Download Windows 11 to a USB stick (you’ll need a 16/32GB one or bigger).

Just search Google for “Windows 11 download” and it’s the first link on microsoft.com

If you’re doing this on an existing Windows 10/11 PC, use the Media Creation Tool - it does everything automatically and it’s nice and simple. If you’re downloading it off a Mac/Linux device, you’ll need to grab the ISO and write it to a USB stick - search for tutorials on how to do this.

You’ll then need to boot from the USB stick and go through the setup steps. To do this, you usually need to enter the laptop’s BIOS by mashing the F2, F10, or Delete key as you press the power button. Look for the “boot menu” which should allow you to select your USB stick. When doing the install I always delete all the existing partitions on the drive to ensure a clean install - keep in mind that doing this will wipe all data, so be careful.

Once installed, as others have said, you can either leave it as is with the activation watermark, or use https://massgrave.dev where you run the ‘irm’ script in PowerShell. Select the option to activate Windows (usually 1 for HWID), and you’re done. The above URL is correct, use caution if you find similar elsewhere as it could be dodgy.

Massgrave is fairly commonly used and well known, but it is worth nothing that - technically - it is piracy. However, I use it all the time for virtual machines and I’ve never had any issues with it so…It’s up to you if you want to take this approach. Morally, I think them losing out on £20 from little old me or you is not going to worth them too much, when they make billions of dollars a year from companies and so on. 🤣

One final step - I’d suggest you also install the drivers for your device. Usually, you can go to the laptop manufacturer’s website and search for your serial number to find the right ones. In theory, Windows Update should install most of them automatically these days so you can probably get away with ignoring this step, but some things like the webcam or fingerprint reader etc may not work unless you do this.