upgrading Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro

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Hello Community:

        I had an HP Compaq elite 8200 SFF PC  and the mother board BROKE out to lunch,   the OS on that PC was Windows 10 Pro, which was installed on the device when I bought it.

      The option was that I located another HP Compaq elite 8200 SFF PC,  Just like the one that broke,  the new one came with Windows 10 HOME installed,   My question is;   is it possible to upgrade the new PC up to Windows 10 Pro  without a price  tag connected to the upgrade,  OR  should I just stay with Windows 10 HOME ???    ( I  like Windows 10 Pro ).

Thanks for any suggestions or solutions.

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[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

You would have to pay to upgrade from Home to Pro.

I believe the cost would be $99.99 to do that.

So, if you don't want to spend a 'C' note on the upgrade costs, you may as well stick with W10 Home.

For most home users, W10 Pro is not necessary.

This is what W10 Pro would add...

Join a Domain or Azure Active Directory: Easy connect to your business or school network

BitLocker: Help protects your data with enhanced encryption and security management

Remote desktop: Sign in and use your Pro PC while at home or on the road

Hyper-V: Create and run virtual machines

Private Catalog: Access your company's apps through your own section in the Windows Store

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Hello Paul;

    Thanks for the response and the great information, not much to be gained by going to Windows 10 Pro from the Win Home edition, so I am going to take advantage of your suggestion and STAY with MIcrosoft Windows 10 HOME edition.

  Thank You very much

I am sending you 5 Kudos,   

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Thanks Paul

     I am staying with Windows 10 HOME as per your suggestion.

Thanks Again 

Kudos Sent

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[Paul_Tikkanen]

You'e very welcome.

I was thinking this morning that you could try some 'Hail Mary' plays to get W10 Pro installed, but there is absolutely no guarantee it will work...especially since M$ has a record of that motherboard previously running W10 Home.

If your PC has a W7 Pro product key on the case--most 8200 Elite's should...Here is what you can try...

First make a system image on a portable hard drive so you can go back to your current status in case this doesn't work...

I use this free software to make a system image and it will also make a bootable rescue CD or usb flash drive that you use to access the system image you created.

https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree?x-ca=blog

After you create the image and rescue media, see if you can clean install W10 Pro by using the media creation tool at the link below.

You can make a W10 USB flash drive installer with the Microsoft Media Creation Tool, using an 8 GB flash drive.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

If you are asked to enter a product key during the installation process, select the 'I don't have a product key' option, and W10 will install.

Here are the steps to create the W10 USB flash drive installer...

Select Download tool now, and select Run.

If you agree to the license terms, select Accept.

On the What do you want to do? page, select Create installation media for another PC, and then select Next.

Select the language, edition, and architecture (64-bit or 32-bit) for Windows 10. You want 64 bit.

Select which media you want to use:

USB flash drive. Plug in a blank USB flash drive with at least 8GB of space. Any content on the flash drive will be deleted.

Then you can reinstall the drivers and available software from the PC's support page.

If W10 Pro indicates it needs a product key and activation, go to the Settings gear icon (click on the Windows icon at the bottom left of the taskbar).  Click on Update and Security, click on Activation, and click on Change Product key.

See if you can use the W7 Pro key on your PC's case to activate W10 Pro.

If none of that works you will have to reinstall your W10 Home from the image you created, or you can clean install W10 Home using the same approach above, but it should automatically activate.

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Paul;   Good Morning 

       Thanks for your latest information,   I have 2 stickers on my new  HP 8200  slim line PC  one  which says "Windows 7 Pro OA"     the second sticker says "Windows 10 Home"  and they both have different Product Key numbers.   Your comment on if these are sufficient to try the  " Hail Mary " plays,  please.

      I am going to keep these instruction for future use,  but,  for right now I am doing OK with the Windows 10 Home version.

    Thanks Again

 5 Kudos to You 

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[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

You would want to try activating W10 Pro with the Windows 7 Pro OA key.

A Microsoft tech did that for me a while back, but that was during the free upgrade period.

So, I know it used to work when upgrading to W10 Pro from W7 Pro was free.

But I don't know if it will work now since the free upgrade period ended.