Upgrade Procedure of the Past Question

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[PeachesP]

I have just purchased a new laptop. It came with Win 10 Home, 20H2. Is it possible to use the same procedure used in the past to update Win 10 Home to Pro using the product key from Win 7 Ultimate or Win 8 Pro.

These OS’s are no longer in use. Am I causing myself headaches by changing the product key on the activation screen from Win 8 Pro and hoping Win10 Home will update to Pro? I was hoping not to have to spend more money for an upgrade, but will if I have to. Thanks

• This topic was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by PeachesP.

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It seems implausible but until you try you never know..

With Windows 8 you had to use  staging key to get Windows 8.1 installed (that requirement is done away with at Windows 10) and then install the Windows 8.0 key (extracted with produkey back in the day, or the OA3 key extraction method in modernity, usually from the BIOS) and install and activate that key so perhaps you can follow that method and get the pro license? – replace the Windows 8 staging key [XHQ8N-C3MCJ-RQXB6-WCHYG-C9WKB]  below with your key. The worst it can do is not work I’d expect but maybe make notes, join to Microsoft account to save the current licensing, or back up as you see fit, to be sure (but as it’s a new machine hopefully that should never be an issue). I guess if you got 10 on the Windows 8 machine and added that to a Microsoft account, maybe you could retrieve the license from there? Never been there..

elevated CMD.. first installs a key (remember, insert your key!), second activates. expect to reboot after some work should the key actually be accepted…

slmgr /ipk XHQ8N-C3MCJ-RQXB6-WCHYG-C9WKB

slmgr /ato

 

 

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If your Windows 7/8 product key is for a retail version of Windows, then it’ll work to upgrade Win10 Home to Pro (BTDT.) If it’s for an OEM version of Windows, it won’t work.

The simple way to upgrade:

Login to your Win10 Home PC as Administrator, open “Settings > Update & Security > Activation” and click the Change product key item on the right side.

Enter the product key from your Win7 Ultimate or Win8 Pro and click next.

If it accepts your key, simply follow the prompts to complete the upgrade and activate the new version of Win10 (note, it took ~24 hrs for the Win10 status on my PC to actually show as “activated” using my Win7 Pro key.)

If it doesn’t accept your key, then either it’s for an OEM version of Windows or it’s already been used to upgrade to Win10 on another PC.

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Everything worked out for me. I used the product key from Win8 Pro. The OS upgraded to Win10 Pro and Windows is “activated with a digital license”.

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Congratulations on the upgrade from Home to Pro! Now, it’s time to look at AKB2000016 very carefully to see what changes you can make via Group Policy to make sure you get only the updates you want on that machine. By very carefully, I mean read through it a few times, going slowly each time, and feel free to either print what you feel is important or take notes. There are a total of six lengthy posts in the AKB, the first ones with only a description, but others below have screenshots in them so you can see just what you should be looking at. Each one of the posts is written by @PKCano . Pro gives you more flexibility than Home did for receiving updates from MS. OK, here’s the link to AKB2000016:

https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/2000016-guide-for-windows-update-settings-for-windows-10/

By the way, since you have 20H2 on that new laptop, you’ll want to pay particular attention to Section 5, which deals with the settings particular to Windows 10 from version 2004 to the latest version. Also, since 20H2 has only about six months remaining for support, you’ll want to get the machine upgraded to 21H2 fairly soon.

If you have any questions about what you’ve read there, here’s a link to a thread created by @PKCano specifically for questions about ANYTHING in that AKB:

https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/comments-on-akb-2000016-guide-for-windows-update-settings-for-windows-10/#post-2141989

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My main PC runs Win 10 w/21H2 that just came thru for me. I have been running that PC with windows updates managed by GPE. As soon as I have some time, I will fix the Windows updates on the laptop as a priority.

On my older laptop that I just passed on to a family member, I used the Winaero Tweaker to fool around with Windows and it was a fun, effective way to adjust Windows the way I liked it.

I was thrilled that the upgrade to Pro worked. I didn’t want to think about having to call Microsoft for assistance with activation. I had major changes made to my tower PC and attempted to go the ” I have made hardware changes” route in Windows and couldn’t get the OS to activate. I had to call Microsoft and they did the remote thing and couldn’t fix it. They apparently questioned my credibility and asked for a copy of my motherboard purchase to verify what I had told them. In the end, all was resolved, but it was a tough road I don’t want to go down again.

Anyway, all is well.

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Congrats on getting yourself upgrade to Pro!

As for the new motherboard thing…

Back in Oct I updated the motherboard and some other H/W in my tower and encountered no problems getting Win10 reactivated on the new setup.

Win10 on my tower was activated using a retail product key so the license allowed me to move it to a different PC.

So, instead of going the “I have made hardware changes” route an OEM key would’ve required to keep Win 10 activated, I use the steps I found on the below site to “move” it.

How to transfer a Windows 10 license to a new PC or hard drive

I first “deactivated” Win10 on the tower, rebuilt it using the new H/W, and then “activated” Win10 using the same retail product key (i.e. as far as Microsoft was concerned, I’d moved Win10 to a different PC.)

Everything worked like a charm without needing to contact Microsoft.

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Thanks for the info provided in your post. I did not know there was such a procedure for de-activation. I have read the link and it is something I will keep for future reference.

A family member in this house has a computer that badly needs a hardware update and the deactivation thing will certainly come in handy.

 

 

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I just configured a new HP laptop, Windows 11 Pro.

Can someone tell me if the information in AKB2000016 is applicable to W11Pro? If not, will an updated version be prepared? I looked for a setting to “notify download/install only, but could not find it.

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Check the information here.
The location of the “notify download/install is shown in the above link.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Ken

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On my other Win10Pro 21H2 pc, I have automatic updates on “notify”. I get a daily notification of defender updates. Can these be made automatic without affecting the rest?

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Of course!

https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/defender-wont-update-with-a-metered-connection/

cheers, Paul

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Ken

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This looks like more work daily than what I have, unless I don’t understand:

“The command required to update the definitions is:

MpCmdRun.exe -SignatureUpdate"

Does this mean every day I have to put in this command?

 

 

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The purpose of the PowerShell code is to create a scheduled task to do that for you each day.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Ken

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