Upgrade Windows Home to Windows Pro – Thank you for your feedback!

Installing a copy of Windows 11 or 10 for a built-from-scratch computer can be costly — if you do what Microsoft wants. This Windows tax is profoundly unfair to PC builders, because large OEMs such as Dell and Lenovo pay much lower licensing fees to put Windows on prebuilt systems though these costs are not made public.

Why you can trust Tom’s Hardware Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test. No matter how or whether you pay for it, you can download Windows 10 opens in new tab or download Windows 11 opens in new tab for free from Microsoft. And, in fact, you should only download it from Microsoft, as grabbing it from any other site or from a P2P network could give you malware.

Microsoft offers a free media creation tool, which grabs the latest code from the Internet and then burns itself to a USB Flash drive or outputs a Windows 10 or Windows 11 ISO file you can write to a drive yourself. Once that’s done, you can boot from your installation media and start the process.

During installation, Microsoft asks you to enter a Windows 10 or 11 product key. If you are still on Windows 7 or 8, you can upgrade to Windows 10 for free. If you have an old, retail non-OEM copy of Windows 7, 8 or 10 you are no longer using on another PC, you can likely use the product key when you do a fresh install of Windows on your new PC.

However, you must first make sure it’s deactivated on the old PC it came from. See our article on how to transfer a Windows 10 or 11 license to a new PC for step-by-step information on how to retrieve and move your key.

The process of transferring a Windows license varies, depending upon whether you have digital or non-digital license. With a the former, you’ll need to log into your Microsoft account to deactivate the old PC. And with the latter, you’ll want to use a command line command to terminate the activation. Note that if the product key comes from a prebuilt computer that came from the factory with Windows on it, it has an OEM key that may not work on a different new PC. Feel free to try it, though, because if it works you have Windows 10 or 11 for free.

The good news is that you only have two serious disadvantages from not activating Windows 10 or However, if you are using a Microsoft account that syncs with another computer on which you have custom wallpaper, that wallpaper will appear on your unactivated Windows.

But come on; does anyone actually do that? Other than those inconveniences, unactivated Windows should work just fine and receive automatic updates too.

You can see if your school is eligible and download your free Windows 11 key here opens in new tab. You might be able to get them for less with a Kinguin discount code though. These are all OEM keys and likely can’t be used on another computer after you activate them on the first one. We recommend paying a little extra to get a key that has “online activation,” which means that it should activate automatically over the Internet.

Keys that aren’t marked for “online activation” may force you to call Microsoft, wait on hold and ask a phone representative for help activating. The representative may even ask for your Microsoft account, which is not great for your privacy. Now, let’s address the elephant in the room.

While we can’t vouch for all of them, websites selling cheap Windows 10 or 11 keys are likely offering legitimate codes. Kinguin has more than three dozen merchants worldwide selling Windows keys. It’s just another marketplace. It all comes down to the needs and requirements of users for which one to go for. If you already own a Windows 10 Pro Product key , then upgrading to Professional version would be no trouble at all.

Keep patience and let Windows Store update process to complete. Enter Windows 10 Pro Product key to complete the activation process. Click Next. This process should probably take your system into an upgrade process from Home to Pro! So, have you used the Free Windows Product key? Did it work for you? Share your experiences in the comment section below! Windows Mac iOS Android. Related topics. Activation Overview. Install and Upgrades.

Activation Troubleshooting. Windows 11 Windows 10 More Open Activation settings Important: The following steps apply only to devices currently running an activated copy of Windows 11 Home.

Open Activation settings Important: The following steps apply only to devices currently running an activated copy of Windows 10 Home. Need more help? Join the discussion. Was this information helpful? Yes No. Thank you! Any more feedback? The more you tell us the more we can help.

How to Upgrade Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro for FREE .Upgrade Windows Home to Windows Pro – Microsoft Support

This article got everything about Pedro Pico I will test soon! Steve Great article. I have to say that you have done very nice research to make the article informative.

Christina This tutorial of upgrading windows 10 home to windows 10 pro is really informative. Janny Thomas Your post is amazing! Then finally I came across this amazing blog that provided me all the detailed explanation. This could also be the case if you took advantage of the free Windows 10 upgrade offer on a PC running a Home edition of Windows 7 or Windows 8.

In either case, the upgrade takes just a few minutes. You’ll see a succession of progress screens and your system will restart. After the upgrade completes, you should see a Success notification. Check the Activation screen again to confirm that you’re now running Windows 10 Pro. After you’ve successfully performed a Home-to-Pro upgrade, you can file that product key away. Your upgrade is now a digital license, attached to your unique hardware.

If you perform a reinstallation of Windows, Microsoft’s activation servers will 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 10 Pro.

After the upgrade was complete, I used a bootable USB flash drive containing Windows 10 setup files to reinstall a clean copy of Windows 10 Pro, skipping the option to enter a product key as part of setup, as shown below. When prompted, be sure to choose Windows 10 Pro as the edition to install. The system was properly activated, because Microsoft’s servers recognized the hardware and used the digital license.

Looking for technical information about Windows 10 releases, new features, known issues, troubleshooting, and tech support? Start here. The one gotcha in this series of scenarios comes when you have a system that includes digital licenses for both Windows 10 Home 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 10 on a Surface Pro PC that had originally shipped with Windows 10 Home and had been upgraded to Windows 10 Pro. Now, let’s address the elephant in the room. While we can’t vouch for all of them, websites selling cheap Windows 10 or 11 keys are likely offering legitimate codes. Kinguin has more than three dozen merchants worldwide selling Windows keys.

It’s just another marketplace. We’ve bought keys from Kinguin a few times. So we tried calling the number and waited on hold for a few minutes. We thought activating via phone would be an automated process where we just punched in the key and got an approval code, but instead we got a live representative who immediately asked for our Microsoft account ID. Another time, we paid a few dollars more for an online activation key.

Lo and behold, it activated as soon as we entered the code, with no phone call required. Are you likely to be ripped off? However, both sites play host to a number of third-party sellers whose product keys may or may not be legit. The easiest but most expensive way to get Windows is to buy your key directly from Microsoft. You can get these either as downloads or on USB drives.

If you have an old Windows key you can carry over from a previous build, that’s your best option and effectively gives you Windows 10 or Windows 11 for free. If you don’t have a key on hand, you need to decide whether you’re comfortable using an unactivated version of Windows 10 or 11, which limits your customization options, has an ugly watermark and leaves you ineligible for Microsoft support. Many would argue that downloading Windows without paying for or already owning a product key is ethically wrong.

That said, Microsoft has made this process easier over various Windows iterations and lessened the limitations and nagging that happens when you don’t activate. We’ve even seen well-known vendors and Microsoft partners do press presentations with watermarks on their desktop.

If you need to buy a Windows 10 or Windows 11 key, you can save a lot with a low-cost seller such as Kinguin opens in new tab. Get instant access to breaking news, in-depth reviews and helpful tips.

Scharon Harding has a special affinity for gaming peripherals especially monitors , laptops and virtual reality. Previously, she covered business technology, including hardware, software, cyber security, cloud and other IT happenings, at Channelnomics, with bylines at CRN UK. US Edition. Swipe to scroll horizontally. So, have you used the Free Windows Product key? Did it work for you? Share your experiences in the comment section below! Windows Mac iOS Android. Mansi Vijay , February 24, Share on:.

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Windows 10 home to windows 10 pro upgrade price free download.Windows 10 Home (Download)

 
Windows 10 Home (Download) With Windows 10 at the heart of your computer you can do it all. • Built-in security features include antivirus, firewall, and internet protections • Scan your face or fingerprint with Windows Hello for a fast, secure, and password-free way to unlock your PC.*. • Focus assist allows you to block notifications. May 19,  · In recent versions of Windows 10, the upgrade from Home to Pro is quick and easy. It’s worth rummaging through your garage, storeroom, or email archives to . Before upgrading to Windows 10 Pro, make sure your device is up to date and running the most recent version of Windows 10 Home. For more info about how to keep your PC updated, see Windows Update: FAQ. To upgrade from Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro and activate your device, you’ll need a valid product key or a digital license for Windows 10 Pro.