What are the Risks of Using Pirated Windows 10?

Millions of people use pirated Windows worldwide, it’s a fact. And in all honesty, it makes sense for them to do so. Especially in developing countries, where the price of a Windows license is equal to someone’s monthly salary.

The most significant benefit of a pirated Windows copy is, of course, the fact that it’s free. If you’re not a power user, using a non-genuine copy won’t affect your experience, especially with all these online activators and hacking tools.

Pirating Windows has been a practice for years, and it’s also very active with Windows 10. People who use this kind of Windows usually have only the price in mind, but they ignore the risks of pirated Windows.

Since we care about our readers’ security and don’t encourage using pirated software, we will list the most common risks of using a pirated version of Windows 10.

So, if you’re currently using pirated Windows 10, please remember this information.

Why using pirated Windows 10 is risky?

It’s all about a ‘good’ activator

Let’s start with an application that makes this pirated Windows 10 thing possible – Windows Activator.

We won’t dig deep into how this tool works, but the principle is quite simple. You install the pirated operating system, open the Activator, press one button, and have a fully functional Windows 10 OS.

The performance of your pirated Windows 10 highly depends on the Activator’s quality. If the Activator is a ‘good’ one, you should be able to run Windows 10 smoothly for months.

If you pick a ‘non-reliable’ activator, you can end up with a broken system from day one.

But no matter what ‘quality’ Activator you use, you never know when your system may break. When that happens, you’ll be in big trouble.

Missing updates

May pirated copies of Windows 10 fail to receive updates. And since updates are perhaps the most important aspect of the system, you’ll break a big circle.

Back to Activators, some allow you to receive Windows updates on a pirated Windows 10 copy. Still, you never know when the next update will interfere with your modified configuration and make your system non-genuine.

Perhaps the most significant threat of not receiving regular updates is that you’ll miss security patches, making your system vulnerable to various attacks. But we’ll get to that later in this article.

In plain English, you can’t expect to run a non-genuine copy of Windows 10 and receive regular updates forever. You do the math yourself and decide whether it’s worth it.

Performance may suffer

To make your pirated Windows 10 version work, pirates must make certain changes within the system’s ecosystem. These changes often cripple the system, making some other features unusable.

So, there’s a big chance you won’t be able to use everything users with a genuine system can.

Performance depends on how good a pirated copy is. So, you might install a copy that won’t even run on startup or stumble upon a nearly perfect copy. Once again, that’s all plain gambling and can lead to much trouble.

Risk from security attacks

A huge percentage of cyber attacks worldwide happen on pirated systems. And it’s not just systems. Online piracy statistics reveal that downloading or streaming from unofficial sites poses similar risks.

Why? Well, as we said above, you won’t be able to receive all security updates on a pirated Windows copy, which makes your computer a perfect target for various cybercriminals.

Okay, we know you probably think it won’t happen to you, but cybercriminal is at the highest rate now, and it can only go up.

So, think again: do you want to lose your sensitive data to some cybercriminal just because you’re using a non-genuine version of Windows 10?

Keep your Windows 10 PC protected with the best antimalware tools. Find our top picks in this article.

Can’t use all apps and services

And finally, if you’re a fan of Microsoft’s services and apps, we have bad news: they won’t work on a pirated system.

Of course, there are also pirated versions of Microsoft’s programs, like Office, but installing another program can only lead to more problems. And by more problems, we mean more security holes that can attract hacking sharks.

Also, buying apps from the Microsoft Store won’t be the most pleasant experience. Because Microsoft will notice that you’re purchasing a non-genuine system, you might end up with a banned account.

Wrap up

As you can see, using a pirated copy of Windows 10 brings a handful of risks that can go way deeper than just breaking your system. So, even if the original product’s price is too high for someone, it’s usually not worth it in the long run.

What do you think about using pirated Windows 10? Are you willing to take the risk, or you’d rather play it safe and legal?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.