Microsoft silently kills the final solution to activate Home windows with out web

In accordance with Neowin, Microsoft has killed the ultimate methodology for activating Home windows with out an web connection—that’s, activation by phone. It seems to have been discontinued a couple of days in the past.

Microsoft hasn’t formally introduced the top of phone activation, and the corresponding menu merchandise in Home windows continues to be obtainable. However customers have reported that the corresponding perform not works, and that solely a brief voice message is performed when calling the phone quantity. In accordance with person stories, anybody who calls the Home windows activation quantity within the US will solely hear this message:

Help for product activation has moved on-line. For the quickest and most handy solution to activate your product, please go to our on-line product activation portal at aka.ms/aoh

And on this YouTube video, Ben Kleinberg demonstrates this expertise:

Microsoft nonetheless explicitly mentions the choice of phone activation for Home windows 11 and Home windows 10, and even for Home windows 8.1 and Home windows 7. Phone activation can be explicitly talked about on this Microsoft help web page. Nowhere does Microsoft say that it has formally ended phone activation, however maybe that announcement is coming.