When Microsoft first launched the Windows operating system, installing it was only a matter of copying the program onto a disk. You didn't have to verify your copy of Windows. Starting with Windows XP ...

Windows Activation helps verify that your copy of Windows is genuine and hasn’t been used on more devices than the Microsoft Software License Terms allow. 1] Are you using the right product key? Make ...

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 this ...