Windows 10: Pro license good for Home and installation with local account

I am running a virtual machine under FreeNAS. I originally installed Windows 8.1 Pro on it, activated it with phone activation, then upgraded to Windows 10 Pro. Once that was activated, then I clean installed Windows 10 Pro. All normal with no surprises.

Then I wanted to see if it was true that you could not install Windows 10 Home with a local account. So, I got the most recent Media Creation Tool, created a brand new ISO file from it, and booted my Virtual Machine from the ISO file. I ran diskpart clean and convert gpt commands. Then clicked I Don't Have a Product Key and selected Windows 10 Home from the list.

1. When asked to create a user account, there was the usual link for an Offline Account in the lower left corner. The network for the virtual machine was available, because I did get asked for MS Account info first. When I clicked on Offline Account it took me straight to the box to enter a user name. When installing Windows 10 Pro, there is usually a second nag screen asking if you are sure you don't want to use a MS Account. So....at least on my Virtual Machine, it is still possible to install the latest release version downloaded from MS with just a local account even when installing Windows 10 Home.

2. Now this is where it gets really interesting. I'm logged into Windows 10 Home with a local account on a VM that has never had any version of Windows Home activated on it before. But this first installation of Windows 10 Home is activated with a digital license! So, apparently, my previous installation of Pro also gave me a license for Home! Then I changed the product key in Home to the generic Windows 10 Pro product key and it upgraded to fully activated Pro.

:)

 

Local account installation question

I'm fairly certain that Skip this step was available in 10.0.130 - the workaround in Step 20 (back button) is no longer required.

The currently known, as of 10.0.130, ways to create a Local account sign-in are

• Skip this step at the MS account creation phase
• No Internet connection during the install
• static IP (post# 2 by Fragment) - New (to me anyway)

 

Local vs Network user accounts


I just did a VM install, just to verify that I don't speak total crap.

Steps I took:

1. Installed Windows 10 Pro x64 Build 15063.0
2. Entered the License Key
3. Created a local account
4. Went to accounts and added my Microsoft account
5. Let Windows use this account for all apps
6. Checked status on Microsoft account web page.
7. Verified that the VM shows up there
8. deleted my VM locally
9. created a new VM installation without entering the License Key (on same VM but totally new Virtual disk)
10. re-did steps 3-7
11. verified that my VM is activated.

And indeed it is activated and I login to my VM using local account which is linked to my MS account.

Should I create a Video of this or do you trust my word on it? Or better yet test it yourself if you have a valid license key you can waste on a VM.

 

Creating a MS account without losing Local account


Go to https://account.microsoft.com, click Create account and fill the form:





With a Microsoft account you can then use OneDrive and Office Online apps for free. You can also use built-in native Windows apps which require a Microsoft account like Mail, Skype Preview, People, Calendar and download apps from Windows Store.

See steps 3 to 5 in this tutorial to continue using local account as Windows sign-in account even when / if you download apps from store and / or use Windows apps requiring a Microsoft account, to avoid Windows user account converting to Microsoft account: Store - Use when Signing in to Windows 10 with Local Account - Windows 10 Forums

Other tutorials you might be interested in when you have created a Microsoft account:

• Microsoft Account Two-step Verification - Turn On or Off - Windows 10 Forums
• Microsoft Account - Link to Digital License on Windows 10 PC - Windows 10 Forums