This was a puzzler that I came across today. I have 3 notebooks on the bench that were supposed to have been ordered with Windows 10 Pro but came with Windows 10 Home Edition instead.
There’s no way to send the notebooks back after they’ve been opened and setup has been run. The only solution – upgrade to Windows 10 Pro. And that’s where the fun begins.
First off, it’s extremely irritating that with the Digital Entitlement it’s IMPOSSIBLE to see what license has been assigned to a notebook visually. I had to run through the setups of all 3 notebooks, installing additional software and prepping for the client, before I even realized that I didn’t have a Professional operating system.
Once I realized it I informed the powers that be who then ordered 3 copies of Windows 10 Professional OEM. The cost for Windows 10 OEM is 2/3 what it is to purchase the upgrade. Since they were never supposed to be Home Edition in the first place, that’s just throwing money away, on top of the time now wasted setting up the wrong OS.
But that’s where the fun really begins. Armed with my 3 copies of Windows 10 OEM I re-ran the setup on each system, booting from the Windows 10 Pro media. Instead of wiping the partitions I just overwrote the Windows partition. I completed the install, answered all of Cortana’s questions, and when I got to a desktop – Windows 10 Home Edition.
WHAT??!?
Ok, I check the media – nope it’s right. Huh. What the hell?
I ran the setup again, this time wiping out all of the partitions. Fresh, clean install of Windows 10 Pro on a pristine drive. No system partition, no recovery partition, just like a new PC. Again, completed the setup, answered all of Cortana’s questions, and at the desktop… Windows 10 Home.
DOUBLE WHAT??
When I launched the setup again, the third time, I noticed that all of the partitions I thought were wiped were now back. How is that possible?
Well, with HP notebooks, and probably others, the Security features (Secure Boot) and such, pretty much tells the notebook to ignore anything you do, run through the process as though you are actually doing something effective, then defeat you in the end. Even after disabling all of that in the BIOS and issuing new Secure Boot keys, the setup remained exactly the same. Windows 10 Home is here to stay.
The solution I found that finally resolve this issue – use this Windows 10 Pro Upgrade Key to upgrade the OS to an non-activated Windows 10 Pro system:
VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T
After using this key, I was able to boot to Windows 10 Pro, and apply the keys we’d purchased.
I just want to say that while I understand and agree to some extent to defeat the efforts of the people who pirate software – the approaches taken to secure the licensing really only serve to frustrate the legitimate user. This does little to protect the end user and clearly that was never the intention. This is Microsoft ‘protecting their investment’. The pirates are still going to find ways to defeat the security.
Microsoft and others need to find better ways to protect themselves. Especially in the case of Microsoft where the licensing model changes multiple times on a yearly basis. How does it make any kind of sense that an upgrade license costs more than an OEM license? Presumably the OS being upgraded was OEM to begin with, so if the machine fails, the Upgrade License would fail with it. Running out and purchasing another system with the downgraded license a second time is not logical.
