You don't even need to "pirate" Windows anymore. You can download an ISO from Microsoft's website, install it, and when it asks for your license key, you click "I don't have one", and that's the end of it. If you look in the activation settings, it'll say "not activated", but nothing will ever become of it. This even works if you install it as Pro. It's not like the Windows XP/7 days where you'd get a 60 day scare timer. They just don't seem to care anymore, or maybe all that telemetry they siphon up from you is just that much more valuable.
this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2026
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Steam Hardware
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A place to discuss and support all Steam Hardware, including Steam Deck, Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and SteamOS in general.
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PSA
If you see Windows 11 online DO NOT DOWNLOAD IT!!!
It will install a virus called Windows 11 and it will run Windows 11 on your PC!!!
Which is known to BRICK YOUR SYSTEM in some cases.
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Even Windows 7 actually didn't care if you had no key.
You could leave it unactivated forever and the worst thing that would happen is it would have a "Activate windows" watermark message bottom right over the desktop, and it wouldn't let you change the personalization settings eg theming (oh no).
It’s way more profitable to audit corporations than fight Eastern European crackers and Asian “distributors”
I miss all those super weird XP editions seemingly made by colourblind and hyper 8 year olds (at least in taste). Like rockets, gold or muscle car themed distros.
Nowadays all themes seems so... adult and boring. Tried to find some weird stuff in Plasma but alas
Hannah Montana Linux OS keeping this proud tradition going singlehandedly. ✊
Edit: not singlehandedly, just learned of the two other parts of the holy Linux trifecta, RebeccaBlackOS & Justin Bieber Linux Distro
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You're right, they don't care.
The very fact they no longer care about enforcing licensing anymore is itself the strongest evidence that selling Windows as a product is not where the money is.
They want you on their operating system for any price - including zero -because once you are there that's when the advertising, cloud service upsell and data monetisisation can begin.
Don’t they lock customization settings and updates being the license?
Microsoft missed the mobile boat by a long shot.
Windows is ever shrinking as people don't buy computers like they used to since phones can do what they need.
This means that for Microsoft growing Windows user base is a non starter. They are well into the extract portion of the product lifecycle. The os now only exists to support the products that still make money are extract what can be extracted from a shrinking user base.
Why would they enforce the activation? Window is no longer their product. You are.
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A truly blessed Steam Deck, praise be to HolyC.
That's glorious. Now I want more information.
You'll need a dock and keyboard if you want to accomplish anything. It took me two years to figure out how to get to that menu.
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JOIN TEAM LINUX INSTEAD
Does linux even work on steamdeck? Has anybody tried?
Nah, Valve would never allow it
Good joke, I did mean Linux on Desktop though.
Be ashamed of using windows.
This is perfect, this is what a steam deck is built for! Doing whatever the fuck you want with the hardware even if people don't like it
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Stop it hurts
I used rufus to put windows on an sd card. The steam deck can boot from the card if you hold a volume button when you power on. Valve provides drivers for both lcd and oled. It’s worked perfectly since maybe a month after each model came out. It touches nothing. Rufus is the only trick, since microsoft is the uncooperative part.
I did it for modern warfare 2019. It wasn’t worth it. If you boot into windows every six months, you get to update for an hour. If you get logged out of steam, you should plug in a mouse and keyboard. It’s my only windows install since 8 came out which was my only attempt since 98. And it only convinces me to stay away.
I run a Legion Go. it’s all I could afford at the time. Plays factorio and satisfactory fine. Wish I could afford a “real” rig but… it’s just not in the cards. Apparently buying wife’s car a new tranny is “important.”
When I bought my Legoin Go, the first thing I did was to turn it on, see it's W11 asking for network settings without a way to continue without. So I turned it off and installed Bazzite instead. Much better experience.
Why does your wife need a transsexual for her car?
To fix the transmission. Lilith's Tranny's, it's like femboy IHOP but with beautiful transgender women working on engines.
How about:
Tammy’s Tranny’s: “Transmissions & Transitions”
Okay, you didn't have to completely one up me like that in public. That absolutely is so much better.
Are they hiring? I have experience in both fields
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So the truck nuts can be installed properly. Can't transition your car without a proper expert around to keep things going right.
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Nothing wrong with the Legion Go hardware at all. I like that it’s got those Switch-like removable controls, tho I’m not sure if I’d use them.
If you’re interested in a non-Windows experience, Steam OS supports the Legion Go. There’s also Cachy OS a rolling-release Arch Linux distro, Bazzite an immutable Fedora distro with atomic updates, Nobara a customized Fedora distro maintained by Glorious Eggroll who is known for Proton-GE, and Chimera OS.
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A buddy of mine bought one of those a while back. We recently switched it over to steam OS and the performance improvement was substantial.
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I mean, if you just absolutely had to play a Linux-hating kernel anti cheat game, then install a small-as-possible partition for Windows, dual boot, and stay in Steam OS every single moment you're doing anything else but that game.
But most Windows-on-a-Steam-Deck people I've encountered just drive Windows all the time. I will never understand.
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Be ashamed when using windows and any microslop product.
Guys! Relax, it's fine. We still have a VM for the Linux experience. It's basically the same thing!
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