Jtdylktuy

My laptop (a Lenovo Flex 2 15) came preinstalled with Windows 8 Standard (with the serial key preinstalled into the BIOS), and I've since installed an SSD (a Samsung Evo 840 120GB) & upgraded to Windows 10.

When the laptop still had its hard drive, I upgraded it to Professional so I could use the resources provided by the domain on my homeserver; because of this, I can only use the Professional editions of Windows (Home can't join domains).

I bought Windows 10 Professional & completed a fresh-install (complete reinstallation) of Windows, only that it installed Windows 10 Home instead of Professional. I'm guessing this is due to the Windows 8 Standard Edition serial key preinstalled in the BIOS.

I then downloaded an All-In-One ISO image of Windows 10 from MSDN (of which I have limited access to), transferred the installer onto a USB stick, & reinstalled (a clean install again). However it's still installing Windows 10 Home.

If I try to install using the AIO image from within Windows, the installer does not present me with a list of options for the edition I want to install; instead, it assumes that I want to install Home Edition:

I am able to get Windows 10 Professional to install if I disable UEFI & use Legacy instead, but I feel that this is stepping around the issue rather than resolving it.

Is it possible to have the Windows 10 installer ignore any serial keys preinstalled in the BIOS/UEFI? If so, how? If not, is using Legacy mode really the only way around this?

First of all, make sure you have a regular (single-architecture) Windows ISO. It seems you already have that covered.

Then, try this method:

1. Create a Setup USB drive


2. 
   

   Create a file named PID.txt in the Sources directory, with the following contents:

   
   
   

   [PID]
   
   Value=YOURK-EYGOE-SHERE-XXXXX-XXXXX
   
   

   
   



3. Boot from this USB drive

First of all if you download Windows 10 using media creation tool it contains 3 editions: Pro, Home and Education. Windows automatically chooses one according to your serial key in BIOS or already installed Windows OS. You can force it to let you choose what you want to install by creating one file on your installation disc/USB drive.

Create ei.cfg file in sources directory on installation disc/USB drive, open it in any text editor (for example notepad) and paste this:

[Channel]

Retail

Result:

IMHO this solution is better because you are not limited to one serial key and you can have both 32 and 64 bit systems. Media creation tool allows you to download both as one installer. So you end up with 6 editions to select. :)

I have tried many suggestions to this including the ones listed in this questions an here but none of these answers was working for me with Windows 10 Anniversary Edition. I ended up doing the following to have a complete clean Windows 10 Pro installation with all components with a system that has an embedded UEFI Windows Home key:

1. Download the Windows Media Creation Tool. You could also create this from an ISO.


2. Use the tool to create a USB drive for the Windows 10 installation. Do not worry that you cannot select the Pro version in the Edition pull down.


3. Use the USB to wipe the drives and do a clean install of Windows 10


4. After the restart you may have a Windows 10 Home edition instead of Windows 10 Pro. If so, go into Settings --> System --> About --> Change product key or upgrade your edition of Windows


5. Enter in your Windows 10 Pro key


6. The system will update and after a restart Settings --> System --> About you will see Windows 10 Professional. If you are using a Microsoft Account you can also login via the web and see the device now displays Windows 10 Professional. However, if you reformat the machine again it will once more set itself up as Windows 10 Home instead of Windows 10 Pro (assuming it is finding this information from the embedded UEFI key).

At this point it appears you are all set. You might start working, try install Docker, etc. and think everything is fine. However, you will find that some important Windows 10 Pro components are missing. An easy way to see if this did not upgrade correctly is to search for "Computer Management" and then you should see System Tools --> Local Users and Groups. If you do not see that item but your System --> About reports Windows 10 Professional something is not correct. Trying to restore these missing components with DSIM or other options did not work for me.

7. To fix this you need to Reset your PC. I know this is not what you want to do after just setting everything up but if you have tried using the PID.txt option suggested in another answer here by @daniel-b and it does not work for some reason this solution will solve this issue and it take less than an hour on a modern PC. You are working with a new empty installation now anyway so just go to Settings --> Update and Security --> Recovery --> and select Reset this PC. You do not need to select the option that says it will take hours and clean the drives.

8. After this is done it will be a new installation of Windows 10 again and you will need to setup your Wi-Fi, login with your Microsoft Account, setup a pin if desired, etc.

This time around, when you go to Settings --> System --> About you will see Windows 10 Pro from the start. You can also go to Computer Management --> System Tools and you will now be able to access your Local Users and Groups and you will have access to other features of Windows 10 Pro.