What is the best upgrade path for 8.1 to 10 pro

bobkn · 20 Aug 2015

Word Man said:

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.

Could you copy that link into this thread?

The post referred to Brink's tutorial. Maybe I searched the wrong one, but I didn't find a "go to store" link.

Ztruker · 20 Aug 2015

Get the Pro Pack from Microsoft to upgrade from 9.1 Home to 8.1 Pro. No real installation required, the pro pack just unlocks some features and leaves you with Pro. This is what I did when I got my Lenovo K450 desktop last year.

Add features to Windows 8.1 *

If your PC is running Windows 8.1, you can get Windows 8.1 Pro Pack and enjoy all the features of Windows 8.1 Pro as well as Windows Media Center for $99.99 USD ERP. To buy Windows 8.1 Pro Pack, follow the instructions on this page.

See here: Add features - Microsoft Windows

You'll lose Media Center when you upgrade to Windows 10 but that's most a who cares.

Night Hawk · 20 Aug 2015

Dch48 said:

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.

I just upgraded a 7 Home Premium 32bit laptop to the 64bit 10 Home edition and nothing appeared at all in Settings and the Apps section saw letter all scrambled up! And that's with a laptop that's hardly seen any use. A clean install of Windows on a second drive that saw the first upgrade on the main build here wouldn't allow the regular softwares to go on not even the latest with support for 10.

"Never Say Never" on a clean install until you have run it for a bit! Things may seem to be going well at first until something goobers on you!

You won't be smiling then when finding out that a clean install will then become a necessary.. Plus we are presently running the 10240 build released on the 29th while tthe 10525 build just made an appearance suggesting MS is using the free upgrade at the moment a large beta test without us knowing about it! It's too much like 7 saw the RC which ran very well but still wasn't the final finished product!

bobkn · 21 Aug 2015

Ztruker said:

Get the Pro Pack from Microsoft to upgrade from 9.1 Home to 8.1 Pro. No real installation required, the pro pack just unlocks some features and leaves you with Pro. This is what I did when I got my Lenovo K450 desktop last year.

See here: Add features - Microsoft Windows

You'll lose Media Center when you upgrade to Windows 10 but that's most a who cares.

I forgot about the "Pro Pack". Looks like the least expensive officially supported way of going from Home to Pro.

Dch48 · 21 Aug 2015

Night Hawk said:

I just upgraded a 7 Home Premium 32bit laptop to the 64bit 10 Home edition and nothing appeared at all in Settings and the Apps section saw letter all scrambled up! And that's with a laptop that's hardly seen any use. A clean install of Windows on a second drive that saw the first upgrade on the main build here wouldn't allow the regular softwares to go on not even the latest with support for 10.

"Never Say Never" on a clean install until you have run it for a bit! Things may seem to be going well at first until something goobers on you!

You won't be smiling then when finding out that a clean install will then become a necessary.. Plus we are presently running the 10240 build released on the 29th while tthe 10525 build just made an appearance suggesting MS is using the free upgrade at the moment a large beta test without us knowing about it! It's too much like 7 saw the RC which ran very well but still wasn't the final finished product!

It's been running perfectly since the 29th when it came out and through all the updates that have come since. I have/had 350 GB of files and programs installed and everything carried over fine. The only program I had to reinstall was Chrome which somehow got it's updating mechanism damaged. I have a load of games including World of Warcraft, LOTRO, Rift, a collection of games on Steam, Origin, Uplay, and GoG and they all carried over without a hitch. My Office 2007 programs are also working and updating perfectly. There is no reason to even think about doing a clean install.

I see 10240 as the actual release and 10525 as a beta from which things will be cherry picked to be eventually sent to 10240 users in the form of updates. Any subsequent builds sent to insiders will be treated the same way. We will most likely not ever see an entire new build unless this mysterious SR1 update actually happens and changes the build number. The upgrade is in no way a beta test and the build number may not ever even change. The users of 10240 are the install base. The insiders receiving the test builds are the guinea pigs and are a small minority of Windows 10 users.

Windows10users · 21 Aug 2015

For me Media Creation tool was the Best option. I was not able to Download Updates in Windows 8.1 to see the Windows 10 Upgrade notification. But Thankfully the Tool helped me to Upgrade to windows 10 without much hassle.

DavidY · 21 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.)

It's definitely there - I just looked and for £99.99 there is an entry called "Upgrade to Windows 10 Pro", using the Go To Store link from the Activation page on my machine running Windows 10 Home. I don't know how to paste the store link though?

Night Hawk · 21 Aug 2015

Dch48 said:

It's been running perfectly since the 29th when it came out and through all the updates that have come since. I have/had 350 GB of files and programs installed and everything carried over fine. The only program I had to reinstall was Chrome which somehow got it's updating mechanism damaged. I have a load of games including World of Warcraft, LOTRO, Rift, a collection of games on Steam, Origin, Uplay, and GoG and they all carried over without a hitch. My Office 2007 programs are also working and updating perfectly. There is no reason to even think about doing a clean install.

I see 10240 as the actual release and 10525 as a beta from which things will be cherry picked to be eventually sent to 10240 users in the form of updates. Any subsequent builds sent to insiders will be treated the same way. We will most likely not ever see an entire new build unless this mysterious SR1 update actually happens and changes the build number. The upgrade is in no way a beta test and the build number may not ever even change. The users of 10240 are the install base. The insiders receiving the test builds are the guinea pigs and are a small minority of Windows 10 users.

Not eveyone will see a bad turn of events but you still would want to be prepared just in case. While things are running good this is actually the best possible time to see to a full system image backup or just be prepared to see a full install if the occasion comes up. Any other problems with the upgrade there might take a little longer since things seemed to have gone better for you.

On upgrading a 7 laptop the Start button wasn't even seen on the initial upgrade install. The Settings screen was nothing but a blank screen. And when going to right click on anything all you saw was a thin verical line for the right click menu. Something didn't go on fully this time using a dvd burned with the Media Creation tool. The second was a full clean install that saw immediate results however and is now being replaced from the 32bit upgrade over 7 HP x86 to the 64bit 10 Home following the first clean to verify the upgrade had been activated since you couldn't see anything in System!

Word Man · 21 Aug 2015

bobkn said:

Could you copy that link into this thread?

The post referred to Brink's tutorial. Maybe I searched the wrong one, but I didn't find a "go to store" link.

bobkn:

I can't copy that link into this thread because it is a link on YOUR computer. If you follow Brink's tutorial steps, doing it on your computer: Click lower left start button, click Settings, click Update & Security, click Activation, there should be a box on lower right that says "Go to Store", click that.

Brink's tutorial itself is at: Upgrade Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro - See Step 2 in particular.

The only cheaper alternatives I can find are on Amazon.com with $80-$95 Pro Packs or Upgrades for Windows 8 to Windows 8 Pro. I won't even talk about eBay.

If you're at Win 10 Home now and it's activated OK, the Go to Store box should be there for you and, if it's worth $100 to you to go to Pro, then that's about as "official" a path as I see at the moment.

Good luck!

bobkn · 21 Aug 2015

Word Man said:

bobkn:

I can't copy that link into this thread because it is a link on YOUR computer. If you follow Brink's tutorial steps, doing it on your computer: Click lower left start button, click Settings, click Update & Security, click Activation, there should be a box on lower right that says "Go to Store", click that.

Brink's tutorial itself is at: Upgrade Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro - See Step 2 in particular.

The only cheaper alternatives I can find are on Amazon.com with $80-$95 Pro Packs or Upgrades for Windows 8 to Windows 8 Pro. I won't even talk about eBay.

If you're at Win 10 Home now and it's activated OK, the Go to Store box should be there for you and, if it's worth $100 to you to go to Pro, then that's about as "official" a path as I see at the moment.

Good luck!

Thanks.

I was looking for a standalone offering in the MS Store. No wonder I couldn't find it.

I didn't notice that tutorial existed. I'll look for the button when I'm next on the Win 10 Home laptop. (No chance that I'll actually use it. I don't really need Pro on my desktop PCs, but I upgraded from 8 .1 Pro.)