I do not have my product key

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I am trying to upgrade my Windows 11 Home edition to Windows 11 Pro edition. I was never given a product key that I am aware of. I have a replacement Solid State Drive because my original one wouldn’t update to Windows 11 22H2. Is there a way that I can upgrade to Windows 11 Pro edition without the original product key? Or do I need to contact the manufacturer for the key? The replacement drive was a warranty repair work.

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So you had a windows 11 home that you (not the OEM) upgraded to pro, it went in for warranty work and now you got it back and it’s Home sku again?

Where did you purchase the pro key from?

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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[Rush2112]

Not exactly. When I bought this Windows 11 laptop over a year ago. It had Windows 11 Home edition. I tried unsuccessfully to get it to update to Windows 11 Home edition version 22H2. I originally had 21H2. I contacted Dell support and they tried unsuccessfully to get it to update. They in turn decided to swap out the Solid State Drive with the original Windows 11 Home edition version 21H2 to a new Solid State Drive with Windows 11 Home edition version 22H2 pre loaded. I do not recall being given a product key for my version of Windows.

I hope this makes sense.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by Rush2112. Reason: Typo

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Your Home Edition should be already activated.
To upgrade from Home to Pro Edition, you need to purchase an Pro Upgrade Key from the Microsoft Store ($100).

In Settings\System\About, you then click on “Change Product Key” and follow the instructions

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I tried that again for the second time. It asks me for the product key. Do I need to purchase one first? I am unsure of the next step.

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Yes, you have to purchase a Pro Upgrade key first and use that. It will be a different key entirely. It already has the Home key activated.
And you need to hang on to the Pro key, b/c that is the one that will matter from here on out. So put it somewhere safe.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Rush2112

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Ahhh, ok. I will do that. Thanks for your help.

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I bought this Windows 11 laptop over a year ago. It had Windows 11 Home edition. I tried unsuccessfully to get it to update to Windows 11 Home edition version 22H2.

I realize this issue has been resolved.  That said, I have hunch that a “repair” reinstall of Win 11 from an ISO would have solved the updating issue.  I did this on a friends Win 10 laptop with the same update fail issue and it fixed the problem.  If you didn’t have to return the “defective” SSD you could try it and see.

 

Desktop Asus TUF X299 Mark 1, CPU: Intel Core i7-7820X Skylake-X 8-Core 3.6 GHz, RAM: 32GB, GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti 4GB. Display: Four 27" 1080p screens 2 over 2 quad.

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[Rush2112]

No, I couldn’t repair the original SSD. Upon the first attempt by Dell to fix the issue. They swapped the SSD. That SSD was corrupted and they too took that one back and swapped it with a new SSD. So, technically I am on my third SSD in my laptop.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by Rush2112. Reason: additional information

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Why do you want to spend $100 on Pro? What will it give you that you haven’t already got?

cheers, Paul

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Just for future reference, Microsoft Product Keys are burned into the BIOS as opposed to being found on a label adhered to a PC or laptop as was the case previously.

To find it these days, all you need to do is to download a handy tool from Neosmart.com called OEMKey.  As can be seen on that site running the tool displays it immediately.

As regards the issue of not being able to upgrade to 22H2 it may be that the OS ‘thinks’ your CPU or another component in your system doesn’t qualify for the upgrade. To get around that problem go to the Github site and download the script called WhyNotWin11. I had that problem myself and running that script showed my machine as qualifying for the upgrade. Doing an update check afterwards was all that was necessary to install 22H2. There’s an image of what the result will look like on the download page.

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