Installing Windows 10 Pro from USB Stick version 1803 problem

Greeting people,

I followed the instructions in this one, option 1:
Create Bootable USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 10 | Windows 10 Tutorials

I have tried 6 times, everytime only the Windows 10 home got installed not Windows 10 Pro.

As of 11/03/2018, the only available download is MediaCreationTool1803.exe. I DOWNLOADED AND CREATED THE USB FROM A WINDOWS 10 PRO DESKTOP. But when I installed on a new Lenovo Flex 5 laptop, only Windows 10 home got installed.

Can anyone help please?

Appreciated!

Welcome to TenForums @f117b2

The reason you get Home installed every time is that the Lenovo Flex 5 was supplied with 10 Home pre-installed.
Ideapad Flex 5 15 Pen | Lenovo US

Since Windows 8 all machines that come with an OEM Windows pre-installed have the product key embedded in their bios. When you run the install Setup reads this key and installs the edition for which that key is valid. Your Lenovo has a Home key, so Home gets installed.

Home and Pro are basically the same software, but with some functions disabled in Home. It is easy to switch on the Pro features.

Have you purchased Pro? Do you have a key for Pro? If so, once you have installed Home you can upgrade it to Pro just by changing the product key to the Pro key.

Or have you had Pro running and activated on this PC before? And do you now want to do a clean install? If you have activated Pro previously on this PC then there is a Digital License for Pro linked to the PC's unique hardware ID and stored on Microsoft's activation servers. If you already have a Digital License then you can upgrade the installed Home to Pro using the generic Pro key.

Change Product Key in Windows 10 | Windows 10 Tutorials

Generic Product Keys to Install Windows 10 Editions | Windows 10 Tutorials

Hi Bree, thank you for the info. I'm thinking to return the Flex 5s, bought 3 of them from Costco, just because of a pre-installed home edition. Yes I can upgarde to Pro but prefer not to. The reason I need to have Pro is that I have to have Bitlocker feature.

Yes, I have MSDN subscription download.

Thanks again!

All you have to do is add an ei.cfg file to the sources folder on the USB flash drive. Then it will ask you which edition of Windows 10 you want to install. See post #7 here:
ei.cfg to edit and burn into a dvd - Windows 10 Forums

Hi NavyLCDR,
Aye aye, sir. Salute Captain!

That is exactly what I need!!!!!

Ztruker said:

@NavyLCDR, you will still need a Pro key if the embedded key in BIOS is Home, right?

Yes, or a digital license stored for that computer.

f117b2 said:

Yes I can upgarde to Pro but prefer not to. The reason I need to have Pro is that I have to have Bitlocker feature.

If you have a Pro key, which you'd need anyway to activate a clean install of Pro, then if you change the installed Home key to the Pro key you get exactly the same Pro as you would have if you'd installed Pro in the first place.

I'm not sure why you don't want to upgrade to Pro. The 'upgrade' from Home to Pro is a minor change, not a complete reinstall. Rather, it's a few registry changes and a few missing components downloaded - takes a couple of minutes to complete, I know, I have done it.

I upgraded a Home machine to Pro because I needed to use Hyper-V.

Bree said:

If you have a Pro key, which you'd need anyway to activate a clean install of Pro, then if you change the installed Home key to the Pro key you get exactly the same Pro as you would have if you'd installed Pro in the first place.

I'm not sure why you don't want to upgrade to Pro. The 'upgrade' from Home to Pro is a minor change, not a complete reinstall. Rather, it's a few registry changes and a few missing components downloaded - takes a couple of minutes to complete, I know, I have done it.

I upgraded a Home machine to Pro because I needed to use Hyper-V.

Hi Bree,

While doing the installation, with NavyLCDR's post by adding the ei.cfg file to the sources folder on the USB flash drive, every single version showed up; home, education, pro, N, KN,,,,,,etc. I can pick the one I need. After installation, it did need to input a key to active the Windows.

I saw this one as well: Upgrading Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro Solved - Windows 10 Forums. But I really don't like "upgrade", and have never upgraded any versions. I always wipe everything out and do a fresh installation. In this way, I can COMPLETELY get rid of the junks that come with the new machines.

Another reason is that a new machine with pre-installed windows always has serveral partions for recovery or reinsatll puropses, it normally takes 200 -300 mb spaces, I don't like that either. The flex 5 I bought only has a 512gb SSD. I don't need to recover or reinstall from the the manufacture backup, so I can get rid of those partitions as well.

Again, really appreciated Bree and NavyLCDR!!!!!

Mission complete.

f117b2 said:

... I really don't like "upgrade", and have never upgraded any versions. I always wipe everything out and do a fresh installation.

I can respect your choice, but for the benefit of others in your situation I wanted to point out that the switch from Home to Pro is hardly an 'upgrade' in the conventional sense. It just give you permission to use features that were there but disabled in Home.