How To Activate Windows 11 Home For Free

[Mireille Kreines]

Ijust finished upgrading to windows 11 home from windows 10 home and decided I would like to purchase windows 11 pro. I used the link in settings to upgrade my version of windows. I bought the 99 dollar windows pro from within the Microsoft store. It showed the purchase was successful and a button appeared saying install now.

I restarted my computer to see if that would fix the issue. As I restarted, my computer said it was performing updates. When it finished performing updates, my computer turned back on it now how's that I have windows enterprise installed and it will not let me activate. The trouble shooter does not work and it displays the error code 0xc004c003.

My my Microsoft account shows my purchase of windows 11 pro but it doesn't give me an access to a product key. When I click on more details it takes me to a broken link within Microsoft website saying this page no longer exists.

if you upgrade from Windows 11 Home to Pro , please follow these steps :

1Select Start > Settings > System > Activation.

2Under Upgrade your edition of Windows, select Open Store

3Select "I have a Windows 10/11 Pro Product Key", then input the product key

4: If you have any error warning , please reboot your PC and try it again

and I get my windows 11 pro key from the microsoft partner online store keyingo.com, and i upgrade with the key and follow the instructions without any problems

I am having the same problem and spent two hours on the phone with Microsoft. They said I had to upgrade my Windows 11 home, but it would wipe out

every other application on my computer that wasn't a Microsoft product. This is a new laptop with Windows 11 so I don't know why I would have to upgrade it

to use the key to upgrade to Windows 11 Pro. So frustrating.......when I try to enter that default key I get an error. Did you have any experience with this?

this seems to be a generic key for windows 10 not 11 , Currently having the same issue with a brand new windows 11 PC and upgrade to windows Pro

Microsoft message screen says select troubleshoot below. Which of course there is no Troubleshoot below !

In the end I had to get the vendor to log in and fix this problem, firstly by changing the version to Windows 11 Pro un-activated in Powershell/Terminal and then activate it with a fresh valid product key through System settings (several activation keys had been attempted through the System Settings previously to no avail)

So the best approach is to go to a Microsoft authorised vendor in the first instance)

I buy my license on the Microsoft site. They said that the product key is on the mail sent when I bought the license buy it doesn't. and in the order history doesn't appears the product key. I'm asking for every possible way to get my product key, my actual windows is a home ed, but I need some features of my pro version.

I want to upgrade but without my key is impossible. I already have my ms account associated to my login and is an administrator account. the only way to upgrade it is using the key or buy a new license (is totally illogic buy a new license to get my old license...) and nobody answer from Microsoft. the only thing the have is a troubleshoot step by step that goes in circle. Is sooooo hard to them give me my already bought key?

I have a laptop here that came with Windows 10 Home pre-installed. But I want the more feature-rich Pro edition instead. I have access to the Microsoft DreamSpark program through collage. So I have ordered a new license key for the "Multiple Edition". This is thought to be a Home and Pro bundle in one ISO file, but the license key activates only the more feature-rich Pro edition. This is according to a forum thread on tenforums.com.

I have now done a clean install using the provided ISO file. But the installer never prompted for a license key? I did get a 25 character key from DreamSpark. Once the installation was done, and I connected to the network, it appears to have been activated, and it's licensed to "Windows User"? But the installed edition is still just "Home"?

The currently installed Windows version is 1607, build 14393.0. This is definitely not the build that came with the laptop. The PC came with the TH1 update (some 10.0.10240.x build). This indicates that the install went well, but this activation thing is a puzzle.

In any normal operating system world, the solution provided by Timmy should be the correct solution. And it is the correct path to follow, except for the fact that it doesn't work properly. But that's a problem of Microsoft and Windows itself.

I followed the instructions provided by Timmy. Except I did not use the "Go to Store" link, but the "Change Product Key" link. But this should not be important, as both links seem to lead to the same "Enter a product key" prompt.

This appeared to be working. A Microsoft Support rep even confirmed that my Pro key had in fact been activated. The PC rebooted and some "upgrading" message appeared on the screen. So all was well... except for the fact that the Home to Pro upgrade installer program appears to be broken, because it failed to properly enable all of Pro features and benefits. It only enabled some of them.

So I will have to use the clean install (WinPE) method/installer. But for this to succeed I need a way to prevent the installer from automatically reading my UEFI embedded key and configuring Home edition during install. I need an override method for this automation. I need a way to provide the installer with the Pro key manually before the installation starts. The method given by Daniel seems promising. I will post back if it works.

I will post back if and when I overcome these damn roadblocks. I can't possibly wait for Microsoft to get their head out of the cloud and fix the Home to Pro upgrade installer. So being able to answer my second question here seems like the best shot at correctly configuring Pro edition on this PC.

As always, the clean install method has proven to have the best outlook at fully and successfully installing, configuring and activating Windows. I just wish it wasn't so much more automated in Windows 10, with little to no user control over the process. It bases its decisions on a lot of predictions, trying to outsmart the human sitting in front of the screen. Since it's just a stupid computer, it has no concept of understanding user choice or preference. I think I know my own PC better than Microsoft and Windows put together. Not to mention my own preference and choice. No one else knows that better than I do.

As I explained earlier, this PC came with Window 10 Home pre-installed by Asus. So it was an OEM type of thing with some minor bloatware. I used the ISO file that I got a link for from DreamSpark store and Rufus 2.10 to create a bootable USB flash drive.

This installed Windows 10 Home and got activated automatically by the installation process. This PC is a laptop, and it has only WiFi for connectivity. And! I did not connect to the WiFi AP during setup. So it had no chance at activating over the Internet. The installer must have used the pre-activated key that's embedded on the machine.

Microsoft support representative used a remote session on my PC to try to sort out any issues with enabling Pro features. All attempts failed so they asked me to do a clean installation. Again?! So I obeyed and did another installation.

I used Rufus 2.10 again to prepare a USB flash drive. The installation completed again, and again, I had Windows 10 Home instead of Pro. As I suspected, the installer picked up the embedded Windows 10 Home key and configured Home edition. It failed to prompt for a key, just like the last time.

So I have clean installed Windows 10 Home not once but 2 times now since I left the bloated OEM Windows that came with the PC. I used 2 different official Microsoft ISO files, both with the same result. I also formatted the Windows partitions both times. I made my partitioning scheme on the first run, and I reused my existing partitions on the second run instead of having to recreate my partitions. But I made sure to format the target partition that I installed Windows on.

On some systems, disabling Secure Boot effectively prevents the Windows installer from reading the embedded key. This did not work on my PC. Windows 10 Home was installed, just like the last two times. It did not prompt me to enter a key which was the expected behavior.

Towards the end of July I was upgrading a bunch of computers for work to 10 and a few from home to pro, though I was forced to go via the route of using the method Charles on the MS forums describes as I was activating with a pre Windows 10 key. The above is just a bit shorter as you already have a 10 key, and don't need to go through an additional key swap.

My brand new XPS-15 arrives today - obtained at short notice with Windows 10 Home edition installed. I only use Windows 10 Pro edition. What is the most straightforward way for me to upgrade to the Pro edition - ideally retaining a Dell installation image (with all the Dell add-ins, drivers etc). I do not intend activating the Home version.

I'm hoping that the current installation already has the pro features present (but locked) and can only be 'unlocked' by a Pro License Key. That would be great - is that way forward feasible. Please comment on whether a Dell(OEM) license key would be required or a Microsoft Sourced one.

To upgrade from Windows 10 Home if you have a Windows 10 product key:

Select the Start button, then select Settings > Update & security > Activation.

Select Change product key, and then enter the 25-character Windows 10 Pro product key.

Select Next to start the upgrade to Windows 10 Pro

@EddieZe Wow that ! Sorry to hear that... Does not look good for me then, that's exactly what I need to do. But "Tech specialist" (or something like that) here told me that it should work no problem.

Clearly there is a problem here. As others have reported it is NOT as easy as entering a Pro License Key. That fails for me as it has failed for others. Dell should have a documented path from home to pro that works and document that on dell.com. OR they should tell us why an upgrade won't work. I ended up in the Windows 10 Enterprise state after a failed update after entering the lic key. Microsoft said only a clean install using a Windows 10 Pro image off a USB bootable drive would work. It didn't as when you boot from the USB drive it cannot see they main drive for some (possible secure boot related) reason.

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