Even though Microsoft said the upgrade offer had expired, users found that they could still upgrade from Windows 7 and Windows 8 to Windows 10 without needing to buy a new product key. In fact ...

Microsoft originally announced the changes to block Windows 7 and Windows 8 keys from Windows 11 late last month, but at the time, we saw that keys were still activating, and it wasn’t clear ...

Microsoft has stopped allowing users to activate Windows 11 and 10 installations with Windows 7 and 8 product keys. This is because they have stopped supporting these older operating systems.

The hack which many have taken advantage of, using Windows 7/8's old product keys to install the latest OS including Windows 10 and 11 is now gone, as Microsoft enforced a new directive for this.

In brief: Anyone planning to use an old Windows 7 or 8 product key to activate Windows 11 should probably pull the trigger now if it isn't too late. Microsoft has announced the end of a grace ...

“Microsoft's free upgrade offer for Windows 10 / 11 ended July 29, 2016. The installation path to obtain the Windows 7 / 8 free upgrade is now removed as well.