Upgrade Windows 10 Family to Pro with license from old computer

You could try:

1. Disconnect the computer from all sources of internet.
2. On the Windows Activation Screen in Settings, change the product key to Windows 10 Pro generic key VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T.
3. After it upgrades to Pro, reconnect to the internet.
4. Then try the activation troubleshooter to transfer license from old computer.

There is absolutely no guarantee step 4 will work and be WARNED, once you upgrade to Pro it will be very difficult to downgrade back to Home version.

Odsh said:

...I have a new PC with Windows 10 Family Version 1909 (not activated) that I just bought. ...

...I'm not sure why I get this error, since the following help page states that "If your device is running Windows 10 (Version 1607 or later), the Activation troubleshooter can help you install the correct edition of Windows on your device" (as explained earlier, I have Windows 10 Family Version 1909 installed on the PC I attempt to upgrade).

'Windows 10 Family Version' is not a term that I have ever seen Microsoft use to describe a Windows 10 version. There's Home and Pro, either of which may be supplied installed in S Mode.

And what do you mean by 'not activated'? All new PCs supplied with W10 pre-installed should activate automatically when first turned on run through the setup routine. Do you mean you haven't turned it on and set up an account in the Windows it was supplied with?

If you have turned it on and have its original supplied Windows is running, then click Start, type winver and run it. This will tell you (and us) precisely what version of Windows you do have.

I did just see that... why isn't it activated?

My Windows is in French and "Famille" is the "Home" Version I assume, sorry for the confusion.

By "not activated", I mean I bought the PC with Windows Home preinstalled and it asks for an activation code. I didn't buy a new Windows license along with the PC, since I had in mind to recover the one from the older PC, so this doesn't seem abnormal to me.

NavyLCDR, thanks for the suggestion. I was able to upgrade to Windows Pro. Unfortunately, I confirm that step 4 didn't work. I can select my other PC in the Troubleshooter, but now the reactivation on the new PC fails with the message (translated from French): "Impossible to activate Windows - We can't reactivate Windows on this computer. Try again later." I have no idea why it would work better at a later time.

I completely removed the license from the older PC by the way before running the troubleshooter (i.e. it also asks for a Windows activation code on the old PC now). I made sure that the old PC had an internet connection while doing that so that Microsoft could register the license removal (I assume it does?).

That being said, at some point both PC's were running and were connected to the internet at the same time. Could that be the issue? The troubleshooter implies that it is meant to be used when you replace some hardware in your PC. Maybe it doesn't like that the old hardware is a completely standalone PC that can still run on its own?

- - - Updated - - -

I finally contacted Microsoft by phone, they said they would look into the problem and call me back.

They didn't call me back, bu the next day I tried again the procedure I describe above, and this time it worked.

So problem solved, thanks all for your help.

Glad it worked for you!