Microsoft could change the activation system at any time later, or just by the time of the official launch. It is clearly too early to say whether this feature will remain in the final release of Windows 11. Finally, the leaked build of Windows 11 follows the suit. Therefore, anyone with a genuine Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 license key can upgrade to any release of the most recent Window version. So, it is 2021, and Microsoft still allows users to perform a free upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 without paying for a license. The Redmond software giant was about to end the offer a year after the release of Windows 10, but it never happened. Enter your product key and you will be upgraded to Pro. Click the 'I already have a product key link'. Under Windows Edition, click the link: Get more features with a new edition of Windows. The ability to directly activate Windows 10 for free with a Windows 7 product key was added a bit later. If its Windows 8 Pro, just use Add Features to upgrade to it. Free upgrade to Windows 11īack in 2015, when an initial Windows 10 version was released, Microsoft announced that Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users are able to go with the new operating system for free. Such opportunity was first introduced in Windows 10 with its a bit controversial free upgrade offer. So, users who installed Windows 11 can activate it with a Windows 7 product key. As you could expect, there are many things in the OS that still didn't change as of now, so the activation mechanism remains unchanged and doesn't differ from its predecessor.

While it is an early pre-release build, it already demonstrates a lot of improvements and new features that come to Windows 11.

Windows 8 serial number working