The company has successfully converted its Office applications into a subscription offering for both consumers and businesses, and one suspects that Microsoft would love to do the same with Windows. Windows licenses are still a big part of Microsoft’s revenue, although not the lion’s share of the revenue that they once were. Even those who undertake substantial upgrades of their current PC can find that Windows refuses to re-activate on their machine, because many Windows licenses are tied to the particular hardware that the operating system shipped with. People who want to build their own PC from scratch also have to purchase a Windows license. It’s worth remembering that although it’s highly likely that Microsoft will offer some form of free upgrade path from Windows 10 to Windows 11, the operating system is not free.Īs Michael Cherry points out, “many consumers get new OS versions when they purchase a new device, and the price of the OS is factored into the bill of materials”. Microsoft will likely confirm what the plan is on Thursday, although the final code probably won’t arrive until the fall. That said, leaked builds of the Windows 11 code do suggest there will be an upgrade path for Windows 7 and Windows 8 users, according to a report on Windows Latest. Microsoft might wisely decide that encouraging owners of these old systems to take a free upgrade to Windows 11 will likely only lead to frustration or failure. Although Microsoft has yet to unveil the minimum specifications for Windows 11, it’s highly unlikely to run smoothly on such old hardware. Windows 10 was released in 2015, meaning any Windows 8 PCs are at least six years old and Windows 7 systems will likely be even older. There’s another good reason why Windows 7 and Windows 8 users might not be offered a free upgrade - their PCs might simply not be up to it.

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