, it is increasingly important to avoid frustration. I'm only trying to reduce the likelihood for me personally in my personal circumstances. No more and no less.

Call that a natural part of aging or call it foolish or call it over-thinking or call it a personality disorder out of that DSM on your bookshelf. Frustration avoidance is a fact for me. Full stop. If Microcenter were nearby, they might have an assembly customer.

The last time I built (2016), I just threw the stuff into the case like most of you do. I had no significant issues.

Breadboarding is a perhaps silly attempt to reduce frustration and avoid possibly having to pull parts out of a case. I have never breadboarded before, but I am simple-minded enough to think it might be advantageous. In my circumstances.

I haven't bought a pre-built PC in close to 30 years. It's a balancing act between the convenience of pre-built and my (so far) continued insistence on controlling the individual parts.

This will almost certainly be my final PC regardless. I've been postponing a rebuild for years. Current PC is performing well with no issues, speed or otherwise. But it has around 40,000 hours on the major parts.

If anyone has any answers to the specific questions I listed in my original post, I'm all ears. I've seen conflicting opinions online as mentioned.

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Fishmill said:

This will almost certainly be my final PC regardless. I've been postponing a rebuild for years. Current PC is performing well with no issues, speed or otherwise. But it has around 40,000 hours on the major parts.

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Win711 said:

Me too. This is probably my last pc build. There seems to be a lot of us here.

It makes sense though. Going through 95, 98, 2k, xp, 7, 10, then by 11 I bet a lot of people are thinking they've had enough.

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Fishmill said:

Any complaints about that Aorus board?

I'm strongly considering an Aorus B860M on a Core Ultra 265K. My case won't accept full ATX and I don't need full ATX or Z series.

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Fishmill said:

I may be rebuilding soon. New board, new CPU, new RAM. Everything else carried over from current 9 year old PC with updated drives.

I am now on Win 10 Pro full retail fully legit and activated. No issues. Single license.

New machine will eventually go on Win 11 Pro, presumably at no cost.

For several reasons, I'd like to shake down the new hardware for a couple of days before any activation attempts......breadboarding, eliminating DOA, gaining BIOS familiarity, Memtest, installing Office 2010, etc.

I might do this shaking down on 10 or 11, most likely using a fresh version via Media Creation Tool USB. But I'd expect to be on 11 Pro within a few days........and activated.

I know "unactivated" Windows has some limitations, but I'm wondering how those limitations might apply to this 2 or 3 day shakedown period.

Specifically, I get conflicting info on what I can or cannot do with Office 2010 Word and Excel if Windows is NOT activated. This is a critical point.

Under certain circumstances, I can only view Word/Excel files; no editing and re-saving?

No limitations at all IF Office itself is activated?

No limitations even if Office is NOT activated?

Office can't be installed if Windows is NOT activated?

Office can't be activated if Window is NOT activated?

I don't care about watermarks and other minor annoyances since the unactivated state would be temporary and would not affect my first few days.

I'd appreciate advice. I'm sure some of you would just say "go ahead, install and activate 11 immediately. Worry about issues later". I'm just quite antsy about going that far with possibly shaky new hardware. I expect several days of app install and configuration after any Windows activation and I hope to avoid hardware failures on say day 13 after that. I acknowledge that is mostly unknowable and random.

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Win711 said:

I like everything about my system, except the power supply. Any little blip in the power and it reboots. But I need a good UPS anyway so I can live with it but don't recommend MSI power supplies for that reason.

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Scannerman said:

You can always buy a 20 dollar "grey key" and it will work just as well.

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Scannerman said:

A good UPS can fix that — especially a sine wave UPS. They're fairly inexpensive these days. I can shoot you a link if you wish.

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Win711 said:

What's a grey key?



I wanted to get a nice one but just haven't started the long process of researching. The most important thing is to be able to record the condition of the electrical supply so when something like swelling batteries happens again I have some evidence to show the electric company.

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