It Worked The First Time

[MMZ_Thumper]

When I bought this laptop. The guy told me it had a legit key for Windows 10 Pro. Not surprising, turns out it wasn't. About a week ago I purchased an action key from kinguin which activated successfully.

Unfortunately at the time I was having issues with the ssd the OS was installed on which forced me to swap it out with another ssd that I had. To install Windows 10 I used a Windows Installation USB Drive I had created using my main Windows 11 laptop.

After getting around a couple issues with Windows saying it couldn't be installed onto the ssd due to a partition issue I finally got Windows 10 to install successfully. Rather than just creating a local account I used my main Microsoft account during the installation. When I went over to "Activation" and entered the activation key I had purchased, like before, I got a message stating that Windows 10 Home has already been activated using a digital key associated with my Microsoft account.?????? I wasn't even aware that I had one!

I figured I'd try coming here for some answers rather than trying to navigate Microsoft and just being ignored. I've always recieved truthful, straightforward help from everyone here. So can anyone tell me what happened? Where did this digital key come from? Was it because I used my main Windows 11 laptop to create the installation usb drive? How do I get Windows to accept the Windows 10 Pro key that I purchased and switch the OS from Home to Pro?

When I created the installation usb drive I used Windows Media Creation Tool which I assumed wouldn't include any information from my Microsoft account or from the laptop it was being created on. Is that actually the case? Would I be better off creating a new installation/recovery usb drive using Rufus rather than Windows tool?

Any help, comments and suggestions will be greatly appreciated! Thank you for taking the time to read this and if there's any other informative you need please feel free to ask! 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

The only suggestion I can offer would be to follow the guidance from Microsoft if you have not done so already.

I have used this before twice, and never had a problem when I had to reinstall W10 Pro on a PC that has a W10 Home product key in the BIOS.

Upgrade Windows Home to Windows Pro - Microsoft Support

You can use any PC running W7 or newer to create a W10 installation flash drive and it has no bearing on activation.

The only factors that affect activation is the W10 Home product key in the BIOS, and if Microsoft has a record of the W10 Pro key you used to activate the installation to W10 Pro the last time.

[MMZ_Thumper]

I asked myself right after posting this wondering if you would be the one to offer assistance first and what do you know! You sir, are amazing! I am extremely grateful for ALL the help you've given me over a multitude of issues!!! Thank you!

I will definitely checkout the link you provided. I know I probably could have looked for it myself but my biggest issue is not knowing what exactly, I should be searching for!! Does that make sense? 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

I am glad that you are using the HP support forum to seek assistance.

Reinstalling Windows 10 Pro on a notebook that has a W10 Home key in the BIOS presents its difficulties.

The internet is a great source of information.

I learn new things every day online.