The hack which many have taken advantage of, using Windows 7/8's old product keys to install the latest OS including Windows 10 and 11 is now gone, as Microsoft enforced a new directive for this.

Microsoft has stopped allowing users to activate Windows 11 and 10 installations with Windows 7 and 8 product keys. This is because they have stopped supporting these older operating systems.

At least for now, though, it seems like this change will only apply to future Windows versions. We were able to activate a fresh Windows 11 Pro 22H2 install with a Windows 8 Pro product key as of ...