Windows 10: What is the best upgrade path for 8.1 to 10 pro

Discus and support What is the best upgrade path for 8.1 to 10 pro in Windows 10 Installation and Upgrade to solve the problem; I just purchased a new windows 8.1 laptop. I need to upgrade to a Pro version. my previous laptop was 7 pro. As I would rather not have to learn two... Discussion in 'Windows 10 Installation and Upgrade' started by terich50, Aug 19, 2015.

  1. terich50 Win User

    What is the best upgrade path for 8.1 to 10 pro


    I just purchased a new windows 8.1 laptop. I need to upgrade to a Pro version. my previous laptop was 7 pro. As I would rather not have to learn two new operating systems (have not worked with either 8 or 10 yet) - I thought I would get to 10 pro as soon as possible.

    should I go from 8.1 to 8.1 pro -- and then from 8.1 pro to 10 pro

    Or should I go from 8.1 to 10 -- and then from 10 to 10 pro

    I have not loaded ANYTHING on the new 8.1 laptop yet.

    Anyone have suggestions on the best path?

    :)
     
    terich50, Aug 19, 2015
    #1

  2. Best way to upgrade from Windows 8.1 Home to Windows 10 Pro?

    What would be the best way to upgrade from Windows 8.1 Home to Windows 10 Pro? I have a brand new laptop with only Windows 8.1 and driver software installed on it. I'm curious what would be the best way to go from Windows 8.1 Home to Windows 10 Pro.
    Would it be to upgrade to Windows 10 Home and then purchase the upgrade to Windows 10 Pro? Or upgrade to Windows 8.1 Pro and then to Windows 10 Pro? Or would just buying Windows 10 Pro and doing a fresh install be best?
     
    SarahKHarris, Aug 19, 2015
    #2
  3. megamicro Win User
    Win 10 Basic upgrade to Win 10 Pro

    I just a bought a Lenovo laptop [Yoga 3 14] which came pre installed with Win 8.1. The laptop has been upgraded to Win 10 because I wanted to evaluate it.

    I have got a Win 7 ultimate license too and I want to upgrade my laptop to Win 10 Pro. Whats the best upgrade path I should follow? Is there a direct path to upgrade from Win 10 Basic to Win 10 Pro by using the Win 7 ultimate key? Or do I need to downgrade
    all the way to 7 and the go upgrade.

    Thanks in advance.
     
    megamicro, Aug 19, 2015
    #3
  4. What is the best upgrade path for 8.1 to 10 pro

    If you are going to buy Pro, why not just buy 10 Pro and skip the upgrade? The short answer is, what is the cheapest option?
     
    alphanumeric, Aug 19, 2015
    #4
  5. MickD Win User
    I would iron out everything while still on 8.1, so I would upgrade to Pro 1st on 8.1. Once you are running 8.1 Pro Activated you won't have any problems upgrading free to Windows 10 Pro. This seems like the cleanest approach assuming you may want to perform a clean Windows 10 Pro install after receiving the free Windows 10 Pro upgrade. I assume that upgrading to Pro is cheaper than buying a full version of Pro.
     
    MickD, Aug 19, 2015
    #5
  6. terich50 Win User
    hi thanks for the quick reply. I have to buy pro - whether its 8.1 pro or 10 pro - I just am not sure if I buy the 8.1 pro upgrade if I will still get the free 10 pro upgrade - and also - whether it is cleaner to upgrade to 8.1 pro first or to upgrade to 10 first and then buy the 10 pro upgrade.
     
    terich50, Aug 19, 2015
    #6
  7. AddRAM Win User
    Agreed, just clean install 10 Pro.
     
    AddRAM, Aug 19, 2015
    #7
  8. terich50 Win User

    What is the best upgrade path for 8.1 to 10 pro

    Thanks MickD - I wasn't completely sure if I would get the free 10 pro upgrade or not if I did it that way... Sounds like the best approach.
     
    terich50, Aug 19, 2015
    #8
  9. Hello popupctrl Welcome to the Ten Forums!

    If you go from 8.1 Home to 8.1 Pro you will need to buy that first outright while the 10 Home upgrade is the only option for 10 you have now. If you change to 8.1 Pro then you can go for the 10 Pro edition as a free upgrade. Right now however you can go with 10 Home and call it a day for the free upgrade to 10 or buy the 10 Pro key at the MS store for the retail price unless upgrading 8.1 Home to 8.1 Pro and then going for the free upgrade of 10 Pro.

    Those are your two options available for getting into 10 Pro. But know this is that once you upgrade to 10 the upgrade itself will likely need to be replaced afterwards by a clean install of 10 if found to be buggy!

    Two ways to repair or replace the upgrade install once activated on your laptop are with two of the three guides for this.
    1) Windows 10 ISO Download Windows 10 ISO Download - Windows 10 Forums
    2) Windows 10 -Clean Install Windows 10 - Clean Install - Windows 10 Forums
    and an alternative Upgrade to Repair type install 3) Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade - Windows 10 Forums

    You will also notice I put these links in my own forum signature for people to be made aware of since I ran into issues with the initial upgrade attempts here with 10 and have to offer the caution about how things can turn out not so good when going to see the upgrade take place!

    Another guide will take you through the steps on how to see a USB Installation Key made up using a 4gb usb flash drive turned into the Windows 10 installation media you will want to keep on hand for perhaps even the initial upgrade as well as tending to a repair install if needed if not a full clean install later. USB Flash Drive - Create to Install Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

    Of course first off you will want to review the guide on how to perform the initial upgrade install seen at Windows 10 - Upgrade Installation - Windows 10 Forums

    The guide seen there has the full chart showing the upgrade paths available depending on which edition of the previous version you are running.
     
    Night Hawk, Aug 19, 2015
    #9
  10. If you upgraded to 8.1 Pro and then did the free upgrade to 10, you would get 10 Pro. It might be cheaper to do it that way. Depends on what the 10 Pro upgrade costs? It all boils down to convenience versus cost. Buying an upgrade version could require more steps to do a clean install at a latter date, versus just buying a full retail version.
     
    alphanumeric, Aug 19, 2015
    #10
  11. If you still have the 7 laptop and that runs good then you could easily keep 8.1 on the new laptop and upgrade 10 over 7 on the old one to examine 10 side by side with 8.1 to see which you would want to stay with! That will provide the cross comparisons of three different versions of Windows. Plus you still have a full year until next July to download 10 free once you made your best choice on which way to go.
     
    Night Hawk, Aug 19, 2015
    #11
  12. bobkn Win User
    I'm unaware of any WIn 10 Home to Pro upgrade that is for sale at this time. I haven't read that Microsoft has announced the future availability of such an upgrade, or any upgrades at all (other than the free ones).

    If you wish to go for 8.1 Home to 10 Pro, the you either upgrade 8.1 to Pro and run the free upgrade on that, but the OEM copy of 10 Pro, or buy the full version of 10 Pro. I'm not sure that 10 Pro OEM is licensed for a PC that you would keep for you own use, but I have never heard of MS enforcing that part of the EULA.

    I believe that an OEM copy can't be installed as an upgrade. I'd expect the full retail version to allow that.
     
    bobkn, Aug 19, 2015
    #12
  13. What is the best upgrade path for 8.1 to 10 pro

    One solution here since I may have some 8 Home laptops while having upgrade two 7 Ultimate and 7 Pro machines was to simply download all four ISOs as well as the combo 32/64bit ISOs for both editions to keep onhand as well as to be able to set up temp VMs on other people''s machines to give them a look at what 10 is compared to mostly 7 and 8 at the present time since no one went for anything with 8.1 on it.

    Here I had went for all three editions of 7 Home Premium while my main build was Ultimate and a second remote access project runs 7 Pro there. The Home Premium was on the same type of mini tower build but set up for a family member to check the email and do a little browsing and not much else. So you can see where I would have reason for downloading both editions in both 32/64bit flavors.

    As for MS selling 10 at the moment? NO! is the answer as I am trying to get a copy of the latest 10525 test build for10 which will likely become the actual paid for retail release while we are simply running the "Public" not Windows Insider Tech Preview builds free of charge until the actual finished 10 is out next year and why I still kept 7 going as well as still using 7 a lot!

    Dell has their recovery disks that they sell separately no longer including media with their new systems that are full install disks you can see Windows put on any machine! You just have to have a valid product key which is now something MS is planning to do away with as well as optical media entirely!

    No more Windows disks(floppy disks to cds onto dvds with Vista) but USB Installation Keys! MS is also claiming that it will see 10 on 1 billion machines by 2018? We'll see since many are still Vista and 7 diehards with Vista being dropped from the support roster next year!

    So to see 10 Pro on now and where it will activate you will first need to change the 8.1 Home edition to one of the previous Pro editions. 8.1 was more like 8 Second Edition and you may find a deal on either 7 or 8 Pro at this time to upgrade properly to 10 Pro. I had already invested in 7 years back and now able to grab that up for two systems here which worked out well.
     
    Night Hawk, Aug 19, 2015
    #13
  14. Dch48 Win User
    You can probably find a copy of 8 or 8.1 Pro on eBay for a lot less than a copy of 10 Pro would cost. For example, a while back before 8.1 came out, I wanted to try Windows 8. I won an auction for an unused copy of 8 Pro for $32 on eBay. The full retail was something like $120 . I installed that on my older 2005 vintage laptop right over the top of XP Pro. It worked perfectly and I later got the free upgrade to 8.1. I'm sure I could now get the upgrade to 10 Pro but that machine has been relegated to being a DVD player and web browser and is very rarely even turned on any more.

    The point is that if you can find 8.1 Pro (or even 8 Pro which can then be upgraded to 8.1) for less than what 10 Pro will cost, I would do that and then get the free upgrade to 10 Pro.
     
    Dch48, Aug 19, 2015
    #14
  15. Kesto Win User
    You should clean install because upgrading will dump your windows 7/8.1 files making your pc slower, clean install is always the best way to upgrade.
     
    Kesto, Aug 19, 2015
    #15
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What is the best upgrade path for 8.1 to 10 pro

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