I have windows home right now, purchased directly from microsoft few years ago. custom built PC
i have a new custom built PC coming soon with no windows. i want to transfer my license and also upgrade it to windows 10 pro.
is that possible?
i heard about the cheap OEM keys but i already have a retail key for w10 home.
i want w10 pro on my new computer
Sure you can do it. Just enter Home key on new pc. If it objects saying key is in use, then use telephone activation and state it is your only pc.
You must wipe windos from old pc of course.
Then you can upgrade to Pro.
Just thinking about Pro- upgrading to which will cost something - what benefits do you think you will gain that will actually be of use? Possibilities:
Group policy editor
Hyper-V (virtual machine)
Bitlocker
Better control of Windows updates (via group policy)
There's a tutorial on upgrading Home -> Pro.
If you are going to upgrade to Pro anyway, why is there any concern about activating Home to begin with?
If you have a Home licence and upgrade to PRO in MS Store, the cost is 50% of buying a full PRO licence.
However, an upgrade (strictly speaking) inherits the status of the Home licence.
SSo if e.g laptop came with a bios embedded w10 key, the upgrade PRO version is oem.
However, due to vagaries of licencing, you can clean install W10 and use upgrade key to activate PC. With older versions, you could not do this.
Whether you can use key on another PC is a bit of a mystery as sone say you can, others say you cannot.
Personally I suspect you can as I do not think MS Store makes any distinction between an upgrade or full key. All they are doing really is giving you a 50% discount if you have a legitimate Home key.
I hade a windows 8 pro upgrade key which would not activate a clean install of W8 Pro but it activated a clean install of W10. So even if MS can tell the difference in tbe key, it seems they just do nit care.
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