Windows 10: Downgrade from Win10 Pro to Win10 Home

Hi all,

Just some kind of confirmation/affirmation to be honest here.

I have recently acquired a Surface Pro 3 (i5-256GB model), had Win8, promptly upgraded to Win10.

However after playing a while I found a few of the 'Pro' features an... annoyance... and nothing I wish to actually use
(one main peeve is the huge exclamation mark on my C: drive for BitLocker, something I don't plan to use, something that worried me when I first saw it, [burned by Ebay previously])

So... unless someone knows of some interesting way to go directly from 10Pro to 10Home...

I have a spare Win7 Home Key available to me, If I wipe Win10Pro, Install Win7 home, and then upgrade to Win10 home will i encounter any problems?

Not a very widespread Problem/Solution I'm sure, but if can anyone tell me if that will/will not work for my peace of mind during the process?

Just in case the 10Pro key would still be installed in UEFI, and would just re-upgrade to Win10pro anyway? Not sure how M$ make this work...

This is just a question, I'm planning to do it over the weekend, Just if someone knows it wont work already I can scrap the idea, and just install-mod 10Pro instead. Or If someone knows it WILL work, I can just go ahead full steam

Thanks ahead for help/answers! *Biggrin

:)

 

Windows 10 Professional

Why would you want to downgrade to Win10 Home after spending more money for Win10 Pro?

 

How do I downgrade from Win10 Pro to Win10 Home?

Hey! I upgraded to Windows 10 from 8.1 back in November and got a product key for Home for Christmas. Turns out the free upgrade defaulted to Pro. I've tried everything I can think of to downgrade to Home, but it hasn't worked, and going back to Win8.1
isn't an option. Any help is very welcome!

 

Installing Windows 7 Home then upgrading to Windows 10 Home should work. I'm getting ready this weekend to try something out myself. I have a laptop, upgraded from Windows 8 Pro to Windows 10 Pro. Going to dual boot with Windows 10 Home that I have a product key for, and then upgrade the Windows 7 Home to Windows 10 Home and see if I can dual boot with both of them and see what happens to activation.

I don't think your Windows 10 Pro product key stored in bios will interfere. I think that will just allow you to go back to Pro if you choose to.

Let us know the outcome!

 

I'm sure there is a way to disable some of those pro features, either in services.msc or Windows features...

 

You need to have a retail 7 home key (i.e. it must be transferable). Assuming you do (and you install 7 home and it activates) then you'll upgrade to 10 home no problem.

You'll then not see the bitlocker "!" on your C.

I would say though (running 10 Pro) I don't see the "!" anyway (perhaps there is an easier way to turn it off if that is your only issue).

I remember it on 8 but it seems to have gone for some reason (although I could still turn Bitlocker on it seems)...

 

You can disable context menu items I believe: Solved Need to remove items from computer context menu.

 

Yea thought I could disable them in pro, but as I go through and disable things that don't appear in my 10home desktop services, go and check and they're still active.... This is with bitlocker service disabled, you can see the unlocked padlock behind the exclamation mark:



Definitely part of Bitlocker as it disappears when I turn it on.

.... Instant UPDATE:
Just playing with it now.... turned Bitlocker back off... and it started decrypting the drive.... when it didn't even encrypt it...

Guess the previous owner had Win8 Bitlocker turned on.... and 10 was detecting that, but didn't have BitLocker turned on itself.

Exclamation gone now...