I was lucky to receive 10 Windows 7 and Visual Studio Ultimate keys for personal use, in the Windows 7 era.
Once the "you can use Windows 7 keys to activate Windows 8/10" thing, combined with Microsoft accounts came around, I created 10 Microsoft accounts with 10 of my email addresses.
I've been able to activate Windows versions 7-11 with all 10 keys (and I can change to older Windows without issue) and been able to upgrade Visual Studio Ultimate to the current version year after year this way.
I wonder if the already upgraded keys attached to Microsoft accounts, that become a bit version fluid, will remain able to use higher versions.
I have some Windows keys back from college (software policy stated you kept your software if you graduate), I hope those continue to work for me as well.
You can buy a used mini PC for less than the price of a new Windows 11 license. I know there are cheaper license sites out there (unclear how legit they are) but this way you get a Windows license and a spare PC to run Linux!
They cost like $5 online, it’s not like it’s a huge risk. I’ve bought OEM keys before and they work fine. Just use a credit card so you can easily get a refund if it’s fake.
There could be a bit of a caveat here. I when I purchased my laptop it had windows 10 installed. When I installed Mint, I could not reuse that key in a VM because it was “different hardware”. The license, could not be transferred under any circumstance. I had also purchased the upgrade to Pro through the windows store. That’s also lost.
I seldom run windows, even in the VM, but it still leaves one a bit bitter.
I reused a Win10 Pro key from a mini PC from 2015 onto a brand new build and it worked right away. Not sure what the difference is with your situation. Maybe it was your license type?
Usually calling Windows support, they'll give you a key if you just tell them you replaced some piece of hardware due to failure, assuming you haven't been transferring the same key around for awhile. They tend to be more invested in keeping you in the Windows ecosystem than they are are just getting one more license sold.
I called support, they said no. Asked for a one time exception, still no. The key to my knowledge was only used once on the laptop when I bought it new.
It is my understanding that this can only be used to run the OEM license one one instance in a VM, on the specific hardware that is originally licensed. IE, you virtualize the license if the bootOS is Linux, but you can’t run 2 instances of the same windows license inside each other.
When I build a new PC, I could not transfer my old 7 pro retail license, even though it worked fine on my old PC running Windows 10 and it even said it was a digital license connected to my MS account.
So I bought a Win 10 pro key from one of the ebay resellers aber everything was fine… until it wasn’t. I updated the firmware for my mainboard and Windows took that for a replacement of hardware. Troubleshooter did not show three option “I recently changed my hardware” and did not give me the option to call Microsoft’s support.
Turns out it was a “one time install” key which was invalidated by changing the hardware. So it couldn’t activate a second time. And since the key seller was out of business at that time (they’ll change accounts every few months), I had no way of getting the key replaced.
Luckily, I still had an old Windows 7 COA with key and CD lying around from an old Dell business Workstation. That activated just fine.
But yeah, even if you have a valid license connected to your Microsoft account, there’s no way of seeing it in your account, and it’s not guaranteed MS will honor it.
The answer is a resounding maybe. If you activated with a Microsoft account or if there's a TPM chip, the chances of it still working increases. There are different kinds of licenses, but if it fails, there's a better than not chance calling MS support and just telling them you had a hardware failure on your laptop and you need to reinstall, they'll get you going. Not a guarantee though. And I'll caveat and say this information is a couple years old (I don't work in tech support anymore).
Cheap license sites (windows, games, etc) usually use keys bought via stolen credit cards. Pirating it is much better than buying from those sites, including for the devs that get punished for chargebacks from those keys.
Tbh if you want gray area keys. Microsoftsoftwareswap has always had verified users selling business generated licenses keys. If you HAVE to buy a key, at least buy one from vetted people and not some rando on a seller site
I’ve had the same Win8 Pro key that I purchased for $40 when it released 12 years ago. I’ve used it for Win10 and 11. Is this saying if I format my drive and reinstall Win11 that I won’t be able to activate using this key anymore?
If I’m not mistaken your key is linked to your motherboard as well as your Microsoft account. So I think you should be fine. I just formatted my drive yesterday and it didn’t even ask me to type it in, I skipped that step and it verified once I logged in.
Super late reply to your question, but when you add Windows and punch in the key it links to the motherboard of the PC (laptop or desktop, doesn’t matter). Once you sign in to your Microsoft account, the key and mobo serial gets stored there. If you bought a new PC and with it a new motherboard you can find your key in your account or use the one on the back of your old laptop and delink it from your old device so that you can reuse it on your new one. It moves with your account.
Of you do a standard format, you shouldn’t have to worry, but if you ever upgrade your mobo, just make sure you get a screenshot of your serial in the windows settings and make sure you are logged in to your windows account (maybe check the account settings on a browser and see if you can find your devices, not sure of this is a necessary step… but just to make sure it’s linked I guess)… then once you format, you can punch in the old serial and log in, if it pops up a warning, it may ask you to migrate the serial and delete the old device or you may have a step or two on the Microsoft website to do this, I’m a bit hazy on the details as I did this a good 4 years ago, bit it wasn’t much of a headache.
Keys are usually stored in the TPM chip and/or tied to Microsoft accounts if you use one. If you don't have an account, there's actually a limit to how often a key can activate new hardware. If there's no TPM, there's simply a limit within a certain timeframe that it can be used to activate on the same hardware.
To be fair, nobody actually NEEDS to deal with this nonsense. Windows works just fine without an activated key, literally the only downside is the “Please activate Windows” bug on your desktop. That’s it, everything else works fine.
Not exactly, can’t customize it either or change certain settings. I know this because I just built a new PC and the key I had didn’t work for 2 days while I had support figure it out.
Absolutely, it’s not the worst. I had a client who had me rebuild their work pc for them and the key they gave me didn’t work. They never ended up bothering getting it to work since it was a work pc and didn’t really care if they could change the background or theme. This was Win 10, I think 11 has a few more settings locked out but it’s not bad really.
I did recently and have regrets yet . Been using to run yuzu perfectly and most games I’ve tried work great other than some games that use certain anti cheats . Going to work on RGB control soon once I have time. And I have a windows VM to adjust the controls easily on my mouse and gaming keypad which I almost never need to change.
KeysOff has been very reliable for me in the past (I’m not affiliated with them, just a happy customer) but I’m pretty sure there are multiple VLK resellers out there for Windows keys at this point.
Go to Amazon UK, bunch of really cheap ones there. You’ll get the key via email instantly. Ideally, install a fresh windows 10 and immediately upgrade to 11, then the key will be upgraded and remains valid even if the original one gets disabled.
It's because of the TPM shit but there are ways to bypass that in the installer. There's not that much difference in the architecture of Windows 7 v.s Windows 11, and there is theoretically nothing stopping a Win7 machine from running Win11. It's all the same since Vista anyway. That was the last major architecture revamp.
The utility was more in being able to buy a dirt cheap Windows 7 Pro key or copy one from some old computer or disc label to activate a new computer on 10 or 11, and have it be legal.
If you signed in with a Microsoft account, the key would also be synced to it and be able to activate a computer just by you signing in, which could be handy.
I used to pull the product key stickers off parts we bought at my old job. Laptop bottom cover, with free windows 7 key. Every computer in my house is running Windows 11 pro, activated with a Windows 7 key, that was otherwise just going to get thrown away.
I have around 30 windows 7 pro COAs (used to work in a pc repair shop, pulled the COAs on every dead pc that came through). Most of them are from dells, but I haven’t had an issue activating on custom pcs. If anyone wants one, let me know
I literally did this on a new pc two weekends ago. Downloaded win11 iso, installed, typed in the key off my win 7 cd rom retail packaging that’s god knows how old, done.
I’ve long since moved to linux and just dual boot win11 for games that don’t run well in linux. I won’t buy a key at this point just for that.
I’m really considering this at this point, I’ve never really had any issues with windows but as a techie it feels more and more like my duty to be “that guy.”
I’ve already been on privately hosted email for years and started self hosting some stuff on a pi.
This broke the "MAS" scripts, at least as far as HWID activation. From their website:
Note: Microsoft servers are currently rejecting HWID activation requests when activating through MAS, we’re checking what’s going on now. Use the KMS38 activation option for now.
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