You can now buy a physical copy of Windows 11

XDA

If you've been wanting to buy a physical copy of Windows 11, you can now do that, as Microsot has started selling USB installation drives.

Windows 11 has been out for over half a year at this point, but if you've been wanting to buy a physical copy of the OS, now is the time to do it. Until now, the only way to get Windows 11 was to upgrade your Windows 10 PC or buy a new PC with Windows 11 installed out of the box. However, it's recently been spotted that you can now buy a physical copy of Windows 11 Home or Pro for yourself.

The retail copies were first spotted by Twitter user Luke Blevins (via OnMSFT) over the weekend, but they may have been available for a little longer than that. The Best Buy listings for the products indicate that they were first made available on April 14th, roughly six months from the official launch. Still, since Microsoft never announced that physical copies were available to buy, many probably didn't realize it.

Of course, there isn't much of a purpose to buying a physical copy at first glance. Most laptops already come with Windows 11 anyway, and if they come with Windows 10, you can just upgrade it yourself. You can also just buy a license online. But the physical copy does give you a USB flash drive to use as installation media right out of the box. Sure, you can use any flash drive to install Windows 11, but this does make the process easier if you're setting up a brand-new PC you just built, for example. Plus, you get a neat little box if you're into collecting this kind of thing. The box itself prominently displays the Windows 11 Bloom background and it uses a light theme for Windows 11 Home or a dark theme for Windows 11 Pro, which makes for more appealing packaging compared to Windows 10.

Just like a digital license, a physical copy of Windows 11 Home costs $139.99, while Windows 11 Pro costs $199.99, so you're not paying extra for the physical edition. The license is valid for a single PC. Keep in mind, your PC will still need to meet the minimum requirements for Windows 11 if you want to have a smooth experience with it. If you're interested, you can buy it below.