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12 classic but essential (and free!) utilities for Windows 10 and 11 | Computerworld.How to Upgrade Windows 10 Home to Pro Using an OEM Key |
Windows 10 home to pro free. How To Upgrade From Windows 10 Home To Windows 10 Pro For Free
Looking for a new Windows 10 laptop that won't break the bank? These affordable options are available now. If you purchase a new PC with Windows 10 Home preinstalled, prepare to be annoyed. This down-market edition maybe we should just call it Windows for Cheapskates doesn't have the features you need for getting real work done: Remote Desktop server access, BitLocker disk encryption, group policy support, and control over when updates get installed, just for starters.
Those keys can be reused to enable an upgrade from Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro, potentially saving you the upgrade fee. In fact, you can use a product key from any of these older Windows versions to perform a clean install or to upgrade to Pro. It's worth rummaging through your garage, storeroom, or email archives to see if you can locate one of those old keys. Maybe you still have a key for one of the heavily discounted upgrades to Windows 8 Pro that Microsoft offered in the first few months after that product's ill-fated launch in Or perhaps you have a shrink-wrapped retail copy of Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate, where the license associated with the product key is no longer in use.
Best of all, you only need to use the older product key one time. After you complete the upgrade from Windows 10 Home, the Windows 10 Pro digital license is attached to the specific hardware you just upgraded, allowing you to reinstall that edition of Windows on that hardware anytime, without the need for a product key. This scenario worked during the early Windows 10 upgrade program, and after some testing and multiple reports from independent testers worldwide I can confirm that it still succeeds in , more than five years later.
Microsoft first made this option available in Windows 10 version Since then, they have simplified the process dramatically. Here's the scoop. Some vendors offer an upgrade option as part of the purchase, but many PCs sold in the retail channel are preloaded with Home edition. 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. Not surprisingly, using the recovery image gave me an installation of Windows 10 Home. If that happens to you, don't bother searching for the product key you used to upgrade. Instead, use Microsoft's generic product key to force the upgrade.
Next, enter the default Windows 10 Pro product key:. Follow the prompts to upgrade from Home to Pro. Because your hardware already has a digital license for the Pro edition, it will activate automatically. That generic product key isn't magical, of course.
If your hardware doesn't already have a Pro license, you'll get an activation error and you'll need to supply a proper product key or pay for an upgrade. This article has been completely rewritten to incorporate developments in recent feature updates to Windows You've got a new PC running Windows 10 Home. You want to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro. Here's how to get that upgrade for free. ZDNet Recommends.
In recent versions of Windows 10, the upgrade from Home to Pro is quick and easy. Enter a product key here and then follow the prompts.
If your PC already has a Pro license, don't enter a product key when reinstalling. Windows 10 How to recover deleted files in Windows 10 or 11 Microsoft enters the final test phase for Windows 10 22H2 before it rolls out The top Windows laptops compared Here's how you can still get a free Windows 10 upgrade. Show Comments. Log In to Comment Community Guidelines. Related How to remove bloatware from Windows How to remove bloatware from Windows 10 Windows How to recover deleted files in Windows 10 or How to recover deleted files in Windows 10 or 11 Windows.
How to back up your files in Windows 10 and 11 with File History. How to back up your files in Windows 10 and 11 with File History Productivity.
- Windows 10 home to pro free
Mod your system with these easy-to-install utilities for Windows 10 and 11 to make your machine faster and easier to use. None of these are anti-malware tools. These are all niche tools with the sole purpose of making Windows better and more convenient to use.
All are free-to-use or offer a free version. This can potentially recover a lot of storage space. I also like CCleaner because it lets you uninstall most of the Microsoft programs that come with Windows 10 and 11 that neither OS will — out of the box — let you remove, such as Cortana and OneDrive. You might want to partition a large drive on your network, for example, to keep shared files separate from your Windows OS.
Other tools included in these packages can copy the whole contents of a drive to another drive — including moving your installation of Windows — or attempt to recover damaged or deleted partitions. These two utilities are so similar that the choice between them comes down to picking the one that has the interface you find more appealing. I lean toward DiskGenius because it can help you move your PC's main drive — with an installation of Windows on it — to a smaller drive, automatically resizing it to fit.
This convenient feature is not usually free in other drive-management tools. Once you've installed this tool, you can find files on your Windows PC in an instant. Start typing the letters of a filename into the Everything search box and watch as it narrows down the results. The more letters you type, the shorter the list of results becomes until Everything finds only the file you are looking for.
The search results can be viewed as file thumbnails, and Everything does an equally fast job of generating previews of your files in this viewing mode. IObit Unlocker and LockHunter are equally good at correcting this.
And each will unlock that file or folder so you can delete or manipulate it as usual. Or maybe you need to format the main drive of your computer, which will require that you reinstall a licensed program afterwards. It scans your Windows PC for all the licensed programs that are installed on it and generates a handy list with each program's license key. You can then save all your license keys as a text file to refer to at any time.
This handy utility can fish out the keys of over licensed programs. Recuva can scan the drive where the deleted file was originally stored and present a list of the deleted files it finds there. Each filename on this list will be graded with a color that illustrates your odds of restoring the file to its original state. Green means a deleted file can most likely be recovered. Windows 10 and 11 have built-in functions that stop malware or programs from doing harmful actions to your PC, to some extent.
If the program tries to run malware, or if your web browser downloads something bad, Sandboxie keeps all these harmful actions confined in the sandbox. Sandboxie also places a handy shortcut on your desktop, which you can click at any time to run your default browser inside a sandbox. When you click a filename and press the spacebar at the same time, Seer loads a preview of the file.
You can also preview compressed files such as ZIP by peeking at its file list. You can even install plug-ins so that this tool can preview more file types, such as Microsoft Office documents. Click a category to see technical details about this component. It will print all these nitty-gritty specs or save them to a text file.
It also shows the security authentication and encryption methods for each Wi-Fi network. Here are the latest Insider stories.
More Insider Sign Out. Sign In Register. Sign Out Sign In Register. Latest Insider. Check out the latest Insider stories here. More from the Foundry Network. How to repair Windows 10 and 11 in 4 steps. Windows 11 cheat sheet.
- Windows 10 home to pro free
Azure Active Directory Domain Join. Enterprise Mode Internet Explorer. Remote Desktop with central management. Client Hyper-V. Which features do Windows 10 Home and Pro have in common?
But if you already have an OEM key for Windows 10 Pro, just follow the steps below to find out how to upgrade and activate your Pro system: Windows 10 Pro Upgrade Key-Steps to Take Before we dive into the Windows 10 Pro product upgrade, here're some free keys you can use. A User Account Control dialogue box may open asking if you want to allow the app to make changes. Note : Make sure your work is saved and all applications are closed on your computer before starting the upgrade Follow the instructions and your upgrade will now begin.
Your computer should now be upgraded from Windows Home 10 to Pro and fully activated. You can now enjoy all the features of Windows 10 Pro! From here click on Command Prompt as an Admin. Your product will be listed on the next page. Type: slui. Hit Enter. If you have the Home version and are thinking about upgrading to Pro, make sure that you have a backup of your files and data. You can follow the rule: make 3 copies of your backup, store them in 2 kinds of storage media and save 1 copy offsite.
Step 1. Make sure that your computer is up to date. Step 2. On your desktop, select Start Window logo then select Settings cogwheel icon.
Step 3. Step 6. Once the correct key is entered, the upgrade will start and you will get a prompt when it finishes. Check 12 Must-Have Software for Windows A new Microsoft Store pop-up window will appear, with the Buy button. Click on it, log in to your Microsoft account, and key in your payment details.
Wait for the process completed and restart your PC, then you'll get Windows 10 Pro edition upgraded. This means that the edition you use for your PC is retained, Pro in this case. Open Windows Store and log into your Microsoft account.
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.
Not surprisingly, using the recovery image gave me an installation of Windows 10 Home. If that happens to you, don't bother searching for the product key you used to upgrade. Data Backup, Do it the Right Way!
On this World Backup Day, don't forget to backup your data and keep it secured. This article got everything about What Do You Think? 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.
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