Windows 10: Windows 11 HOME OEM licence disappeared

Hello!I have a problem with activation of Windows 11 HOME.A few months ago I purchased a pre-built PC with pre-installed Windows 11 HOME and activated OEM licence from a local retailer. Everything was working perfectly fine for 2 months and today, all of a sudden, I noticed that windows is asking me to activate my license. Tried troubleshooting it, but all I got was - you don’t have a valid digital licence or product key. I haven't made any changes to my motherboard or any other part of my PC. Another problem is that I don't have the product key itself, since I removed the sticker with pr

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WIndows OEM licencing

WIndows 10 PRO oem upgrade to Windows 11 Pro. What impact has this on a licencing ? Is an E3 lincence needed for this if these devices is in a small LAN enviroment with no enviroment Azure or AD

 

OEM LICENCE and ISO upgrade

A Windows 10 OEM licence does not restrict an upgrade to Windows 11. If the hardware is compatible and the file system used is GPT then it should upgrade. (you should be able to use MBR2GPT to convert the system disk, if required. It is a one way street so be sure you understand the process MBR2GPT - Windows Deployment | Microsoft Docs)

Your processor is the probably at the bottom of the list for Windows 11 support. (8th generation is the oldest supported) So if you want to try an upgrade then the choice is yours.

Do you see the option in windows update to upgrade to Windows 11, if not you can use the Windows 11 Installation Assistant

Download Windows 11 (microsoft.com)

 

Windows Pro licence key (non-oem) on oem devices

Hi Dave,

Thank you for your assistance.
While I did not do this, I did make a windows home single language edition installation media that I then used (Windows 10 install with upgrade not straight to the 11 multi iso)
After installation I checked the key and it was the pro-version (not the OEM). The windows then proceeded to "upgrade" itself to pro. I was not sure how to stop this short of dong a forced offline install (as when you install intel network drivers on a NUD)
I'll try with the OEM config as you have suggested. Should I also do this via a windows 11 local only account? At least this way I could get the OEM key, then do a forced downgrade with the OEM key.

A second aside question, what will happen to the 1st machine if I just install the key on the second I assume I'll get a licencing error but will I be given the option to downgrade / put in another key in which case I could use the OEM key there.

Thanks in advance