What is the best upgrade path for 8.1 to 10 pro

Night Hawk · 20 Aug 2015

One solution here since I may have some 8 Home laptops while having upgrade two 7 Ultimate and 7 Pro machines was to simply download all four ISOs as well as the combo 32/64bit ISOs for both editions to keep onhand as well as to be able to set up temp VMs on other people''s machines to give them a look at what 10 is compared to mostly 7 and 8 at the present time since no one went for anything with 8.1 on it.

Here I had went for all three editions of 7 Home Premium while my main build was Ultimate and a second remote access project runs 7 Pro there. The Home Premium was on the same type of mini tower build but set up for a family member to check the email and do a little browsing and not much else. So you can see where I would have reason for downloading both editions in both 32/64bit flavors.

As for MS selling 10 at the moment? NO! is the answer as I am trying to get a copy of the latest 10525 test build for10 which will likely become the actual paid for retail release while we are simply running the "Public" not Windows Insider Tech Preview builds free of charge until the actual finished 10 is out next year and why I still kept 7 going as well as still using 7 a lot!

Dell has their recovery disks that they sell separately no longer including media with their new systems that are full install disks you can see Windows put on any machine! You just have to have a valid product key which is now something MS is planning to do away with as well as optical media entirely!

No more Windows disks(floppy disks to cds onto dvds with Vista) but USB Installation Keys! MS is also claiming that it will see 10 on 1 billion machines by 2018? We'll see since many are still Vista and 7 diehards with Vista being dropped from the support roster next year!

So to see 10 Pro on now and where it will activate you will first need to change the 8.1 Home edition to one of the previous Pro editions. 8.1 was more like 8 Second Edition and you may find a deal on either 7 or 8 Pro at this time to upgrade properly to 10 Pro. I had already invested in 7 years back and now able to grab that up for two systems here which worked out well.

Dch48 · 20 Aug 2015

You can probably find a copy of 8 or 8.1 Pro on eBay for a lot less than a copy of 10 Pro would cost. For example, a while back before 8.1 came out, I wanted to try Windows 8. I won an auction for an unused copy of 8 Pro for $32 on eBay. The full retail was something like $120 . I installed that on my older 2005 vintage laptop right over the top of XP Pro. It worked perfectly and I later got the free upgrade to 8.1. I'm sure I could now get the upgrade to 10 Pro but that machine has been relegated to being a DVD player and web browser and is very rarely even turned on any more.

The point is that if you can find 8.1 Pro (or even 8 Pro which can then be upgraded to 8.1) for less than what 10 Pro will cost, I would do that and then get the free upgrade to 10 Pro.

Kesto · 20 Aug 2015

You should clean install because upgrading will dump your windows 7/8.1 files making your pc slower, clean install is always the best way to upgrade.

Night Hawk · 20 Aug 2015

Kesto said:

You should clean install because upgrading will dump your windows 7/8.1 files making your pc slower, clean install is always the best way to upgrade.

Except for the first time! But since terich50 has already seen to the initial upgrade he should be all set to as far as the next clean install goes! :) It's getting past that first big stumbling block that trips people up and onto the nice clean install to follow that counts!

DavidY · 20 Aug 2015

bobkn said:

I'm unaware of any WIn 10 Home to Pro upgrade that is for sale at this time. I haven't read that Microsoft has announced the future availability of such an upgrade, or any upgrades at all (other than the free ones).

It's been there since Day 1, I think.

In Settings, on the Activation page, if you're running Win 10 Home there should be a Go To Store button which will let you buy Win 10 Pro.

bobkn · 20 Aug 2015

DavidY said:

It's been there since Day 1, I think.

In Settings, on the Activation page, if you're running Win 10 Home there should be a Go To Store button which will let you buy Win 10 Pro.

That's the full retail version. $199US.

I haven't seen any upgrade (only) version, which I'd hope to be at a lower price.

When the Win 8 Pro pre-release upgrade off ($40US) was in place, I bought a few. Too bad that I've used them all up.

DavidY · 20 Aug 2015

bobkn said:

That's the full retail version. $199US.

The version in the Store if you click Go To Store from Windows 10 Home should be the Home to Pro upgrade, which should be cheaper than that.
(I tried it just now and it said 'The Server Stumbled' but I'm sure I've done it before. I think it was £99 in the UK.)

bobkn · 20 Aug 2015

DavidY said:

The version in the Store if you click Go To Store from Windows 10 Home should be the Home to Pro upgrade, which should be cheaper than that.
(I tried it just now and it said 'The Server Stumbled' but I'm sure I've done it before. I think it was £99 in the UK.)

Inspired me to look. I don't see a home to pro upgrade for sale.

Also looked at the UK store. Nothing found. For £99 (incl. VAT) you can get the retail home version. (That's about $155US, vs $119 from the MS US store.)

I have no emotional attachment to my belief that no Win 10 home to pro upgrade is currently for sale. In fact, I'd be pleased to find that I'm in error.

I also see no Win 8 home to pro available at Computer Parts, Laptops, Electronics, and More - Newegg.com. If it's off the retail market, you may have to trust to luck on eBay. (I doubt that I could trust a SW purchase on eBay.)

Word Man · 20 Aug 2015

bobkn said:

Inspired me to look. I don't see a home to pro upgrade for sale.

Also looked at the UK store. Nothing found. For £99 (incl. VAT) you can get the retail home version. (That's about $155US, vs $119 from the MS US store.)

I have no emotional attachment to my belief that no Win 10 home to pro upgrade is currently for sale. In fact, I'd be pleased to find that I'm in error.

I also see no Win 8 home to pro available at Computer Parts, Laptops, Electronics, and More - Newegg.com. If it's off the retail market, you may have to trust to luck on eBay. (I doubt that I could trust a SW purchase on eBay.)

Don't know if you saw my post in another thread, but when I follow the "Go to Store" link, I'm offered home to Pro at $99.99.

Dch48 · 20 Aug 2015

Kesto said:

You should clean install because upgrading will dump your windows 7/8.1 files making your pc slower, clean install is always the best way to upgrade.

I upgraded from 8.1 using the Media Creation Tool. My PC is running just as well as it was with 8.1, maybe even better. I have no plans to do a clean install because I see no need to. I certainly don't want to have to reinstall all my programs and then reinstate my personal files from backups. There's just no need to waste all that time and wind up in the exact same place.