Best route - clean install Win 10 Pro on new notebook with OEM Home?


  1. Posts : 61
    Win 10 home
       #1

    Best route - clean install Win 10 Pro on new notebook with OEM Home?


    Hi all. New to the site - retired engineer and long time Mac user but not a whiz. Only a few hours exploration of Win 10 so far. Thank you for the opportunity to post a question.

    I've a new Asus UX501 VW (UK spec) notebook with 512 GB SSD, 12 GB memory and i7 2.6 GHz with OEM Win 10 home and McAfee Live Safe, and want to clean install WIn 10 Professional instead. No personal data on it to save. There's been lots written on upgrade routes, but perhaps not much on this one.

    There's excellent write ups on using Win 10 on line, but I'm struggling to pull together the steps and best sequence by which to handle the above transition. Also to understand the how and why.

    1. I'd like to keep a copy of the OEM Win 10 home installation just in case it should prove to be needed. Is saving a system image to an external HDD for safe keeping a good way to do this?

    2. Is it also necessary to also make a recovery drive (saved from the OEM set up - to a USB stick?) to facilitate getting back to the OEM set up/to permit installation of the system image/for other reasons? (guessing that the recovery partition on the notebook's SSD will end up being deleted)

    3. At what point should the Win 10 home to professional upgrade be bought, and how should the keys/activation be handled? Must the upgrade be bought and downloaded on the computer on which it will be used? One route would presumably be to buy and install an upgrade to WIn 10 pro using the notebook, activate it, and then clean install it?

    4. It'd be convenient to end up with the new/Win 10 professional clean install (the operating system) in its own partition, with the rest of the notebook's SSD available for data/personal files. Does Win 10 set up it's own partitions?

    5. The newly completed Win 10 prof clean install will presumably require its own recovery USB stick too (is this a good alternative to the usual recovery partition on the SSD?), and presumably a back up image saved to an external drive too. Is the content of these different to that for Win 10 home above?

    6. The new Windows 10 professional install will probably also set up it's own partitions on the notebook's SSD - which suggests that the SSD may end up with surplus/unused partitions requiring rationalisation. The question likely then becomes how to tell which of these can safely be removed?

    7. I'm presuming that the McAfee security willde facto be removed during the clean install, and that restoring protection will just be a matter of installing the Kaspersky Total Security? (already bought) Is Win Defender good enough to secure/make safe the transaction while buying and paying for the upgrade, and while downloading it?

    Pardon all the questions - but even a setting down the best sequence of steps would help greatly...
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 7,128
    Windows 10 Pro Insider
       #2

    Saving a image file of your original install should be enough. Most of us use Macrium Reflect to make our images. I haven't done it in awhile but I think you can upgrade from Home to Pro by changing your product key by going to Settings - Update and Security - Activation - Change product key and using your Pro product key.
      My Computers


  3. Posts : 25
    Windows 10
       #3

    If you have an OEM computer with UEFI firmware embedded Windows 8/8.1/10 product key, the Windows setup should automatically detect product key from UEFI firmware and you will be taken straight to the License Agreement screen.

    When installing Windows 10, the Windows setup uses the following priority logic for product keys:

    1. The edition configuration (EI.cfg) file or the product ID (PID.txt) file.
    2. Product key in the UEFI firmware.
    3. Product key entry screen.

    If a key is supplied, the key is attempted to be use with the image that are available on the media being installed. If there is no product key supplied in the step 1 and step 2, you will get the product key prompt during setup.

    Winuser said:
    .....you can upgrade from Home to Pro by changing your product key by going to Settings - Update and Security - Activation - Change product key and using your Pro product key.
    Or if you want to choose which one will be installed (see screenshot below), if you have an OEM computer with UEFI firmware embedded Windows 8/8.1/10 product key.

    Copy the EI.CFG file to the SOURCES folder on the USB flash drive.

    EI.CFG

    Code:
    [Channel]
    _Default
    [VL]
    0
    Before creating the "ei.cfg" file make sure its not "ei.cfg.txt", it must be "ei.cfg".

    Best route - clean install Win 10 Pro on new notebook with OEM Home?-windows-10-setup-1.png

    How to Create a Bootable USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 10.

    USB Flash Drive - Create to Install Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

    "Option One: Use Media Creation Tool to create Bootable Windows 10 USB for Legacy BIOS and UEFI"

    ondablade said:
    It'd be convenient to end up with the new/Win 10 professional clean install (the operating system) in its own partition, with the rest of the notebook's SSD available for data/personal files. Does Win 10 set up it's own partitions?
    For example, you want to create a 120000 MB (~120 GB) partition (see screenshots below).

    Best route - clean install Win 10 Pro on new notebook with OEM Home?-windows-10-setup-2.png

    Best route - clean install Win 10 Pro on new notebook with OEM Home?-windows-10-setup-3.png

    Best route - clean install Win 10 Pro on new notebook with OEM Home?-windows-10-setup-4.png

    ondablade said:
    Is Win Defender good enough to secure/make safe the transaction while buying and paying for the upgrade, and while downloading it?
    What’s the Best Antivirus for Windows 10? (Is Windows Defender Good Enough?)

    What's new in Windows Defender for Windows 10 Anniversary Update | Windows Central
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 61
    Win 10 home
    Thread Starter
       #4

    Thank you very much guys. You've gone to a lot of trouble Feather, thank you. It'll take me a little while to figure it all out, but it's coming together.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 134,237
    Windows 11 Pro (x64) 23H2 Build 22631.3296
       #5

    ondablade said:
    Thank you very much guys. You've gone to a lot of trouble Feather, thank you. It'll take me a little while to figure it all out, but it's coming together.
    Here is a link for Macrium Reflect, its one of the Best image backup programs you could use. Also make sure if you decide to use Macrium, that you make your Media Rescue Disk on a USB stick. This allows you to boot from the rescue disk incase you can't boot unto your Windows OS.
    Macrium Reflect Free


      My Computers


  6. Posts : 12,799
    Windows 11 Pro
       #6

    This should tell you everything you want to know about a clean install Windows 10 - Clean Install - Windows 10 Forums
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 61
    Win 10 home
    Thread Starter
       #7

    Pardon the delay coming back guys, I've been reading. A lot. :) It's hard to retain it all when you don't use it regularly, but I decded that I was going to invest the time to understand Win 10 as well as I reasonably can as a user.

    Thank you both for the links. Reading lots of step by steps is dead helpful - it tends to fill in the small gaps which arise due to not being familiar with all of the terminology.

    I think I know where I'm going now, but I've been delaying for a bit while getting some malware issues on my old IMac sorted as there's Office files I need to move over and don't want to bring anything nasty with them. I accidentally clicked on a .docm attachment which was probably malware - it has the same name on it as a guy I'd been speaking to who was to mail some stuff then. I didn't look closely enough...

    I ended up installing Kaspersky Internet Security on the IMac which presuming it's doing it's job certainly seems to run very nicely - it found five nasties on the Mac. All the years of 'they don't get stuff' may yet become a problem/prove to be the cause of a sense of false security...
      My Computer


 

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