Bad news for those planning to activate Windows 11 with a Windows 7 or 8/8.1 key: users noticed that the latest Windows 11 preview builds no longer allow activation with old license keys.
To be fair, nobody actually NEEDS to deal with this nonsense. Windows works just fine without an activated key, literally the only downside is the “Please activate Windows” bug on your desktop. That’s it, everything else works fine.
Not exactly, can’t customize it either or change certain settings. I know this because I just built a new PC and the key I had didn’t work for 2 days while I had support figure it out.
Absolutely, it’s not the worst. I had a client who had me rebuild their work pc for them and the key they gave me didn’t work. They never ended up bothering getting it to work since it was a work pc and didn’t really care if they could change the background or theme. This was Win 10, I think 11 has a few more settings locked out but it’s not bad really.
I did recently and have regrets yet . Been using to run yuzu perfectly and most games I’ve tried work great other than some games that use certain anti cheats . Going to work on RGB control soon once I have time. And I have a windows VM to adjust the controls easily on my mouse and gaming keypad which I almost never need to change.
Jumped the windows ship long ago. So glad I don’t need to deal with this nonsense anymore.
To be fair, nobody actually NEEDS to deal with this nonsense. Windows works just fine without an activated key, literally the only downside is the “Please activate Windows” bug on your desktop. That’s it, everything else works fine.
But yes, using Linux is also a great option.
Not exactly, can’t customize it either or change certain settings. I know this because I just built a new PC and the key I had didn’t work for 2 days while I had support figure it out.
Yeah, but nothing that prevents you from using your computer.
Customisation is just aesthetics
Absolutely, it’s not the worst. I had a client who had me rebuild their work pc for them and the key they gave me didn’t work. They never ended up bothering getting it to work since it was a work pc and didn’t really care if they could change the background or theme. This was Win 10, I think 11 has a few more settings locked out but it’s not bad really.
I don’t think system wide dark theme works without a key, although there are workarounds of course.
I’m going to fully assess what actual windows software I rely on any more and migrate all of my systems to a Linux based os this weekend I think.
The amount of games that I play that work on my Steam deck already confirms that I’ll be fine there.
I probably spin up a windows vm that I could remote into from my homelab if I’ve missed anything I do need to run.
Ya I’m thinking I’ll just try some version of linux on my old laptop
I did recently and have regrets yet . Been using to run yuzu perfectly and most games I’ve tried work great other than some games that use certain anti cheats . Going to work on RGB control soon once I have time. And I have a windows VM to adjust the controls easily on my mouse and gaming keypad which I almost never need to change.