Windows 10: Fresh install on new laptop w/Win10-Home

If the manufacturer put a key in bios. Windows 10 won't write anything to the bios.

 

Thank you for your response.

How would I go about finding out if Lenovo has put the key in bios?

So, as I understand -
upgrade from Win-10 Home to Win-10 Pro using generic key
then try and use Win-7Pro key to activate Win-10Pro.
download win-10 Pro from Tech Bench
Get my Win-10Pro key using showkeyplus. this would be my official key now
Modify as per - Windows Setup Edition Configuration and Product ID Files (EI.cfg and PID.txt). Looked at this link and see "The product key in the product ID file is only used to install Windows. This key is not used to activate Windows'. what does this mean?
Wipe out the HDD (removing all partitions etc)
install Win-10Pro again (PID.txt - my Win-10Pro official key) with separate OS and Data partitions etc.

Now, would be stuck only if win-7 Pro is not accepted to activate Win-10Pro but will look at it at that time.

Does this sound like a plan?

Thanks again.

 

Run showkeyplus from this forum:
Showkey - Windows 10 Forums

Those steps are correct.

Nope. Your Windows 10 Pro product key will be the generic product key already given in this thread. After you activate an upgrade from Windows 7 once on this computer, the digital entitlement for Windows 10 Pro for that computer will be stored on Microsoft activation servers and the generic key will be used to both install (or upgrade) Windows 10 Pro and to activate it by retrieving the digital entitlement from Microsoft activation servers.

Optional, if you want to. (and only do the PID.txt file part) Otherwise just install home and use the generic Pro product key to upgrade to Pro. The upgrade to Pro only adds features to Home, so it will remain just as much a clean install as if you installed Pro from the start. The generic product, by itself, won't activate Windows 10 - that will happen by Windows 10 retrieving the digital entitlement from Microsoft activation servers.

Correct, except that it is the Windows 10 Pro generic product key that would go in the PID.txt file.

Correct. And there would be a possible fix for that if it should be rejected - but you would have to install Windows 7 Pro and activate it first. But let's hope the Windows 7 product key is accepted. Also, make sure you are on windows 10 version 1511, build 10586.xx (also known as the November update). That's the only version that will accept Windows 7 product keys. Build 10240 will not.

 

Hello,

Thank you for your response.

Attached is the screenshot of ShowKeyPlus. So it seems Lenovo has the key in bios.

So, basically i'm stuck with generic key if I need to do a fresh install in future.

I'd always thought that any machine (with Win-7) can use windows updates to upgrade to Win-10 and that there was a way to get the key assigned to that machine so that one could do a fresh install of Win-10 if needed. Maybe I misunderstood this.

Thanks again for clarifying.

 

When you upgrade from Windows 7/8/8.1 you get a digital entitlement stored on Microsoft activation servers that Windows 10 will retrieve and activate after a fresh install.

 

Got Win-10 Pro activated using Win-7 Pro license.

What I did was
- In Win-10 Home went to upgrade
- Used generic key to upgrade
- Tried to activate Win-10 Pro using win-7 key but was unsuccessful and after a few tries was resigned to going back to Win-10 Home
- But noticed that upgrade to Win-10 Pro from Win-10 Home didn't upgrade to the required version of Nov 2015
- So did a windows update to latest build
- Then used Win-7 Pro key to activate and it did with message "Digital Entitlement" or something like that.

So, now will do a fresh install using generic key to install Win-10 Pro and hopefully it will get activated based on Digital Entitlement.

Thanks for your assistance on this.

 

When installing Pro with a Home OEM key in the firmware make sure you force a Pro install with pid.txt containing the generic Pro key.

 

Instead, at the prompt when it asks for key, can I not enter the generic Pro key?

Or will the install just pick up the Win-10 home key from bios and will not prompt me to enter a key in which case I have no option but to update pid.txt

Thanks for your input.

 

Hello,

Am trying to clean install Win-10 Pro on a Lenovo Ideapad 300S that initially came with Win-10 Home and I upgraded to Win-10 Pro using my retail Win-7 Pro license. It currently shows as Win-10 Pro activated with digital entitlement.

Looked at tutorial to create bootable USB - downloaded Win-10 iso, windows dvd /usb creation tool and all was well.
Looked at tutorial to disable secure boot and fast boot going to uefi settings.
Issue - do not see any option for 'fast boot'. disabled secure boot
Followed tutorial to select usb as start up

Laptop will NOT start using usb drive. Keeps going to my HDD and booting to windows.

Any ideas/suggestions?

Thanks.

edit -- i think i found the error. I missed the part where dvd/usb tool is only for legacy mode. will need to look at options - media creation or rufus to proceed

 

I was successful in doing that.

My laptop with Win-10Home initially is now Win-10 Pro w/digital entitlement.

Thank you for your assistance.

repped you as well

 

Glad it worked for you! Thanks!