Using Windows 10 without activation

There are some peeps who, for various reasons, cannot activate Windows 10. They cannot afford to buy Windows 10, or are not eligible for a free upgrade, or don't want to or don't know how to employ dodgy methods of authentication. Would it be possible and practical for them to run Windows 10 without activating it? How does Windows 10 behave when it is not activated?

I installed Windows 10 build 10240 in VirtualBox on 7/15/2015. Used an ISO that I created from an ESD file.
10240.16384.150709-1700.th1_clientpro_ret_x64fre_en-us_9d40e15f430ab89a1eabb165acbf40c9f07d18bb.esd
en_windows_10_pro_10240_x64_dvd.iso

Here are some things I noticed:

After a day or two, Personalization changes were disabled about 1/2 hour after booting. Changes could be made within 1/2 hour of booting, but were disabled thereafter. Any changes made to Personalization would be persistent. They would not be undone.
When Personalization was disabled, it could be re-enabled by rebooting.
After several days, Personalization would only be enabled for a few minutes after booting, not 1/2 hour.

After a few days, I noticed that when the machine had been running for 5 or 6 hours, a watermark would appear on the lower right part of the screen. It would appear not only on the Desktop, but also on any windows whose area covered the lower right part of the screen.
Rebooting would cause the watermark to disappear, until 5 or 6 hours later when it would re-appear.

After a few days, I noticed some Universal Apps would not work. When I tried to open them, their window would flash briefly and then disappear.
The following Universal seemed to work OK:
Calendar, Contact Support, Cortana, Mail, Maps, Edge, OneDrive, OneNote, Xbox.
Other Universal apps did not work.

That is all I have noticed so far.
I wish somebody else would try this experiment and report their findings.

 

Thanks for your quick reply.
No, I haven't gone with that, yet.
It would still be good to know how the OS behaves when it is not activated.

 

There are reasons. I mentioned some of them in my original post. Some peeps didn't want to join the Insider program. Some peeps have several machines. Half the peeps in the world have an I.Q. at or below 100. Some users might not know how to activate. It would be useful to know what the penalities are for not activating, if those penalities are a mere inconvience or if they prevent one from using the OS unactivated.

 

So far, it seems to me the penalties for not activating are merely an inconvenience. I don't need to change my Personalization settings everyday. Or, if I did, I could remember to do it soon after booting.
I can live without some, or maybe, all the Universal Apps.
The watermark is a nuisance, but I could live with that.
It would be an advantage to MS if their OS was useable without activation.

 

I installed it on 7/15/2015. About 13 days.
I booted it about 2 hours ago. So, it will be about another 4 hours until the watermark appears. I will post a screenshot then. The mark is semi-transparent.

 

Here are the screen captures of the watermark.
Previously, I think the watermark appeard about 5 or 6 hours after booting. Just now, it appeared about 4 hours after booting.
Again, after rebooting, the watermark disappeared.

 

In a manner of speaking, you never have to activate. Nobody will force you to do it. I think the more interesting question is what happens when you don't activate it. That's what I'm trying to find out. You could help by installing it in VirtualBox and watching to see what happens as time goes on.

 

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Thanks for the advice. I'll probably get around to activating via dodgy methods sometime later. BTW, I've been using Windows 7 for years, unactivated, by rearming the grace period, and by rearming the rearms every few months. In a sense, activation is against my religious Spaghetti Monster beliefs.