Microsoft Now Sells Windows 11 Licenses Directly to PC DIYers

Microsoft launched Windows 11 last October, but until recently, PC DIYers couldn’t purchase a license direct. A few hours ago, PCMag noticed that Microsoft had added some long-awaited Windows 11 purchasing options for DIY and custom PCs. Microsoft implemented the purchasing pages without fanfare. We can’t be sure when, but the Internet Archive reveals these pages weren’t available in early May this year.

 Windows 11 Home and Windows 11 Pro are available to purchase and download from Microsoft at $139 and $199.99, respectively. These are the same prices that Microsoft currently charges for Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro. However, for those wishing to jump straight to the newer OS on their new DIY machine, the new downloads will save time – cutting out the extra steps of searching for Windows updates, downloading them, then applying them to Windows 10. The result will likely be a more compact OS installation too.

If you have a PC already on the Windows 11 train, you can grab the Windows 11 ISO if you want to do a complete refresh – a clean install. We have a guide to that process and how to install Windows 11 without a Microsoft Account and bypass Windows 11's TPM, CPU, and RAM requirements.

Windows 11 has started to gain traction in recent months since Microsoft ironed out the most significant issues and flaws. In addition, building a new Intel PC with a top-end Alder Lake CPU using a mix of Performance and Efficiency cores is particularly attractive due to its new scheduler, which helps the OS and applications make appropriate use of the unequal cores. The same will be true when Intel's 13th Generation Raptor Lake lands on the market in October.

The first big feature update to Windows 11, version 22H2, is due this fall and might begin a new wave of adoption if early reports and reviews are favorable.