How to Buy a Windows 11 Retail Key

The short answer to this question is No as you can’t buy a Windows retail product key currently. There is no purchase link available on Windows 11’s product page. Only a SHOP DEVICES option is presented. This means you can only purchase a Windows 11 PC or laptop from Microsoft at the time I am writing on this post.

However, there is a workaround, and in this tutorial, we will give you a step-by-step guide to buy a retail key being applied to Windows 11.

Actually, Microsoft is not selling Windows 11 as of today. Instead, they are promoting it either as an upgrade from previous versions of Windows, or as a new device with Windows 11 preinstalled. Microsoft does have plans on selling Windows 11 as a product in future, but there are no clear indications at present as to when this will happen.

What is the workaround?

Simple. You buy a license for Windows 10, and then upgrade Windows 10 to Windows 11 automatically.

If you purchase a Windows 10 Home license, it will upgrade to a Windows 11 Home license, a Windows 10 Pro license will upgrade to a Windows 11 Pro license and so on.

Should I buy a Windows 10 retail license then?

Yes. the retail license for Windows 10 will be applied automatically once the device has been upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11. This is an automated process and no additional work gets involved.

Also, retail license is transferable to another machine. The license agreement will allow you to do this as long as you have removed Windows from the old computer you first used it on. In here, I would suggest you to keep any proof of purchase if you ever need to contact Microsoft support in case activation does not work on a subsequent use of the key, they might ask for it.

How to Activate Windows 11 with Windows 10 Product Key

We know it does, which is why we prepared this tutorial. Simply follow each step below, tick off the ones you have completed, and move to the next step. You’ll do just fine.

For direct upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11

You don’t need to do anything special to activate Windows 11 after direct upgrade. Just follow the instructions on the computer when Windows 11 upgrade is available. As far as I know, only the devices that meet Windows 11 system requirements will get Windows 11 upgrade notice.

Microsoft has been rolling out Windows 11 for free to its users as an upgrade. There’s a high chance that your device is eligible for it by now. Here’s how to check it.

Open Windows 10 settings on desktop and click on Settings -> Windows Update -> Check for updates.

Wait about two minutes, a Download and Install button will be shown on this window if the device is eligible for direct upgrade. Now, follow the instructions on the screen to upgrade to Windows 11 on this computer. Once done, Windows 11 will be activated by default.

For clean install of Windows 11 (on the same machine or another)

First thing we will do is to purchase a Windows 10 license. If you already have a Windows 10 Retail license then you can skip directly to the next step. You can purchase the license directly from Microsoft or from any third-party website like Amazon or Newegg.

If this Windows 10 PC did not receive Windows 11 upgrade notification, you need to download Windows 11 ISO and clean install Windows 11 on this computer or another one. Here’s what you need to do:

First, copy and paste Windows 10 product key in a safe place.

Next, plug in a USB flash drive and download Windows 11 Media Creation Tool to create a Windows 11 bootable USB.

After that, boot the computer from installation USB and start installing Windows 11 on the device. You will see a prompt asking for Windows product key. Please enter the Windows 10 product key saved previously to activate this Windows 11 copy.

Finally, follow the screen instructions and you’ll be able to install Windows 11 on this computer.