How To Upgrade To Windows 10 Pro For Free

If you purchase a new PC with Windows 10 Home preinstalled, prepare to be annoyed. This downward-marketplace edition (maybe we should just call it Windows for Cheapskates) doesn't accept the features you lot need for getting real work done: Remote Desktop server access, BitLocker disk encryption, group policy support, and control over when updates get installed, only for starters.

You could pay $99 for an upgrade, simply before you reach for your wallet, consider a less expensive option.

Practise you take an one-time product primal from Windows 7 Pro, Windows 7 Ultimate, or Windows 8/8.1 Pro lying effectually? Those keys can exist reused to enable an upgrade from Windows 10 Home to Windows x Pro, potentially saving yous the upgrade fee. In fact, yous can use a production cardinal from any of these older Windows versions to perform a clean install or to upgrade to Pro.

In contempo versions of Windows x, the upgrade from Home to Pro is quick and easy.

It's worth rummaging through your garage, storeroom, or email athenaeum to encounter if y'all can locate one of those old keys. Perhaps you lot still have a key for 1 of the heavily discounted upgrades to Windows viii Pro that Microsoft offered in the kickoff few months after that product's ill-fated launch in 2012.

Or perhaps you accept a shrink-wrapped retail copy of Windows seven Professional or Ultimate, where the license associated with the product key is no longer in use.

All-time of all, you only demand to use the older production key one time. Afterwards y'all complete the upgrade from Windows 10 Abode, the Windows 10 Pro digital license is attached to the specific hardware you lot simply upgraded, allowing you to reinstall that edition of Windows on that hardware anytime, without the demand for a product key.

This scenario worked during the early Windows 10 upgrade program, and subsequently some testing and multiple reports from independent testers worldwide I tin can confirm that it nonetheless succeeds in 2021, more than five years later.

Microsoft first made this pick available in Windows 10 version 1511. Since and then, they have simplified the process dramatically.

I've been testing upgrade/activation scenarios on a broad multifariousness of hardware over the years to see how things work. Here'due south the scoop.

UPGRADING A NEW PC FROM HOME TO PRO

Let'due south say you lot buy a new PC with Windows 10 Home installed by the OEM. Some vendors offer an upgrade option as part of the purchase, but many PCs sold in the retail channel are preloaded with Abode edition.

This could as well be the instance if you took reward of the free Windows x upgrade offer on a PC running a Home edition of Windows 7 or Windows eight.x.

In either case, the upgrade takes simply a few minutes. Start at Settings > Update & Security > Activation, where you should run across a screen that looks something like this:

The Pro upgrade accepts product keys from older business organization (Pro/Ultimate) versions of Windows.

If you lot don't take a Pro production key and y'all want to buy one, you lot can click Go To The Store and buy the upgrade for $100. Easy.

But if you lot accept a product key for Windows ten Pro, Windows vii Professional or Ultimate, or Windows 8/8.1 Pro, at that place's a less expensive option: Click the Change Product Cardinal link and enter that 25-character key here.

Enter a product key here and then follow the prompts.

Later entering the product key, follow the prompts to perform the upgrade.

You'll run into a succession of progress screens and your system volition restart. After the upgrade completes, you should run into a Success notification. Cheque the Activation screen again to ostend that you're now running Windows 10 Pro.

CLEAN REINSTALL

Afterward you've successfully performed a Habitation-to-Pro upgrade, you can file that product cardinal away. Your upgrade is now a digital license, attached to your unique hardware. If yous perform a reinstallation of Windows, Microsoft's activation servers volition recognize the hardware and activate Windows 10 automatically.

I have tested this scenario multiple times on hardware that originally shipped with Windows Home and was upgraded to Windows ten Pro. Afterwards the upgrade was complete, I used a bootable USB flash drive containing Windows ten setup files to reinstall a clean copy of Windows 10 Pro, skipping the option to enter a production central every bit part of setup, as shown below. When prompted, be sure to choose Windows 10 Pro equally the edition to install.

If your PC already has a Pro license, don't enter a product key when reinstalling.

When setup was complete, I signed in and checked the activation condition (Settings > Update & Security > Activation). The arrangement was properly activated, considering Microsoft's servers recognized the hardware and used the digital license.

CLEAN REINSTALL, WITH EDITION UPGRADE

The ane gotcha in this series of scenarios comes when yous take a organization that includes digital licenses for both Windows ten Dwelling and Windows 10 Pro. In that scenario, you can inadvertently restore Windows 10 Home.

This happened recently when I used a recovery image to reinstall Windows ten on a Surface Pro PC that had originally shipped with Windows x Home and had been upgraded to Windows ten Pro. Non surprisingly, using the recovery epitome gave me an installation of Windows 10 Home.

If that happens to you, don't bother searching for the product central you used to upgrade. Instead, use Microsoft's generic production key to forcefulness the upgrade.

Go to Settings > Update & Security > Activation and click Change Product Primal. Next, enter the default Windows ten Pro product fundamental:

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Follow the prompts to upgrade from Dwelling house to Pro. Because your hardware already has a digital license for the Pro edition, information technology will activate automatically.

That generic product fundamental isn't magical, of course. If your hardware doesn't already take a Pro license, yous'll get an activation error and you'll need to supply a proper product key or pay for an upgrade.

Whatever questions?

This article has been completely rewritten to incorporate developments in recent feature updates to Windows x.