This is the page that saves people money and disappointment. The free upgrade is real, but it upgrades your Windows - not your licence. If Windows 10 was never genuinely activated, Windows 11 will not be either, and here is exactly how that works.
Somewhere between the honest free upgrade and the outright scam sits a misunderstanding worth real money: the belief that upgrading to Windows 11 activates Windows. It does not, it cannot, and knowing why protects you from every cheap-key shop and miracle activation tool on the internet. This page explains the licence mechanics in plain language.
Example activation outcomes - a licensed Windows 10 produces an activated Windows 11; an unlicensed one produces the same watermark on a newer desktop.
Modern Windows activation is a digital licence: Microsoft's servers remember that this specific hardware is entitled to run a specific edition of Windows. When you upgrade, that entitlement is simply re-issued for Windows 11. Nothing is bought, nothing is granted, nothing is forgiven. Think of it as a passport being re-stamped for a new country - the passport has to exist first. This is why the upgrade is free: Microsoft is not giving you Windows, it is letting the Windows you already own change its clothes.
If your Windows 10 shows the Activate Windows watermark, runs with personalisation locked, or was installed with a key found on a random website, the upgrade changes the wallpaper of your problem, not the problem. Windows 11 will install, it will look new, and it will still be unactivated - watermark, locked settings and all. No installer, assistant or update changes this arithmetic, because activation is checked against Microsoft's servers, not against hope.
Two minutes of checking now prevents a watermark surprise later:
slmgr /xpr in Command Prompt - a permanently activated machine says so plainly, while a temporary or absent activation shows an expiry or a not-activated message.The only honest cure for an unactivated PC is a genuine licence: a retail key from Microsoft or an authorised seller, or a PC that ships with Windows from the manufacturer. Be suspicious of keys sold for the price of a pizza - volume and abused keys are routinely blocked by Microsoft, sometimes months later, returning the watermark with interest. And the too-good trick tools that claim to activate Windows permanently for free are not a licence at all; they are exactly the kind of software that brings malware home. A licence is boring paperwork. That is what makes it real.
On a company machine, activation is the IT department's licence agreement doing the work - volume activation through the organisation's servers. If an office PC shows activation trouble before an upgrade, the fix travels through IT and their agreements, never through a key typed in from the internet. Upgrading such a machine privately upgrades nothing about its licence; it just moves the expiry message to a newer desktop.
See the full free upgrade done live, step by step, for complete knowledge of the process.
Watch Full VideoThe upgrade may install if the hardware qualifies, but Windows 11 will remain unactivated - the watermark and locked personalisation settings come along. The upgrade moves your licence situation to the new version exactly as it was. To end up activated, you need a genuine licence for Windows; the upgrade itself never supplies one.
Open Settings - System - Activation and look for the words activated with a digital licence, or run slmgr /xpr in Command Prompt for a permanent activation message. If you signed in with a Microsoft account, the licence is also linked to that account, which you can confirm on the same Activation page - that link protects you if you later change major hardware.
They are a gamble, not a licence strategy. Very cheap keys are frequently volume, OEM or resold keys that violate their terms, and Microsoft does deactivate them - sometimes long after purchase, leaving you unactivated again with no seller to answer. The safe sources are Microsoft itself, authorised retailers, or a licence that came with the PC from its manufacturer.