Is it Pro or not?

I’ve got a laptop that came with Windows 8 (non-pro). Back then I bought a Windows 8 pro key and used it to upgrade the laptop to pro.

Flash forward to now. I was in the Windows 10 Insider fast ring running the Pro version on this same laptop. I just got tired of being an Iinsider, so I did a clean install of v1607 on the laptop. During the install I was not asked for a product key. Post install I found that it had installed Windows 10 home. Apparently it looked in the BIOS and saw my old non-pro product key and just assumed that was the right thing to do. Ok, fine.
So, I used Change Product Key in the System control panel to enter my old pro product key. Once I did that, Windows 10 immediately informed me it was upgrading my system to pro and went through a 5-10 minute install, after which the system now reported it was the pro version. All well and good, right?

Except that I’ve discovered certain pro features are missing (e.g. the Users and Groups snapin in mmc). When I try to install it, mmc tells me I can’t because it is not supported under my edition of WIndows. What the what? The system control panel reports I am running pro, but mmc thinks I am not.

Ideas on how to fix this?
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bc

Probably best to clean install and put the generic Pro key in pid.txt

Code:

[PID]
Value=VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T

and save that file in the Sources folder on your installation USB.

That should skip the check of the 8 key in BIOS/UEFI, install Pro and will activate automatically if 10 was activated before.

Windows Setup Edition Configuration and Product ID Files (EI.cfg and PID.txt)

That's the thing. The product key I gave it was definitely a pro key. Further, it went through the Home to Pro upgrade. Post upgrade, system control panel identifies the OS as Windows 10 Pro, but lusrmgr.msc says "This snapin may not be used with this edition of Windows 10.'" The upgrade process seems to have failed to add all the pro features. Things like HyperV and Remote Desktop are there, but not the users and groups snapin. That's what I am looking to try to fix (and since a clean install never prompts me for a product key but rather assumes its home based on the original product key baked into the BIOS, another clean install won't even help).
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bc

lx07 said:

Probably best to clean install and put the generic Pro key in pid.txt

Code:

[PID]
Value=VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T

and save that file in the Sources folder on your installation USB.

That should skip the check of the 8 key in BIOS/UEFI, install Pro and will activate automatically if 10 was activated before.

Windows Setup Edition Configuration and Product ID Files (EI.cfg and PID.txt)

Aha, thanks for that. I was not aware of that capability. But why a generic key? Why not my actual pro key?
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bc

rexxfan said:

Aha, thanks for that. I was not aware of that capability. But why a generic key? Why not my actual pro key?
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bc

Either would work. Generic key just means your install USB isn't tied to the one PC. In either case it should pick up your digital entitlement to activate.

lx07 said:

Either would work. Generic key just means your USB isn't tied to the one PC. In either case it should pick up your digital entitlement to activate.

Thanks for the clarification.
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bc