I bought a Windows Ten Pro key and it doesn't work...

I bought a new Dell Laptop with Windows Ten Home. I wanted to wipe the laptop clean and set it up the way I set up all my machines, partitioning the drive basically. Plus to wipe out whatever crap they pre-install. The product key for the OS it came with is "injected" into the computer so I can't retrieve it, so I bought a new Windows 10 Pro key from a buyer online that I bought two other keys from.

While installing the OS it never asked me for a key??? After installing, it booted right into the OS as Windows 10 Home and it was already activated. So I went to change the key to the new key and it didn't work. I got an error saying the key didnt work.

Have any ideas as to whats going here?

Thanks.

That tutorial is nothing I don't already know. I'm saying that when I enter my purchased key, the OS is telling me the key doesn't work.

So then maybe you got a bad key.

logicearth said:

So then maybe you got a bad key.

That can actually happen? How does that happen? Damn it. I dont have time for this.

Download Showkey Plus from this forum:
ShowKeyPlus

Run it and it will show you the product key stored in UEFI and what edition of Windows it is for. Then you can click on Check Product Key and manually enter your purchased product key and see what edition of Windows it is for. I'll bet you will find an edition mismatch - if you purchased a valid product key.

For example - you have Windows 10 Home installed and the product key you purchased is for Windows 10 N Pro - the N is the edition mismatch.

CVRIV said:

That can actually happen? How does that happen? Damn it. I dont have time for this.

If you buy from a third party anything is possible. There is no guarantee when you deal with gray markets.

Ok. I downloaded ShowKeyPlus and checked the new key. It said it's Win 10 RTM Professional OEM: DM EULA Type: OEM

logicearth said:

If you buy from a third party anything is possible. There is no guarantee when you deal with gray markets.

Well, I purchased two other keys from them and those worked fine. Just this one I am having trouble with.

You said your machine booted into W10 Home, you're entering a Pro key, why don't you install W10 Pro?