The sad news is here for all the Windows 7 and 8 users. Microsoft has finally announced that the Free Windows 11 upgrade is no longer available to Windows 7 and 8. Notably, Microsoft had ended the free Windows upgrade option for older Windows users back in July 2016.
Free Windows 11 upgrade is no longer available to Windows 7 and 8 users
The company released the Windows 10 update to users worldwide around seven years ago in July 2015. The company gave older Windows users to upgrade to the latest Windows update for free, for a year.
Windows 11 System Requirements
- Processor: 1GHz or faster with 2 or more cores on a compatible 64-bit SoC.
- RAM: 4GB.
- Storage: 64GB or more.
- GPU: Compatible with DirectX 12 or later with WDDM 2.0 driver.
- Display: 720p display larger than 9-inch diagonally, 8 bits per colour channel.
To recall, the free Windows 10 upgrade was ended by Microsoft in 2016. The same process is now up for Windows 11. However, a loophole in the installation path for the free Windows 11 update allowed older Windows 7 and 8 users to download the newest update for free. This was despite the fact that Microsoft ended the free upgrade support for Windows 7 and 8, years ago. Using this loophole, Windows 7 and 8 users were able to download the Windows 11 update by using old Windows 7/8 keys. And for some reason, Microsoft continued to allow the loophole to be exploited.