Forum Discussion
Upgrade to windows 11 Pro from unlicensed Home version
Hi I have build a computer and I downloaded unlicensed Windows 11 Home to a usb drive (from microsoft) and installed it as operative system. Then my manager bought a 11 pro license key (misunderstood each other) instead of windows 11 home license key. Now I try to write in the 11 pro license key but it doesn't work. I get an error message when I push next. I thought it would upgrade to pro automatically. So my question is: does this not work? what should I do? I don't want to reformat the computer since I have bought office package and another program.
16 Replies
In my experiences, the long and short of your issue is that the official in-place upgrade from Win11 Home to Win11 pro will I believe require an activated Win11 Home installed. As you stated, you apparently have an unlicensed version installed currently of Win11 Home, which I believe the reason your upgrade process is failing.
That being said.... what now, right? Well, there are two ways that I know will work where you won't have to do any reformatting, etc. Those two methods are:
- The officially Microsoft-recommended method:
Simply find an outlet vendor of MS Windows licenses and purchase a Win11 Home license at the most affordable rate you can find. After getting your Win11 Home product key you purchase.... simply go back to the Windows activation settings within your unlicensed Windows 11 Home and select to "change" adding the newly purchased product key. After it being accepted by the system, make sure to reboot BEFORE trying to start the in-place upgrade process to Win11 Pro. If you complete these steps, you will be fully legal with your upgraded Windows 11 and able to be fully supported through official Microsoft technical support.
2. The "Other" Route method (not officially supported):
While I won't disrespect Microsoft specifically here, I will make note to you that simply activating your unlicensed Win11 Home through "other non-Microsoft alternative means" and then restarting your in-place Win11 Pro upgrade will also achieve your sought-after end result. I will only suggest that if you choose this route that you should use available public search engines to find the process methodology to do so as I can't imagine Microsoft allowing such to be detailed on their own public forums and doing such would additionally be disrespectful of me.
Hope this all helps you reach your intended end result and either option will. God speed and good efforts forward😉
Sincerely,
Paul Scallan Jr
You can upgrade to Windows 11 Pro without any problem.
Go to Settings > Update & Security > Activation then you need a retail key for Upgrade, Retail only from Microsoft partners, one of them is Hypestkey-Software, then the upgrade will become a couple of minutes and your Windows will be a PRO version
- To upgrade from Windows 11 Home to Pro, go to Settings > Update & Security > Activation, and enter your Pro key. If it doesn't work, you might need to reinstall Windows 11 Pro. You can purchase a Windows 11 Pro key for the upgrade from 9XKEY.com, a trusted partner for legitimate Windows product keys.
To upgrade from Windows 11 Home to Pro, go to Settings > Update & Security > Activation. Enter the Pro key there. If it fails, consider reinstalling Windows 11 Pro
You can get windows 11 pro key for upgrade from hypestkey.com partner microsoft- 1. Disconnect the internet connection of your PC.
2. Go to System > Activation.
3.Select "Change Product Key", then use the generic key below to upgrade to Windows 11 Pro.
VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T
Once you upgraded to Windows 11 Pro, connect your internet to the PC then use your valid Windows 10/11 Pro product key to activate the system.
This will only help you to upgrade from home to Pro version, but not activate it, after you upgrade to Windows 11 Pro , you can activate it with your own key !
If your Windows 11 Pro key still cant activate it , you might consider to buy a valid Windows 11 Pro key from keyingo.comI have to concur that this is known to be a valid working solution and I give kudos to the reply author here for this KISS simple solution!😁
really appreciated. It worked
This worked for me. Thanks.
- See this link for using dism tool to upgrade to a different OS edition.
https://learn.microsoft.com/de-de/windows-server/get-started/upgrade-conversion-options vegg92, if you see this error as shown in below image, then you simply need to restart the system after this. If you've used genuine and unique product key for Pro edition, after restart your edition should be changed to Pro.
Refer detailed steps here: https://www.kapilarya.com/how-to-upgrade-windows-11-home-to-pro
Hope this helps!
Note: Included link in this reply refers to blog post by a trusted Microsoft MVP.
For those who saw this error, try to switch off your Wi-Fi, then try again.
