You can download Windows 11 for free.
First, take a full system-image backup of your computer to use as a fallback. You can always restore to that image in lieu of a reinstall, and you’ll be back to where you were at the time the backup was taken.
You could also get in touch with the vendor who sold you the computer. They provided you with a copy once; perhaps they’ll be willing to get you a replacement copy.
You could buy a new copy of Windows. Most people aren’t interested in doing that because they don’t want to pay for something they feel they’ve already purchased.
That’s when most people resort to finding a place from which to download Windows. Depending on the version of Windows and where you find it, it might be legal.
Or it might not.
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Downloading Windows
Windows 8.1, 10, and 11 can all be downloaded from Microsoft directly. You can upgrade any machine already running a licensed copy of Windows to Windows 10 or 11 for free. Otherwise, you’ll need to purchase a license key.
Big fat legal caveat
It’s been my understanding for years that downloading a copy of Windows from just about anywhere was illegal. Even if you had a copy of a product key to activate it, simply downloading a copy of the software would break copyright law.
I believe that’s still true for versions prior to Windows 8.1. I know of no legal places to download Windows XP, Vista, or 7.
Beginning with Windows 7, Microsoft made full ISOs of the operating system available for download.
But you’ll still need your product key. The product key cannot be downloaded for free; you’ll need to have one that works (and not all do) or purchase a new one. (There are some exceptions around Windows 10’s upgrade path.)
Legal issues aside, I will say this: in my opinion, downloading Windows is ethical if and only if you already have a valid, purchased product key, or the machine you are installing on already has a digital license from a previous installation.
So I must cover my assets and include this bottom-line caveat: if you elect to get this download from anywhere other than Microsoft itself, you assume all risk and potential liability relating to its legality. (Not to mention its security.)
Download Windows 11
Download Windows 11 here.
That’s a download of the US-English version directly from Microsoft.
Even though Windows 11 may automatically download on some machines, downloading the ISO or running the installation assistant is often the fastest, most reliable way to perform an upgrade or re-install.
Download Windows 10
Download Windows 10 here.
Once again, that’s a download of the US-English version directly from Microsoft.
Download Windows 8.1
You can still download Windows 8.1 in ISO form directly from Microsoft here.1
Again, the link is to the US-English download site.
Important things to know about your Windows download
It’s big: really big; you’re looking at a download of several gigabytes for most Windows editions. Depending on your internet speed, that could be anywhere from an hour to several days’ worth of download. This is true whether you download an ISO file to be burned to a DVD or run the Media Creation Tool which should let you create a bootable USB.
It’s not OEM. These downloads are the generic, retail versions of Windows. If your machine came with a copy customized by your Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), then those customizations will not be present and your product key may not work. Product-key issues aside, this typically means that after installing this copy, you need to get any missing applications and drivers from the computer manufacturer directly.
If your product key doesn’t work
Again, make sure you download the edition of Windows for which your product key was originally issued. That means matching the Windows version (8.1, 10, or 11), the edition (Home, Pro, Ultimate, etc.), and possibly bit-ness (32 or 64).
If your product key is an OEM product key, as I said earlier, it may not work with the retail version download. There’s no legal way around this I’m aware of other than to return to your computer manufacturer and ask for a replacement Windows disc or purchase a retail Windows product key.
You can, of course, download Windows without having a product key at all. Windows 10 and 11 will run, but an assortment of features will be disabled until you activate the product with a key.
Do this
You can purchase Windows as a direct download from Microsoft, including a valid product key. But if all you’re looking to do is re-install a previously installed version of Windows, or potentially take advantage of a free update, there’s no need. Download the edition you want, type in the product key, and you’re on your way.
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Footnotes & References
1: Honestly, this still surprises me.
“1: Honestly, this still surprises me.” It also surprised me since it hasn’t been supported for a year and a half, but maybe not so surprising as Microsoft continues to offer the older updates to their no longer supported OSes.
Recently, my Windows 11 installation on my desktop PC began to display warnings that Windows needed to be activated, after I had been using it, activated, for several years. When I attempted to re-activate it, the process failed, directing me to the Microsoft Store to purchase a legitimate product key (the Windows 7 keys I originally used no longer worked). I discovered that a product key from the Microsoft Store would cost me about $200.00(US), so I called Microsoft support to get help. Their response was that since Windows 10 had reached E.O.L., my product Windows 7/8 product keys would no longer work, so unless there’s a digital license store on my computer, or in my Microsoft account for my desktop PC, I’d have to purchase a new one. I decided to remove Windows from my desktop PC rather than pay $200.00(US) for a new key
A few weeks later, I saw an item on a ZDNet newsletter I get, informing me that I can get a Windows 11 product key for $20.00(US). I decided to get one, and re-installed Windows 11 on my desktop PC. Activation succeeded with the new product key, and I’m able to keep my Windows 11 desktop PC installation working legally.
For me, the bottom line here is that there’s always a solution for every problem. Sometimes the solution requires patience, diligence, and caution. This time, the solution included a bit of good timing too. The main caveat, here, is that you should exercise extreme care when purchasing Windows product keys from sources other than Microsoft. I trust ZDNet, otherwise I would not have made the purchase. I never trust most of what comes from the Internet, ever, and you shouldn’t either!
Ernie (Oldster)
You can never count on Microsoft product keys working anymore – because now Microsoft wants to do some type of online validation, and good luck with that. My experiences include
– Three Windows 10 keys bought from Microsoft.com and they don’t work.
– Office 2019 retail key won’t work on re-installation.
– Similar with Windows 7 and Vista (don’t laugh) on re-installation.
On the other hand, on three machines, I downloaded Windows 10 (22H2) and installed and they all activated automatically, never asking for a key! The best part is that all these installed as Windows 10 Pro.
Every time you reinstall a Microsoft product you risk disaster, or you can get lucky.
A word about Ernie (Oldster)’s experience with the $20 key. Most of the keys sold online are not retail, they are OEM or MSDN. OEM is garbage and won’t work. The MSDN are for developers and will allow a fixed number of installations. The sellers sell multiple copies of these, expecting each buyer to be able to activate their product one time – because other buyers would have used up the allotment of installations. So, if it works once, it may not work on a re-install. Of course, sellers won’t tell you that.
Another word about downloading from a legitimate site (aka Microsoft). If you think you’ll ever need these OSs (11, 10, 8) in the future, then download them now, save the ISOs and also make DVD/USB images of them. You never know.
There’s no compelling reason to download an ISO or install to a installation medium until you need it. If you download now and need it in the future, the version you have will be very old. It will work, but the installation process will take much longer due to mmany updates. Probably longer than the download and installation time installing a more recent version. The only compelling reason to download it now is if you don’t know anybody who can download it for you. Or you may want a copy just in case.
In response to aa1234aa, I only wanted that product key to enable me to re-install and activate Windows 11 on my desktop PC again. I’ve re-installed Windows 11 once on that machine since then, and my license seems to have been saved to my Microsoft account (or perhaps to my UEFI partition), because I didn’t have to re-enter the key to activate Windows after the re-installation. I agree that Microsoft product keys are notorious for working today but not tomorrow, and that’s yet another reason for me to work toward dropping Windows all together if the next major release contains everything I fear it will (AI everywhere, adds I cannot disable, etc.), but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.
Ernie (Oldster)
Once Windows is activated on a computer, reinstalls and upgrades are activated via a Digital License that doesn’t require you to enter a product key. Digital licenses are associated with your hardware and linked to your Microsoft account.How they do it is all Voodoo.
To Mark Jacobs: “There’s no compelling reason to download an ISO …”
There is absolutely a compelling reason to maintain a backup of everything that now works on your machines. Yes, you may have image backups, but a backup of the original ISO or installation package is important. The reason is that a new version of something may no longer work for you, it’s features may have changed or retrograded, it may no longer be free. Software vendors strive to make their products incompatible over time so that you’re forced into a new version. A new version of Windows OS downloaded a few years from now may not work with your favorite applications (almost guaranteed).
I suppose our perspectives are different because I use a computer as a tool to do work. My priority is to get my job done with as little hassle as possible from the tools (OS). Your business is to deal with the latest and greatest OS and applications, so the old stuff don’t matter.
One does not even need a product key to get Win10/11 (Pro or whatever version you want) for free with a certain thing on Github (I won’t mention it for now as I am not sure if that’s allowed here or not(?)) and it’s a permanent activation at the hardware level as after using it you can completely wipe your boot drive with a official Windows ISO straight from Microsoft’s website and during activation skip over the part where it asks for the key etc and once you get to the desktop you will see your Windows is automatically activated.
I never bought a key to use Windows and never will. but I guess one could say I paid for Windows at some point but that would have been the last time I bought a pre-built PC which would have been 2001 (I have been using PC’s at home since 1995) and I have only had two primary PC’s since, of which I built, which are in 2006 (currently my backup PC but it’s motherboard is in the case from the 2001 PC right now) and in 2012 (my current main PC). I have pretty much used just about all Windows from Win v3.11 through Windows 10 on my primary PC at one point lacking Windows 8 which it’s interface upon release was horrible so I never bothered with that again. but one could basically say there have really only been three dominate OS’s from Microsoft over the last 20 years or so which is WinXP/Win7/Win10.
while I use Linux Mint on my primary PC etc… using that same thing on Github works in activating my virtual machine(s) (QEMU/KVM). but I noticed for the activation to remain working after a new virtual machine creation one has to use the same UUID of the virtual machines virtual HDD setup when you “activated” it for it to be automatically activated after clean installing Windows 10/11 in it (otherwise you have to re-run the Github software again at which point it just creates a new activation which will be lost if you create a new VM since the UUID will change, which is why I just write down the UUID of the VM I am using for future use as this way I don’t have to re-run that Github stuff to get a activated Windows 10/11 copy since I just force the UUID I know is activated at the time I create the new VM). but on a real machine this won’t be a issue.
anyways… I definitely think a person is wise to keep a bootable USB stick with Windows (and/or Linux) on it (say with ‘Ventoy’ software which is free) as even if it gets a bit outdated, at least you have a reliable way to wipe a drive and get Windows up and running again should you need it in a emergency. this is especially important if you don’t have more than one computer.
p.s. but after getting used to Linux (I have used it on my primary PC etc for over 5 years now), while I realize it won’t be a option for everyone, I don’t miss the excess bloat/junk of Windows at all as Windows should strive to be a bit more like Linux in that regard as it’s more stripped down/basic instead of loading it up with junk.
Microsoft is interested in making money (not a bad thing in itself). Nowadays, it seems like they are going a few steps too far with their heavy handedness. I don’t expect them to back off uness they find it costs them customers (unlikely). For those who are bothered enough, let your fingers do the walking (on your keyboard) and install Linux. Get Mint and you’ll have the basics down in half a day. Unless you use programs that don’t have a Linux alternative, it will do everything you need. Check out Alternativeto.net for any programs you’ve been using on Windows-