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

Enlarge (credit: Microsoft)

RIP to one of my favorite loopholes: Microsoft quietly announced earlier this month (via Neowin) that users will no longer be able to install and activate Windows 10 or Windows 11 with old Windows 7 and Windows 8 product keys.

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 morning, as was Neowin. But Neowin was unable to activate a newer Insider Preview build of Windows, suggesting that the change will mostly affect newer Windows versions. We've asked Microsoft for clarification and will update this story if we receive any.

When Windows 10 originally launched in 2015, it did so as a free upgrade to all users of Windows 7 and Windows 8—the vast majority of the Windows user base at the time. Microsoft wanted to encourage developers to use its new technologies by giving them the largest possible install base of people on the newest version of Windows. Not only would people running Windows 7 and Windows 8 be offered the option to upgrade-in-place to Windows 10, but product keys from those versions of Windows would activate the analogous editions of Windows 10.