Install Win 10 Pro on New Alienware Laptop w/Home Already Installed

Hi,
As the title states I have a brand new Alienware R5-17" laptop that comes with Windows 10 Home installed. It has a 256 SSD and a 1 TB HDD. I have not powered the laptop up yet because I know Windows will want to walk me through a first setup process along with activation. I purchased the computer this evening and also bought a flash drive copy of Windows 10 Pro.

I have built several desktop computers over the years and always began by installing my copy of Windows on a freshly formatted (blank) hard drive and then installing everything else (firewall software, chip set drivers, all other hardware drivers, etc.). I've been told now that each copy of Windows is now married to the hardware system it was first installed on so transferring Windows from one computer to another is no longer possible. I will be verifying this to see if it's true.

What I want to do is replace Windows 10 Home with the Pro version. But I do not trust the upgrade approach which is why I bought a physical copy of Windows 10 Pro. I want to erase what's on the laptop and start from scratch using the purchased copy of Win 10 Pro. I'm hoping I can still transfer it to a different machine later on if that ever becomes necessary for some reason. I will also need to check with Dell to see if this will confuse them and their warranty on the laptop.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Welcome to the forum. It shouldnt be a problem but is the pro the latest version as if its on disk it tends to be old. If you have the key download the latest version Download Windows 10 and install that or will will spend hours doing updates. I wood get a free imaging software boot from that and if you have a exteranl drive create an image of the pc so you can put it back at anytime.

Is it a OEM install in which case you cant put it on another pc and dell often tie it to the one pc

Thanks,
I'm currently talking with Dell (Alienware) and they are telling me the OS is tied to the motherboard so if I upgrade to Windows 10 Pro it will cause conflicts with their warranty tracking and such. I think this is ridiculous. Who is the beneficiary here?

If you ke a disk image and have problmes you can put it back as it was

Samuria said:

Welcome to the forum. It shouldnt be a problem but is the pro the latest version as if its on disk it tends to be old. If you have the key download the latest version Download Windows 10 and install that or will will spend hours doing updates. I wood get a free imaging software boot from that and if you have a exteranl drive create an image of the pc so you can put it back at anytime.

Is it a OEM install in which case you cant put it on another pc and dell often tie it to the one pc

There actually will be a problem. The Windows 10 USB flash drives contain multiple editions of Windows 10 including Home, Pro, Education and a few others. When doing a clean install, the installer will read the product key that is stored in the computer's UEFI firmware, which will be for Windows 10 Home, and will automatically install Windows 10 Home using the product key in UEFI firmware to activate. In order to prevent this and install Windows 10 Pro directly onto a computer that has a Windows Home product key in BIOS/UEFI, the user must create their own Windows 10 USB flash drive and insert an ei.cfg file into the Sources folder:
https://www.askvg.com/fix-cant-selec...-installation/

scrapser said:

Thanks,
I'm currently talking with Dell (Alienware) and they are telling me the OS is tied to the motherboard so if I upgrade to Windows 10 Pro it will cause conflicts with their warranty tracking and such. I think this is ridiculous. Who is the beneficiary here?

The person you spoke to had no idea what they were talking about. Installing a different edition of Windows 10 - or Linux for that matter - will in no way void the warranty. If you need to return the computer under warranty you can wipe the hard drive clean, and explain to Dell that you had personal information on the hard drive that you did not want them to access, or you can reinstall Windows 10 without an ei.cfg file saved on the USB flash drive and the installer will pick up the product key stored in UEFI firmware and install the matching edition of Windows 10 and use the stored product key to activate it.

As far as transferring the Windows 10 Pro to a different computer later - no issues at all. Re-install Windows 10 Home on the first computer, then install your Windows 10 Pro retail version on the new computer.

Honestly - except for the issue of factory bloatware they added to Windows 10 - the upgrade from Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro is really no different that doing a clean install of Windows 10 Pro. The reason is the upgrade to Pro only adds to Windows 10 Home - it does not take anything away from Windows 10 Home. So after the upgrade to Pro there are no obsolete files left over. It does not even create a Windows.old folder.

Just upgrade using the Pro key which is quick and simple. Do make a system backup first e.g. using Macrium Reflect Free.

Thanks NavyLCDR,
I have returned the laptop I started with to Best Buy and ordered the same from Dell with Windows 10 Pro installed. It's costing me the same money and a lot less bother.

Thanks to all who have contributed.