Microsoft changed its mind after many years. No more free updates to Windows 11

After the release of Windows 10 in 2015, Microsoft decided to provide users with the option of free upgrades from the company’s older systems. The “promotion” was supposed to be valid for a year, but Microsoft quietly allowed (though never officially admitted it) the upgrade even after this period. A similar possibility appeared with the premiere of Windows 11, but now the Redmond company apparently ends such a policy.

No more free updates for Windows 7 and 8. You now have to buy a new system

For the last 2 years, Microsoft has allowed free updates not only to holders of Windows 10 licenses, but even to very old Windows 7 and 8 systems. The possibility of free updates has now been quite unexpectedly withdrawn. Microsoft informed that that the period of free license transfer from Windows 7 and 8/8.1 to Windows 11 has ended.

At the same time – as the American company writes – a free update of these systems to Windows 10 is no longer possible since July 2016. Microsoft also noted that the possibility of a free upgrade from Windows 10 to 11 remains available unchanged.

Therefore, the only option to switch from the old “Seven” or “Eight” to one of the newer systems is to purchase a new license. In this way, Microsoft also stopped the possibility of buying cheap Windows 7 and 8 keys and then updating them to Windows 11. Some people used this solution to save money when building a new computer.

As the German writes, the ability to activate keys from Windows 7 and 8 has already been disabled in the test build of Windows 11, currently available in the Windows Insider program. It is very possible that the block will also appear in stable system releases soon.

So it’s worth taking advantage of the free update while you can. Technical support for Windows 8.1 was completely ended in January this year. and it is no longer safe to use this system. The ability to easily, directly switch to the latest system is a great convenience.