Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is kind of a long saga, so bear with me. Firstly, I like Windows 10. It works very well for me, and is a worthwhile upgrade from Windows 7/8/8.1 if you're getting it as a free upgrade. I built a computer, and needed Windows 10 Pro 64 for it. The cheapest price on Amazon was through an outside company (not fulfilled by Amazon), and it had fast shipping, so I ordered it. When the media arrived, I was hesitant about the physical appearance of the DVD and Certificate of Authenticity. The general rule is that the disc and COA should match up to what is on https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/howtotell/Software.aspx#Packaging website. It gives details about what to look for to identify fake microsoft install media. Here's what was suspect about my media: 1. The DVD inner hologram appears to be a sticker attached to the DVD surface rather than embedded in the disc itself. 2. The arrow on the inner ring that is supposed to line up with an arrow in the outer ring? Well, there was no matching hologram in the outer band of the disc (and therefore no matching arrow). 3. The label creating the inner hologram has several chunks of something like coarse dust or grit trapped between the label and the upper disc surface. This debris is visible from the bottom of the disc. The hologram is not centered about the hole in the DVD, it is off-center slightly. It looks like the label was applied in a dirty environment and got contaminated. 4. The COA is supposed to have intaglio printing on the left side of the label. Intaglio printing is where the printing is embossed into the paper surface under high pressure, causing the paper to have ridges where the printing is (like the fingerprints of your fingers or the surface of US paper money) . On my COA, the printing is normal across the entire label surface but then the maker ran it through an embosser to create a coarsely grooved surface. Unfortunately, their overlay sucked and the embossed pattern is not in the same area as the printing. Not even close. And it doesn't feel at all like intaglio printing. The M which is supposed to appear and disappear based on the angle (a cool side-effect if the intaglio printing process) is just always visible, no intaglio effect at all. Based on these details, I contacted Amazon and arranged to return this media pack for refund, and I ordered another one. This time, I order from a company that fulfills through Amazon. When it arrived, I was astonished to find that it looked similar.: 1. The outer sleeve labels were both printed on Printer No 799, and said that both kits were made in the USA. Strangely enough, both packs came from the *same carton* MMCA11507049369. From two different companies in two different states (KY and NV)... figure the odds of them being from the same carton. 2. Comparing the DVDs,The hologram labels on the disks looked the same. The underlying DVDs were different, with different part numbers and fonts, and the first disc is boldly printed "Made in Puerto Rico". 3. The COA looked pretty much the same. I called Microsoft Support, and spoke to their representative. He listened to my explanation of the discrepancies in the install media, but didn't seem concerned about the appearance. I gave him one of the license keys (starts with 8NH22) and he verified that it is a valid Windows 10 Pro install key. His advice was to just use the keys and don't worry about the physical media condition. I asked if he could send me that advice in writing, but he's not allowed to send emails. So, to make a long story shorter, cancelled the return of the first media, used it for installing windows, and I have a spare license for future use. I will copy this dissertation and send it to the Microsoft Counterfeit Reporting site (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/howtotell/cfr/report.aspx). If they don't care, then I'm done with expending calories on this. By the way, when I went to install Windows 10, the dropdown menu for choosing language only gave me a choice of English (UK) rather than English (US). Since I am not from the UK, I put the disc aside and used a USB installer that I had previously made using the Media Creation Tool. Looking back on it, that was a wise move. If the disc is really counterfeit, there is no way of knowing what malware might have been injected into it. Back to Windows 10, it works great for me. It's fast, with a small memory footprint. I always deselect all the intrusive recommended choices during install, and delete a bunch of the preinstalled junkware and advertising links after installation. I'm giving 5 stars for Windows 10 itself, but subtracting 1 star for the hassle of attempting to resolve the fake software through Amazon and Microsoft. I've included images to this review, which show: 1. The disc hologram label with no matching outer hologram (note the inner arrow which points to... Nothing.). 2. The underside of the hologram, showing debris trapped in the adhesive) 3. Intaglio printing showing the 3d effect. You can feel the ridges where the ink is. 4. Two images of the COA where it's supposed to intaglio. Note the reflections where the label was embossed... Which is not anywhere close to the words/printing that matches.