Installation and Activation of Windows 10 Pro

This is for those who have upgraded an OEM Windows 8/8.1 Home machine to Windows 8.1 Pro and then to Windows 10 Pro.

Edited: Did you replace your old HHD/SSD, take it back to bare metal (delete all partitions and start over), or just format the hard drive for a clean installation? Then you installed the Anniversary Edition but were not asked for a Product Key? If not, you may have Windows 10 Home instead of Pro as you expected. End Edit

Here’s how to tell which version you have:

Go to Settings>Update and Security>Activation and look at the Edition you have installed. If it’s Home and you’ve upgraded to Pro, click on Change Product Key pointed to by green arrow, and enter the Windows 8/8.1 Product Key you used to upgrade to the Pro version.



Once that’s done, if you’ve inserted the correct key, your machine will then update to the proper version.

Entering the generic Pro key you get with the free upgrade will work too. It's what I did the first time that happened to me.
It upgraded to Pro and then activated automatically with the Pro digital entitlement it already had.
If the PC doesn't have a Pro Digital Entitlement it will upgrade anyway, and not activate.
Now I just put a PID.txt file with the generic Pro key in it, in the sources folder.
It overrides auto key detection and installs Pro. No having to do a skip key either, it won't prompt for one. Speeds things up nicely on a clean install.

Nice tip by the way. I wonder how many out there are running Home and think they have Pro? Then wonder why some features are missing?

alphanumeric said:

Entering the generic Pro key you get with the free upgrade will work too. It's what I did the first time that happened to me.

I have never used the generic Pro key, so would it work for me in this case? I had thought it was only for the Insider Program and not for the "RTM".

alphanumeric said:

Nice tip by the way. I wonder how many out there are running Home and think they have Pro? Then wonder why some features are missing?

That's exactly why I posted; I was running Home instead of Pro and accidentally discovered it. And I wondered how many others have done the same thing.

If you do the free upgrade to Pro, and then run showkey you should see a key ending in -3V66T. Everybody that did the free upgrade to Pro got that key. There is another one for Home ending in -H8Q99. If you originally did the free upgrade to Pro, that key will work. I can PM you the key if you want. It's easy to find on the Internet but the mods asked that we don't post the full key.

One way this happens is the install Media reads your OEM Embedded key and does a version match.
My laptop has a Windows 8.0 Core key so I get 10 Home automatically. No prompt for a key or prompt to select edition.
My laptop was originally upgraded from 8.1 Pro to 10 Pro. I then did a change product key and entered the Generic Pro key. It upgraded to Pro and activated automatically.
The PID.txt file just overrides the auto OEM key detection and install Pro by default. If you also need to install Home from this same thumb drive, don't add the PID.txt file.

alphanumeric said:

One way this happens is the install Media reads your OEM Embedded key and does a version match. My laptop has a Windows 8.0 Core key so I get 10 Home automatically. No prompt for a key or prompt to select edition.

How is this happening for your computer(s), Alpha? Are you referring to an update or a clean install?

What I discovered is that with a completely blank hard drive, it went back to Home because of what is in the BIOS. I didn't want to add more stuff than necessary; mainly for understanding. "Check and if it's wrong, here's how to fix it."

If you're taken back to Home in any other way than my original post suggests, I guess I need to know so I can revise it to fit.

alphanumeric said:

My laptop was originally upgraded from 8.1 Pro to 10 Pro. I then did a change product key and entered the Generic Pro key. It upgraded to Pro and activated automatically.

So, are you saying that Home was installed on an OEM machine that originally had 8.1 Pro on it? I sincerely hope not!

alphanumeric said:

The PID.txt file just overrides the auto OEM key detection and install Pro by default. If you also need to install Home from this same thumb drive, don't add the PID.txt file.

I'm not familiar with this; is there a tutorial?

If I clean install Windows 10 on my laptop, 10 Home is installed automatically with no prompt for a key or any menu to select Home or Pro.
It auto detects the Win 8.0 Core OEM embedded key in the BIOS. That laptop came with Windows 8.0 installed by ASUS. I was really hoping the Anniversary edition wouldn't do it but it does.

If I upgrade from an already installed OS what I get depends on what OS is installed. 8.1 Pro gets me 10 Pro. The OEM embedded key is ignored on an upgrade install.
My original upgrade was from 8.1 Pro that was installed on that laptop with one of my Retail MSDN keys. It wasn't an OEM install. Why run 8.0 Core if I can run 8.1 Pro.

PID.txt > https://www.tenforums.com/installatio...g-install.html

OK, between you and Kari, I now know what to do, but the general public would never understand the PID.txt way of doing things.

Wynona said:

OK, between you and Kari, I now know what to do, but the general public would never understand the PID.txt way of doing things.

That's why I was wishing that Windows 10 install media would stop reading Windows 8/8.1 embedded keys when the free upgrade offer ended. It still does it though. I did a clean install with the Anniversary edition on my laptop and got 10 Home by default with no option to override it.

alphanumeric said:

That's why I was wishing that Windows 10 install media would stop reading Windows 8/8.1 embedded keys when the free upgrade offer ended. It still does it though. I did a clean install with the Anniversary edition on my laptop and got 10 Home by default with no option to override it.

So did I, and on the desktop too.

What's worse, is that even those knowledgeable enough to know how to upgrade and clean install still won't have a clue that Windows 10 Home installed and he no longer has the Pro that he paid for!