Windows 11 pro license will activate on a windows 10 pro machine?

[lan101]

I noticed stack social doesn't have windows 10 licenses on sale anymore. I see online randomly it's claimed that an 11 license will activate on 10. Can anyone validate that? Never attempted that before.

Thank you.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Windows 11 doesn't exist, there is only Windows 10. Windows 11 is a hardware requirement update sold as a new OS.

The licensing is the same, the system requirements are not.

And yes, Microsoft will not sell you an OS that leaves support in a few months. The lack of ability to purchase Windows 10 is proper, and I do not understand why anyone would be deploying Windows 10 fresh in February, when it dies in October. But, yes... you can use Windows 10 or 11 keys on each other all day long, because again, the licensing is the same.

 

[lan101]

Windows 11 doesn't exist, there is only Windows 10. Windows 11 is a hardware requirement update sold as a new OS.

The licensing is the same, the system requirements are not.

And yes, Microsoft will not sell you an OS that leaves support in a few months. The lack of ability to purchase Windows 10 is proper, and I do not understand why anyone would be deploying Windows 10 fresh in February, when it dies in October. But, yes... you can use Windows 10 or 11 keys on each other all day long, because again, the licensing is the same.

Thank you for the verification. Long story short. Old customer with an old desktop pc that had windows 7 that was upgraded to 10 after they pulled the plug on the licensing coming over. So to get the watermark in the corner gone that's the only reason. They have a few old programs etc. they use on it so I figured if they could get a license for $20-$30 bucks it'd be worth it on that ancient machine lol.

 

[fincoder]

If you're going to break the rules and use a dodgy key such as those from stack social, you might as well just use the github activation scripts.

 

[lan101]

If you're going to break the rules and use a dodgy key such as those from stack social, you might as well just use the github activation scripts.

Yeah I usually don't advise it or promote it but the customer asked me on getting these cheap keys online so I told them that the stack social ones seemed to work in the few times I've tried them before. Is what it is I told them they could definitely try it if they wanted to.

But on an old clunker desktop that's over 12 years old I don't blame them.

 

[Sky-Knight]

I'm rather confused why anyone would care about the watermark. The OEM license that was imaged didn't have virtualization rights to begin with, and any random key isn't going to solve the problem.

Furthermore, as per: https://download.microsoft.com/down...g_windows_desktop_os_for_virtual_machines.pdf

Virtualization Rights are only available for the desktop OS via the Volume, Enterprise, or CSP licensing programs. The "retail" key doesn't contain this right, despite many of us using it as such.

Microsoft doesn't really enforce this however, so it's an academic argument and position to maintain. Use of a grey market key, or a fully valid one will result in the same improperly licensed usage.