As long as you are using official Microsoft install media downloaded from Microsoft (or verify the hash to ensure what you downloaded matches the official Microsoft isos) then you should be fine.

MAS is just a PowerShell script you run after install. It's open source, and PowerShell scripts aren't compiled, so you can examine it yourself to see what it's doing. It tricks Microsoft servers into issuing your hardware an official "free upgrade" license key. The one I'm familiar with as reliable is MASgrave.

That's not an 100% guarantee that it couldn't be doing anything shady, but it would be incredibly hard for it to hide anything if it was.

[–] ultratiem@lemmy.ca 10 points 4 months ago

Mass grave uses the exact same method as a real Windows validation would. To MS it’s undetectable and if you register your hardware, permanent (unless you swap your motherboard). I have my old NAS registered at the hardware level so no matter how many times I’ve reinstalled Windows, it sticks.

Mass grave is bullet proof and 100% safe. The only way MS can kill it is if they completely retool their Windows registration system and the odds of that are about the same as them making Windows respect your privacy.

[–] Stretch@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 months ago

TIL about this. My son will be pleased for his gaming rig he's upgrading his MOBO on in a few days.

[–] taaz@biglemmowski.win 16 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

MAS is open-source meaning anyone with the skill can verify what the powershell code does. This does not mean it's absolutely safe and trustworthy but does give it a big plus.

(the way I understand it is that) It also uses a loophole in the free upgrades from older win versions to 10/11 to get you a valid license from Windoze servers directly - it is not a keygen or cracker.

So, I will vouch for MASgrave but care has to be taken to download it from the official site/repository.

[–] EddoWagt@feddit.nl 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

What about the Office license that you can get from MAS? Is that also using a loophole?

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 2 points 4 months ago

No, that one uses a patched DLL.

[–] gemew26@lemmy.dbzer0.com -4 points 4 months ago (2 children)

windows 10 iso are not available for download, so I used the one from MASgrave, dunno if I did something wrong. By the way, apparently my notebook had a HW license already lol

[–] mihnt@lemmy.ca 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

windows 10 iso are not available for download

You mean this isn't available to download; https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO

Or something else?

[–] gemew26@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

mhh, I already installed everything downloading from MASgrave website, do you think those ISO are dangerous? This is version it-it_windows_10_consumer_editions_version_22h2_updated_may_2024_x64_dvd_49ddadb6.iso (Windows 10 consumer 22H2 Italian)

[–] mihnt@lemmy.ca 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

What I linked is the official ISO from M$

[–] SaltySalamander@fedia.io 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Yes they are. Downloaded 22H2 ISO Thursday at work. In fact, with the correct script, every single Win10 ISO is still available to download, all the way back to the very first version.

[–] gemew26@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I read this on MASgrave and got scared "Windows 10 download from https://www.microsoft.com/software-download isn't recommended because it uses an ESD file to generate ISO and that process sometimes may generate corrupt ISO which can not be verified with known checksums."

I'd like to know if the ISO masgrave distributes are considered safe, if the script they make is considered safe then I'd tend to consider even the ISO.. I wouldn't like to reinstall everything again (besides I already put sensitive data on it like passwords and stuff)

[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 1 points 4 months ago

Did you verify the ISO checksum?

[–] kusivittula@sopuli.xyz 7 points 4 months ago

i have used the MAS script probably 20+ times. for my family, friends, also my own computers and virtual machine back when i still used windows. no complaints with it, 100% safe.

[–] hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 4 months ago

Probably not any more unsafe than Windows in general. Microsoft already steals all your data, so not sure why you'd be more scared of a script that you can inspect to know exactly what it does

[–] Gimpydude@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 4 months ago

Other people have made accurate posters here about MAS, but if you are concerned you can always set up a KMS server in docker.