Windows 10 Home to Pro Upgrade fails

[teklpt]

I have tried (and failed) to upgrade my Spectre x360 from the Windows Home to Windows 10 Pro. I purchased the upgrade through Microsoft Store and began the Installation. It Completed rebooted a few times but fails with System Error 0x0.

I have had Microsoft technical support on this and still no further forward after two days now. I have completed a fresh install of windows and still the same why would this upgrade not be possible any ideas anyone?

[WAWood]

@teklpt 

The Home license preinstalled on your PC is an HP OEM license.

The Pro version you bought is most likely a Retail license.

I don't believe you can update from one license to another -- as the two different license types have very different product key types.

As to the clean-install, the HP OEM product key was encoded into the UEFI firmware of the motherboard.  Perhaps when you try to do the Upgrade, it tries to modify that firmware and, of course, it fails in the process.

But ... I have not tried this myself and defer to others that might have first-hand experience.

[teklpt]

I have had Microsoft tech support on this all day and they are no further forward your comment on OEM and retail I did not investigate with them so will ask thanks.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, @teklpt 

Do you have any McAfee software installed?

If so, see these discussions...the second link has many replies of different things that worked for those guys.

https://superuser.com/questions/1120109/upgrade-windows-10-home-to-pro-fails-with-error-code-0x0

http://techspeeder.com/2016/02/09/unable-to-upgrade-windows-10-home-to-pro-we-couldnt-upgrade-your-e...

So the upgrade still failed when you clean installed W10 Home and then tried to change the product key to W10 Pro?

That shouldn't be happening, and it doesn't matter what product key you received from the Windows Store...OEM, Retail...doesn't matter.

[WAWood]

@Paul_Tikkanen 

You said "That shouldn't be happening, and it doesn't matter what product key you received from the Windows Store...OEM, Retail...doesn't matter."

And while that's correct, I'm wondering if the OEM key embedded in the UEFI firmware of the PC is somehow "interfering" with the Retail key the OP is trying to use? Is this even possible?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

I honestly don't believe the W10 OEM product key is the culprit.

All notebooks that came from a major PC manufacturer come with an OEM W10 product key in the BIOS.

Whatever Pro key or digital license (can depend on the circumstances whether you get a key, or digital license) will work with the W10 Home OEM product key.

If you look at the second link I posted, there seems to be several different types of software that are preventing the upgrade...McAfee, One Drive, even Windows Defender.

The one guy had posted how Microsoft tried different keys to no avail.

I'm leaning heavily on it being some crazy kind of software glitch that is preventing the upgrade.

I have a HP Stream Pro G4 that I bought on eBay and it came with W10 S OEM.

I had no problem upgrading from W10 S to W10 Pro.

No doubt you have seen this link, but if not, this is all a person is supposed to have to do to upgrade...

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12384/windows-10-upgrading-home-to-pro

[teklpt]

I did raise this with Microsoft support and they did state that the OEM/Retail license should not be an issue but thank you for input always good to work through issues like this one step at a time.

[teklpt]

I have removed the McAfee, Windows Defender, and still same result, I poked around inside the UEFI area with the bios and could not as yet see where any changes can be made that could be relevant. I am going to raise the issue with HP support (Have a care pack very useful) and post back their feedback here.  

[teklpt]

So HP Support confirm there is no hard coding or anything that should prevent a Windows 10 Home to Pro upgrade so heading back to Microsoft to see what is next.

[teklpt · Accepted solution]

The issue is now resolved the fix was done with the following:

Step 1: Microsoft made the following  changes to the registry see image below location is:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProductName

The Entry under ProductName was changed from Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro

Step 2: Then a full download and re-install of windows 10 was next step keeping Files and Applications as is 

Step 3: Following installation a reboot and then reactivation of Windows START\Settings\Update and Security\Activation

The summary is that in my case the standard Windows Store installation path did not work with the steps taken above.