W10 pro to W10 home

J_B

The laptop described here

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5889381/saving-school-emails-when-leaving
came with W10 (home?) pre-installed.
It's an HP Pavilion 15-au072sa (I think that's what it says in very small writing on the back!)


After he'd bought it, school insisted that it had W10pro on it and wanted £100 for the privilege!
His dad refused to pay that and managed to install a time limited copy of Pro (??) so it's now asking to re-activate windows.



They are now asking me to put it back to it's original W10, so I was wondering if I were to just put the W10 CD in and asked it to install 'Home' and keep all the data, would it pick up the correct Product ID from the motherboard, or do I need to dig a bit deeper???


Magical Jelly Bean gives the Pro details

EveryWhere

Why don't they simply activate the Pro install? It would be the easiest way forward

I'm not sure if you would need to do a clean install to return it to Home or whether they have overwritten the recovery partition or whether they made a recovery USB or...

So they simplest thing would be simply to activate what they have, unless they actually need Windows 10 Home.

Anthorn

J_B wrote: »

The laptop described here

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5889381/saving-school-emails-when-leaving
came with W10 (home?) pre-installed.
It's an HP Pavilion 15-au072sa (I think that's what it says in very small writing on the back!)


After he'd bought it, school insisted that it had W10pro on it and wanted £100 for the privilege!
His dad refused to pay that and managed to install a time limited copy of Pro (??) so it's now asking to re-activate windows.

They are now asking me to put it back to it's original W10, so I was wondering if I were to just put the W10 CD in and asked it to install 'Home' and keep all the data, would it pick up the correct Product ID from the motherboard, or do I need to dig a bit deeper???


Magical Jelly Bean gives the Pro details

Do you mean license from the motherboard? If so it is likely to do so during a fresh install. It did when I reinstalled my son's W10pro. You just skip the product key screen when installing. I'm not sure what will happen if you reset it. When you install you get the choice of Home or Pro.

However you should be able to get the license key from the activation screen.

The following link is to download the W10 iso file which needs to be written to disc.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10ISO

J_B

EveryWhere wrote: »

Why don't they simply activate the Pro install? It would be the easiest way forward.

I'm not sure as to the 'legality' of this copy of pro.


It worked fine for a while and then after maybe a year, it asked for activation.

EveryWhere

J_B wrote: »

I'm not sure as to the 'legality' of this copy of pro.


It worked fine for a while and then after maybe a year, it asked for activation.

Buy a new key via eBay or the like; https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=windows+10+pro+key

and then; https://www.windowscentral.com/how-change-product-key-windows-10

...or utilise a way of activating it for the purpose of evaluation..

J_B

EveryWhere wrote: »

Buy a new key via eBay or the like; https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=windows+10+pro+key

Thanks


<<104 results for windows 10 pro key>>


Any suggestions as to which one of these 104 to choose?

EveryWhere

J_B wrote: »

Thanks


<<104 results for windows 10 pro key>>


Any suggestions as to which one of these 104 to choose?

Perhaps one that has been around for a while and has good feedback. We aren't talking a lot of money here.

arciere

Windows Pro can be joined to a domain, Home can't.
I wouldn't join to my domain a computer with a Windows license that came from underground.

J_B

I chose this one
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/253136548790
and it worked


So far so good.


Now to un-link it from the school systems - think it best to phone school for advice.


Then to buy Office 2016 - it's currently subscribed to the school's 365



E bay again??

EveryWhere

arciere wrote: »

Windows Pro can be joined to a domain, Home can't.
I wouldn't join to my domain a computer with a Windows license that came from underground.

??
The product key does not change an install of certified media to anything else.

So what would be the difference from a clean install of Windows 10 downloaded from Microsoft servers and activated with a product key bought from Microsoft for £100 to £200 or exactly the same product activated with a key purchased via eBay for £4?

I can tell you the answer. There is no difference. So your 'underground' reference is nonsensical.

EveryWhere

J_B wrote: »

I chose this one
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/253136548790
and it worked


So far so good.


Now to un-link it from the school systems - think it best to phone school for advice.


Then to buy Office 2016 - it's currently subscribed to the school's 365



E bay again??

I see that you just went for the cheapest. :rotfl:
They could not even spell 'accessories' correctly in their shop name and then there are spelling mistakes all the way through.

You of course can run a clean install of Windows 10 Pro...