clean install from .iso installs HOME - here's fix (inc PRO for Wrkstn

Bree said:

Or clean install Pro to get the digital licence, then restore a Macrium image of the Home system and upgrade that with the generic key.



My guess... their telemetry was telling them everyone was upgrading to Pro and not bothering to buy a licence.

Yeah image backups work as well. Another good way is to install it on usb external drive using Windows To Go Creator, Data Recovery, BitLocker Home Edition & PC Utility

I think that change was made because once you go to Pro (or any other higher edition) via change product key, you can't go back to Home without reinstalling. You can go up and down to from every other Edition but not back to Home. What it used to do was upgrade first, then try to activate. If it failed because it was say an E-Bay key, you had to reinstall to get back to a legally activated Home Edition. Now it just won't upgrade if the key is no good and or there is no preexisting DL.

In the past I would get 10 Home automatically as my laptop has a Windows 8.0 Core OEM embedded key. I used a PID.txt to bypass that. Its stopped doing that now. It no longer reads that OEM key? I have no idea why, last couple of Consumer builds have prompted for a product code. Fine by me, I've been hoping they would stop looking for Windows 8 and 8.1 keys. In my case I think its just a glitch as others say their Windows 8 keys are still detected?

alphanumeric said:

In my case I think its just a glitch as others say their Windows 8 keys are still detected?

Probably, I ran a clean install using the 1803 MCT ISO on a laptop with an embedded 8.1 key last month. I wasn't asked for which edition to install or for a key.

Bree said:

Probably, I ran a clean install using the 1803 MCT ISO on a laptop with an embedded 8.1 key last month. I wasn't asked for which edition to install or for a key.

It seems to be randomly hardware related ie some pcs do check bios, others do not. Mine does check.