Report: Microsoft quietly kills official way to activate Windows 11/10 without internet

There were a few ways to activate Windows 11/10 officially. However, Microsoft has now apparently killed one such way without ...
ZDNet

Can you really get Windows and Office for free? These hackers say yes

A group of developers who call themselves Massgrave have successfully hacked Microsoft's activation tools for Windows and Office. The collective has uploaded a set of PowerShell scripts to their ...
Ars Technica

Microsoft will stop old Windows product keys from activating new Windows installs

At least for now, though, it seems like this change will only apply to future Windows versions. We were able to activate a fresh Windows 11 Pro 22H2 install with a Windows 8 Pro product key as of this ...
ZDNet

It's official: No more free Windows 10 upgrades

For more than seven years, it's been one of the worst-kept secrets in personal computing. Officially, Microsoft's free upgrade offer ended in 2016, but no one in Redmond bothered to reset the ...
Neowin

You can no longer activate new Windows 11 builds with Windows 7 or 8 keys0 0

In December 2022, we published a short PSA, reminding users they could still activate Windows 11 and 10 with valid Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 keys. This practice dates back to 2015 when Microsoft launched ...
The Verge

Microsoft investigating Windows activation issues after closing a key loophole

Microsoft closed a Windows 7 / 8 key loophole last month, and now people are experiencing issues reactivating some Windows 10 / 11 installs. Microsoft closed a Windows 7 / 8 key loophole last month, ...