Windows 10 Home to Pro

CrimsonKnight13

CrimsonKnight13

Lord Stabington of [H]ard|Fortress
Joined
Jan 8, 2008
Messages
8,439
What is the best way to upgrade to Pro?

I have a few Windows 8 Pro Retail keys that are unused at the moment. Can I do an in-place upgrade to 10 Pro by using the 8 Pro key or do I have to use the 10 Home to Pro "upgrade" key before entering the 8 Pro key for activation?
 
use a pro key and do an upgrade. Once you use the new product key, it will upgrade to pro
 
once you install win 10 as an upgrade you can clean install it as many times as you want

and a clean install is always better then an upgrade install with any MS operating system

the recent version of Win 10 allows you to do clean install using only a valid product key from win 7 8 / 8,1 to 10

you can get the media creation tool here
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10

if your OS was pre installed as an OEM version of win 7 / 8 \ 8.1 you may need to run the tool as an upgrade first ..after it activates no product key will be needed as long as your installing it to the same hardware (an yea you can change a few things like go from a platter drive to ssd or change out a vid card and it'll still activate fine..but not possibly major hardware changes like a motherboard and CPU
if you do not change any hardware it'll auto activate on its own so no need to enter in any product key during a reinstall of windows 10 ( your key = a hardware hashtag stored on the Microsoft activation servers )
 
Last edited:
I probably should add that I have Windows 10 Home TH2 (1511) cleanly installed on a tablet (Chuwi Hi8).

It originally came with Android 4.4 & Windows 10 Home OEM (RTM) preinstalled. I decided to go with a clean install of Home TH2 only since it auto-activates due to the UEFI having the SLIC integrated for Chuwi. Overall, its a pain to deal with since I have to hook up a USB hub via USB OTG daisy chaining with a keyboard, mouse, & USB install media.

The install media for Windows 10 TH2 never asked me for a key & after the initial boot, it auto-activated through SLP/SLIC. I'm at the stage where I think I could still throw the Windows 8 Pro key into it & do an in-place upgrade. Am I correct with this flow of thought or does it need the Home to Pro TH2 non-activating upgrade key before using the 8 Pro key (after it has upgrade to Pro)? I don't think a clean install will change the install process that I've gone through already at this point (no key entered on my part so far).
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top