Microsoft’s introduction of Windows 11 came as a bit of a surprise. When Microsoft debuted the Windows 10 operating system, they made it clear that this would be their final-named OS, and that the following releases would mostly focus on bug fixes, performance improvements, and new features. However, Microsoft recently revealed, to our astonishment, that they would proceed with a new version of Windows after all.
While Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows 11, will be officially unveiled at a special event, there was a leak online of a beta release of the new operating system, triggering some first-look photographs and information describing everything that is new with the new version of Windows.
Microsoft has confirmed that users of Windows 10 will receive a free upgrade to Windows 11, but what you need to know is that once you receive the upgrade, you will need to guarantee that the Windows 11 copy is activated. Failure to do so effectively disables features such as personalization, effectively turning it into a dummy copy with minimal functionality.
Now, if you own a laptop or desktop computer that is legally running Windows 10, your copy of Windows 11 will arrive pre-activated. If, however, your copy of Windows 11 is not activated and you have the product key for your Windows 10 OS on hand, you can use that key to activate Windows 11 and get started.
Let’s take a look at how you can proceed to activate your copy of Windows 11.
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Open the ‘Settings‘ app on your Windows 11 PC or laptop.
In the settings menu, click on the ‘Updates and Security‘ option.
In the left-hand side pane, click on the ‘Activation‘ option. You will now see the various available settings on the right-hand side window.
Now, if you want to enter the new product key for activation, click on the ‘Change Product Key‘ option.
Now, you can enter the product key that you received for activating Windows 10.
Your copy of Windows 11 will now be activated.
What we find fascinating is that you may activate your copy of Windows 11 using the same product key that you used to activate your copy of Windows 7, 8, or 8.1. This plainly means that PC owners who are running either of these variants of Windows will be able to update for free, which is really encouraging news for them. Even though Microsoft has given this operating system a new version number, what we have seen so far suggests it is a more matured version of Windows 10, with some much-needed UI tweaks and marginally better performance.
