Windows 11 - the closed Windows 7/8 key 'loop hole'

[LordX]

I’m all for taking advantage of a free upgrade. But if Microsoft finally has closed that door well it sucks to be you. Either pay for a legitimate copy or switch to Linux.

We are techs. When faced with a problem, we can't help ourselves but to think of solutions.

Perhaps there is still a method that works with the free upgrade path (e.g. install this first, then update - or fresh install of this then update).

Clearly if buying Windows 11 is the only path forward for customers, then that is what will be recommended. But if there is still a pathway to legitimately get the free update to work, why wouldn't you want to know what it is?????

PS - The Windows 7 was in the original box with the original COA/Product Key sticker. So it wasn't a key bought from some web page.

 

[LordX]

Best deal I've found: https://www.stacksocial.com/sales/microsoft-windows-11-pro

And that is where I bought my Pro license, and it did apply, as advertised, on 3 machines without a hitch.

I have always thought sites like this were somehow scams. How can they sell a $199 product for $25?

I don't see anywhere on the page that it activates 3 systems, or was that a special sale?

I mean, yeah, for $25 NOW I am agreeing with nline on the 'just buy it' line....

 

[britechguy]

But if there is still a pathway to legitimately get the free update to work, why wouldn't you want to know what it is?????

Amen to that! You said at the outset that this was for your brother, and I doubt he's one of your paid clients. What we're willing to do both for our own family, and to satisfy our own curiosity and urge to find out if it even can be done, is something separate from what one does to get a client's issues resolved as quickly as possible.

Right now I'm trying to apply the 23H2 update using Rufus tweaked install media on an i7-4th gen just to see if I can do it. 22H2 worked, but who knows if I will succeed with updating to 23H2. But I'm doing that to satisfy my own curiosity and there's nothing lost but my own time and effort, which I'm happy to expend.

 

[britechguy]

I don't see anywhere on the page that it activates 3 systems, or was that a special sale?

The terms have changed in the several months since I purchased, and now it's only 2 machines. From the previously linked page, Important Details section near the bottom:

• Max number of device(s): 2 (Use one activation key for up to 2 devices)

 

[LordX]

The terms have changed in the several months since I purchased, and now it's only 2 machines. From the previously linked page, Important Details section near the bottom:

• Max number of device(s): 2 (Use one activation key for up to 2 devices)

Still an amazing deal - $12.50 per machine for PRO is nuts. Still is setting off the 'not real/scam' red alerts in my head lol

PS - Are you Colin Farrell?

 

[britechguy]

Stack Social /Stack Commerce has been around a long time and has some high-powered investors (see their About Us page).

I had to go through the usual hoops from Microsoft, too. I've said it a million times, and I'll say it again: It is not my job, it is Microsoft's, to verify licenses and require licensees to present whatever they deem necessary to do so. The license key I purchased from Stack Social was presented, three times, on three different machines, per Microsoft's requirements, and all activated with a digital license linked to my Microsoft account.

I purchased from an online retailer that's been selling MS licenses for years now, and presented what I purchased to Microsoft for verification via the specified mechanisms. They activated the license. I've done everything I can be expected to do. It is not my job to look a gift horse in the mouth when one is presented to me.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Still an amazing deal - $12.50 per machine for PRO is nuts. Still is setting off the 'not real/scam' red alerts in my head lol

PS - Are you Colin Farrell?

Yes and no. It’s legitimate enough that ZDNet has reported the offers they have done in the past. Yet dodgy enough that M$ can claim they will not provide support or fail to reactivate at some point. The simple truth is Microsoft knows there are users out there who refuse to buy full price copies. So Microsoft secretly allows such work arounds so that such users will at least get legitimate copies of the software, with no backdoors, or hacks. This protects the internet from cheap fools who'd engage in warez copying. Your exactly the target for this. And yes at some point you’ll probably get burned and it will deactivate. And you will run right out and buy Windows 12 from some other store all over again.

 

[LordX]

Yes and no. It’s legitimate enough that ZDNet has reported the offers they have done in the past. Yet dodgy enough that M$ can claim they will not provide support or fail to reactivate at some point. The simple truth is Microsoft knows there are users out there who refuse to buy full price copies. So Microsoft secretly allows such work arounds so that such users will at least get legitimate copies of the software, with no backdoors, or hacks. This protects the internet from cheap fools who'd engage in warez copying. Your exactly the target for this. And yes at some point you’ll probably get burned and it will deactivate. And you will run right out and buy Windows 12 from some other store all over again.

OR - with the help of my like minded tech friends - we will discover how to keep the free upgrade path alive! hah

Anyway - I would just think about inexpensive keys this way: This is paying the same amount per license that companies like Dell and HP probably are. Yes I get it, they buy millions, but if the price is good enough to MS for them, it's good enough for me.

Not to mention, at this price - even if it got deactivated EVERY YEAR, it would take 8 years to break even with retail price. By then we will be on Windows 18

 

[LordX]

Amen to that! You said at the outset that this was for your brother, and I doubt he's one of your paid clients. What we're willing to do both for our own family, and to satisfy our own curiosity and urge to find out if it even can be done, is something separate from what one does to get a client's issues resolved as quickly as possible.

Right now I'm trying to apply the 23H2 update using Rufus tweaked install media on an i7-4th gen just to see if I can do it. 22H2 worked, but who knows if I will succeed with updating to 23H2. But I'm doing that to satisfy my own curiosity and there's nothing lost but my own time and effort, which I'm happy to expend.

I am happy you can see the spirit in which my original post was made! How did the 23H2 install go? Rufus is great for building ISO's that bypass the silly hardware (AND local account) restrictions on Windows 11!!!

 

[britechguy]

By the way, when I used the keys I bought to upgrade, I simply went into Settings, System, About Pane, Product Key and Activation and used the "Change" button then entered the new product key.

Windows 10 Home and Pro are exactly the same OS, but the Pro license key "flips certain switches" that activate features not available under Home. That technique has worked perfectly well every time I've used it.

[The 2nd attempted upgrade on the A12-9600P HP laptop is currently at 60% and counting.]

 

[britechguy]

Yet dodgy enough that M$ can claim they will not provide support or fail to reactivate at some point.

So, third party resellers of longstanding are "not to be trusted" because MS might misbehave? Were they to refuse to honor the activation of a license legally purchased, and previously activated, that would reflect awfully badly on MS.

If they're willing to sell at this price, and clearly they are, I'd have to be insane to pay $199 instead of $30. I've yet to have a single license so acquired, or acquired on the grey market from decommissioned computers when it still existed, ever be deactivated at a later date by Microsoft. I've got copies of Office 2016 that were grey market that have been through 3 Windows OS versions and never been deactivated yet.

It's always been cheaper to buy MS licenses from third parties, if you knew how to shop, than direct from Microsoft. At least until M365, where I've never seen a third-party "bargain" and the price is quite reasonable as sold from Microsoft, at least for home and micro business users. And I'm quite sure that mega-businesses get a very greatly reduced price per seat when buying tens of thousands of seats.

 

[nlinecomputers]

So, third party resellers of longstanding are "not to be trusted" because MS might misbehave? Were they to refuse to honor the activation of a license legally purchased, and previously activated, that would reflect awfully badly on MS.

If they're willing to sell at this price, and clearly they are, I'd have to be insane to pay $199 instead of $30. I've yet to have a single license so acquired, or acquired on the grey market from decommissioned computers when it still existed, ever be deactivated at a later date by Microsoft. I've got copies of Office 2016 that were grey market that have been through 3 Windows OS versions and never been deactivated yet.

It's always been cheaper to buy MS licenses from third parties, if you knew how to shop, than direct from Microsoft. At least until M365, where I've never seen a third-party "bargain" and the price is quite reasonable as sold from Microsoft, at least for home and micro business users. And I'm quite sure that mega-businesses get a very greatly reduced price per seat when buying tens of thousands of seats.

And Discount Mountain was around for years too. Not the first time M$ has thrown a partner under the bus. I had to rebuy several such Gray licenses when they went down.

 

[britechguy]

Not the first time M$ has thrown a partner under the bus.

Certainly doesn't burnish the reputation of Microsoft.

But the amount of money I've saved over the decades going the route of discounted licenses is significant, and I would have had to have purchased at least 5 licenses at the prices I've paid (sometimes even more copies) to come close to reaching Microsoft's "suggested retail price."

I'll gladly take the chance for those types of licenses. Anyone who wants an Office 2021 license at the moment had ought to buy it at deep discount, that's for sure.

 

[Porthos]

Max number of device(s): 2 (Use one activation key for up to 2 devices)

Think that is a misprint. Except for the Win 7 family pack upgrade from years ago, There has never been a Windows OS license OEM or Retail good for more than one computer at a time except for MSDN type ones.

 

[britechguy]

@Porthos

All I can do is report what's there, and that when I bought that licence it was 3 devices and I did, indeed, activate 3 devices successfully using the single key I purchased.

 

[Porthos]

@Porthos

All I can do is report what's there, and that when I bought that licence it was 3 devices and I did, indeed, activate 3 devices successfully using the single key I purchased.

It could be an unwritten/officially documented grace for users to transfer it to other systems before having to call MS for activation being exploited.
Would not surprise me to cut down on support calls.

 

[LordX]

@Porthos

All I can do is report what's there, and that when I bought that licence it was 3 devices and I did, indeed, activate 3 devices successfully using the single key I purchased.

How much time passed between each activation?

I had a customer I talked with years ago swear to me that if he used the same key really quickly on two different systems, both would activate. Almost like the activation system hadn't 'caught up' yet and allowed both to activate. (I think this was windows 7 days, but can't remember)

So I was curious if you built 3 new systems and used the key one after the other on the same night, or used it over a period of time.

 

[britechguy]

It was not 3 new systems, but 3 systems with Windows 11 Home.

I think I did the first two within 2 or 3 days of each other, and the other one a few days after that. I definitely did not go running between the machines on the same day, rapidly upgrading all of them.

 

[Rosco]

@sapphirescales: You are certainly entitled to your opinion and position on M365. It is not one that I, or millions of subscribers around the world, both home users, businesses, and educational institutions, share.

I wouldn't go back at this point for love nor money. The M365 Family deal at $99/year is an absolute fire-sale type bargain for what you get.

It makes it so easy to share stuff with my kids. Plus, the parental controls are great.

 

[fincoder]

I purchased from an online retailer that's been selling MS licenses for years now

Stack Social is not the seller, just the marketplace platform. In the link you provided, the seller is "SmartTrainingLab".

I assume you don't think those licenses are legitimate enough to resell them with markup to your customers though?