As you might imagine, there are ways to avoid the associated fees, but to be completely honest, we wouldn't recommend them for most users.

On various sites - some with better reputations than others - you can find Windows 10 keys from somewhere around US$30 to as low as US$5. These keys fall into one of a few different categories, and some of them aren't exactly "illegal," per se. To be clear, any license key that was purchased with stolen payment information, or any key that was generated using a software crack, is actually illegal, whether it's an operating system or a game. But a lot of the discount Windows keys available online aren't acquired through such nefarious means.

Two of the most popular ways of acquiring inexpensive Windows licenses are through grey market keys and distribution licenses. Grey market licenses are purchased in other countries where Microsoft simply charges less for the same product. Often referred to as "OEM keys," distribution licenses are surplus keys sold by computer manufacturers and resellers or, in similar cases, subscribers to the Microsoft Software Developer Network (or "MSDN"). While it's not against the law, buying one of these licenses for personal use is absolutely against the almighty Terms of Service. The FBI won't show up at your door, but these inexpensive alternatives have their own share of drawbacks.

Licenses purchased from other regions may check your location using your IP address to ensure that you're installing them where they were meant to be used. Savvy users will know ways around this location check, but you do run the risk of being found out and having your activation invalidated, especially if you try to tie your installation into any other Microsoft services. On the other hand, surplus keys purchased from PC resellers or MSDN subscribers may not even work right from the start - some less-than-honest grey market retailers sell the same license to multiple buyers, and such websites are notorious for having little to no customer service. Other such licenses have been to known to simply stop working one day, with zero fanfare or warning. You should be even more suspect of surplus licenses that ship to you with their own copy of Windows 10 on a USB flash drive - these keys are often encoded to work with only the exact copy of the software they ship with, so if you lose that tiny flash drive, you now have a useless string of letters and numbers on your hands. For that matter, the same encoding strategy is sometimes used to keep people from activating a desktop PC, for example, using the license that came with their laptop. That's not even getting into the risks that can come with the actual act of purchasing software keys from shady overseas websites.

If you're dead set on activating and saving some cash, know what you're getting yourself into. The places you'll find these grey market and distribution licenses may look like legitimate software resellers, but actual grey market vendors are typically individuals with little or nothing to verify their legitimacy. There are quite a few sites out there where you can find these sellers, and you may have run into some such as Kinguin and G2A, which don't have nearly the same buyer protections as more reputable dealers like Amazon and Newegg. Even if there is some unforeseen problem with your purchase, a well known retailer like one of these should take care of it. If you do decide to go the more frugal, yet non-guaranteed route, make sure to have a card or payment account that allows for international transactions, and be prepared for any of the above disappointing scenarios to play out, possibly after a frustrating activation experience.

While it is possible to save US$80-US$180 buying a non-standard Windows 10 license, it's in most users' best interests to splash the cash on at least one copy, and rest easy knowing that they'll retain the rights to use that software for the duration of its lifetime, with the added bonus of a simple activation process as well as the peace of mind of getting security and feature updates on time. If you do decide to go down the discount route - which, again, we do not recommend - your mileage may vary, but if something goes wrong, don't say you weren't warned!