Microsoft first made this option available in Windows 10 version Since then, they have simplified the process dramatically. Here's the scoop. Some vendors offer an upgrade option as part of the purchase, but many PCs sold in the retail channel are preloaded with Home edition.
This could also be the case if you took advantage of the free Windows 10 upgrade offer on a PC running a Home edition of Windows 7 or Windows 8.
In either case, the upgrade takes just a few minutes. You'll see a succession of progress screens and your system will restart. After the upgrade completes, you should see a Success notification. Check the Activation screen again to confirm that you're now running Windows 10 Pro.
After you've successfully performed a Home-to-Pro upgrade, you can file that product key away. Your upgrade is now a digital license, attached to your unique hardware. If you perform a reinstallation of Windows, Microsoft's activation servers will recognize the hardware and activate Windows 10 automatically. I have tested this scenario multiple times on hardware that originally shipped with Windows Home and was upgraded to Windows 10 Pro.
After the upgrade was complete, I used a bootable USB flash drive containing Windows 10 setup files to reinstall a clean copy of Windows 10 Pro, skipping the option to enter a product key as part of setup, as shown below. When prompted, be sure to choose Windows 10 Pro as the edition to install. The system was properly activated, because Microsoft's servers recognized the hardware and used the digital license.
The ultimate Windows 10 information hub. Looking for technical information about Windows 10 releases, new features, known issues, troubleshooting, and tech support? Start here. The one gotcha in this series of scenarios comes when you have a system that includes digital licenses for both Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro. In that scenario, you can inadvertently restore Windows 10 Home. This happened recently when I used a recovery image to reinstall Windows 10 on a Surface Pro PC that had originally shipped with Windows 10 Home and had been upgraded to Windows 10 Pro.
Not surprisingly, using the recovery image gave me an installation of Windows 10 Home. If that happens to you, don't bother searching for the product key you used to upgrade. Instead, use Microsoft's generic product key to force the upgrade. Next, enter the default Windows 10 Pro product key:. Follow the prompts to upgrade from Home to Pro.
Because your hardware already has a digital license for the Pro edition, it will activate automatically. That generic product key isn't magical, of course.
If your hardware doesn't already have a Pro license, you'll get an activation error and you'll need to supply a proper product key or pay for an upgrade. This article has been completely rewritten to incorporate developments in recent feature updates to Windows You can easily roll back Windows 11 to Windows 10, until this bonkers policy kicks in.
With rollout of 21H2, Microsoft moves Windows 10 to annual updates. So pick a genuine deal now if you want to save more money on your total bill. Windows 10 activation key free download. Windows 10 activation key free. Product key for windows 10 home free.
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