Windows 10: Win10 Downgraded Win8.1 Pro To Home Edition

I was finally able to upgrade Windows 8.1 Pro to Windows 10... All went perfectly until Windows told me it was not activated, which went smoothly...

After rebooting Windows 10 again said it was not activated... I checked and even tried to reactivate it but not only would it not activate, but it also said they key was blacklisted...

The other thing I noticed was although I have Windows 8.1 Pro installed, Windows 10 downgraded to Windows 10 Home....

Any idea why this happened and how to fix it??

:)

 

upgrade from windows 8.1 home to windows 10 professional

WYSIWYG.

Win8.1 Home upgrades to Win10 Home, Win8.1 Pro upgrades to Win10 Pro, etc.

<EDIT> Once you've upgraded from Win8.1 Home to Win10 Home, you can then purchase an upgrade to Win10 Pro.
</EDIT>

 

Windows 10 Professional

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

 

One possible explanation is that Windows 10 examined your system and didn't detect it as a proper Windows 8.1 Pro installation, so it upgraded to Windows 10 Home rather than Windows 10 Pro. The fact that the key is blacklisted and cannot activate indicates it has to do with the Windows 8.1 license.

Try to revert to Windows 8.1, if you can. Then check your version, if it is Windows 8.1 (Core) or Windows 8.1 Pro and if it is activated. If it is Windows 8.1 Pro, activated properly, try the upgrade again. If you have problems again contact Microsoft. If it is Windows 8.1 then you can only upgrade to Windows 10 Home and then buy a new key to make it Windows 10 Pro through Windows Store.

In worst case, backup all your data, format your hard disk and clean install Windows 8.1 Pro again. Activate it. No point to install any drivers or applications, just upgrade to Windows 10 Pro first. Make sure you can activate them and then start installing drivers and applications. This will save you all the trouble in case you cannot activate them. If you still cannot activate, call Microsoft. You may have to prove that you have a Genuine Windows 8.1 Pro license, not used in another computer, in order to activate Windows 10 Pro by phone.

 

The obvious questions:

• How and where did you get your original Windows 8.1 Pro?
• Was it activated?
• How did you upgrade? Using Windows Update, an ISO image?
• When upgrading, did Windows 10 setup ask a product key?
  • If yes, did you skip the key and upgrade without, or if you used a key where did you get the key you used?

 

Hello Omega1, *Smile

In addition:

If it hasn't been longer than 30 days since you upgraded to Windows 10, and you didn't delete the Windows.old folder, you could use the method in the tutorial below to go back to Windows 8.1 Pro.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4...s-windows.html

 

I don't think Windows 10 setup asks for a key when upgrading from earlier Windows version. It just forces Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro based on the previous version, no key required. If your previous Windows version was genuine, Windows 10 activates automatically when first online. If it doesn't activate something is wrong or you don't have access to the internet yet. In the second case, install LAN or WiFi drivers and when online it will activate.

 

I think that is what I am going to do. I will reinstall Windows 8 then upgrade it through the store to 8.1 again (it's been a while). Then reactivate it.

To answer your questions in order
1.) Ordered Windows 8 Pro directly from Microsoft (I do this with all MS software). The upgrade to Windows 8.1 came from the Microsoft Store, and Media Center was done the same way.

2.) Windows 8 has always activated with no problem. It was activated at the time of the Win 10 upgrade, up until the second reboot after Win 10 was installed.

3.) Upgrade was done from the upgrade icon in the bottom right corner of my screen (by the clock)

4.) During the upgrade I was not asked for a key.

As I said earlier, I know for a fact ALL my MS software is genuine. So that's not a problem.

 

Also, and I just thought of it... Someone told me to unplug any other hard drives I have connected before upgrading... so that it was I did... after the upgrade, I plugged everything back in.... could that be the cause of the problem?

 

No this is to make sure there is no conflict with the other drives during the upgrade to 10. Everybody should be able to add a new disk to the system after upgrading to Windows 10. This is not illegal and it shouldn't cause any problems to the activation. Of course it is always preferable to activate Windows first and then add new hardware, just in case.

 

That is what I thought, because it's never been a problem before... but it was the only change I made...

 

Instead of a reinstall of 8 then upgrade to 8.1, just follow Brink's link to do a Rollback to the previous OS. It works most of the time. Nothing to lose trying it.

 

I have already reinstalled win8... I am just updating now... I will update to 8.1 afterwards.. Then update again... BTW is there any point to installing media center since I'm told win10 removes it??

 

Well....there's no point in updated Windows 8, if you are just going to upgrade to Windows 10 with it. However....I think if you want the Windows 10 DVD player app for free, you have to upgrade from Windows 8.1 with media center. (although VLC plays DVDs just fine for free)

 

Although there is a method to install Windows Media Center to Windows 10, you won't have DVD support if you upgrade from Windows 8.1 Pro. To have DVD support you must first upgrade to Windows 8.1 Pro with WMC and then to Windows 10 Pro. Then install Windows Media Center. If DVD menu is not automatically included, you can download and install windows10.0-kb3081704-x86.cab (32-bit) or windows10.0-kb3081704-x64.cab (64-bit). Google it or search Microsoft's site for kb3081704 to get the link. I have a test computer that was upgraded from Windows 8.1 Pro to Windows 10 Pro and then added Windows Media Center. When I try the patch to add DVD support I get a message that my Windows version is not entitled for a DVD upgrade or something along these lines. So first upgrade to Windows 8.1 Pro with WMC before upgrading to Windows 10!