Upgrade W10 Home to PRO ?

storageman · 06 Dec 2019

NavyLCDR said:

If you want to get rid of the crapware, then I would suggest do the in place upgrade to Windows 10 Pro by simply changing the product key to your Windows 10 Pro product key. Then do a "fresh start:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...-a-fresh-start

Now this is exactly what I want. I guess my question is "In what kind of state is windows on a Lenovo laptop when you first power it up" ? Since I don't have the machine yet (It maybe a while because UPS looks like they lost it or their not sure where it is), I don't know what its going to look like. When I bought a re-furbed tablet 2 years ago, when I first powered it on it went into a standard w10 install as if you booted from a USB Stick.

But I think I'll try NavyLCDR's way. So I assume this procedure will automatically prompt me to enter my W10 Pro Key ?

Bree I remember that issue about an online account. When did that start ? When I got that tablet 2 years ago, it installed 1511 and it never forced me to open a online account (ps: I do have a online account which I could use and then later switch it to a offline account login).

Keep the good stuff coming, I'm learning.

Thanks
Who knows which version this one will have.

Berton · 06 Dec 2019

I Upgraded a Win7 HE to Win10 yesterday but in cleaning up the Win7 first ran into an issue with the AVG Web protection in it not uninstalling. I still did the Upgrade thinking Win10 would help but it didn't so I ended up doing a Reset, went well but when it wanted the Microsoft account I typed in a fake phone number, hit Enter a few times which then presented the choice of Local Account at the lower left of the screen. Clicked that and continued into the finishing and in System had the Activation with a Digital License.

I've done a couple of machines from Home to Pro using the Pro Product Keys [1 Win7 and 1 Win8] left over from a discontinued Microsoft program of a few years ago, no reinstall no reset needed, just had to reboot.

NavyLCDR · 06 Dec 2019

If they did it right, the computer should be at the OOBE screen, step 16 here:

Clean Install Windows 10

storageman · 17 Dec 2019

Just a quick update on what unfolded after starting a brand new Laptop.

NavyLCDR was correct, Lenovo did configure the system to resume at OOBE. I declined to configure the wireless connections so as to be able to have a local account (Thanks Bree). Once the initial install was completed, I was left with a system under 17763.348 (1809).

I then extracted all of the device drivers using the DISM command. This took a fair amount of time since I was saving them to a USB 2.0 Memory Stick.

Next I executed a "Fresh Start". This cleaned up most of the bloatware (especially McAfee). As NavyLCDR pointed to is a quite painless way of cleaning up the system while maintaining all of your previous settings & drivers. I then configured the wireless connection and the system immediately needed to apply several CU for 1809. There were 2 groups that needed to be applied. I did one more check for updates and there it was "Feature update to 1909".

When the FU completed + 1 CU, I had a full functional 1909 Home system (As shown in my system specs).

The last step that I did was to go into "Activation" in settings and give it my new Pro Key. It took a few minutes and W10 Pro was booted and I was done.

This is by far the best way. It only took 4 hours but I also was taking image copies between each major step. At least 1/2 of the time was spent either booting KYHI's rescue PE or my Macrium rescue PE and creating the images.

Thanks for all that commented in this thread. I appreciate the help.