Microsoft warned us final month that our favourite Windows improve loophole was over, however now it’s official: The activation servers now not allow you to use Windows 7 or 8 license keys to activate Windows 10 or 11. (Cue “Taps.”)

This change was confirmed this week by The Verge, which had earlier found that Microsoft didn’t instantly block Windows 7 and eight keys after the company’s September 20 announcement.

The dying of the free improve was a very long time coming, after all—Microsoft’s provide formally ended again in 2016, only one 12 months after the launch of Windows 10. No one anticipated that seven years later, you would nonetheless use the license key from a dusty 2010 PC to your shiny-new 2023 gaming construct. Time will inform if Windows 10 licenses will proceed this custom. (Here’s to hoping.)

At the second, the one remaining free improve is the one from Windows 10 to Windows 11, supplied your {hardware} passes the take a look at. (Though that can be fudged.) So in the event you’re on an outdated PC operating Windows 7 or 8, you’ll have to search out another way to upgrade cheaply, except you activated Windows 10 earlier than the cutoff after which rolled again. Then the free improve nonetheless holds.

As unhappy as this last dying knell is, issues had been good whereas they lasted. Rest in peace, you fantastic loophole.