Upgrade Win 10 Home 21H1 to Pro 22H2 using a 2019 Pro Retail Media and License?

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I have a Lenovo Z50-70 laptop with Win 10 Home, 21H1 installed, OEM license.

I want to upgrade it to Win 10 Pro 22H2, but can only buy a retail 2019 Pro installation media and unused license key.

1. I would prefer to initially perform the install offline, to avoid unexpected results from Microsoft interference.  But I would consider connecting to the Internet if I knew in advance what to expect.  (I know I would eventually have to connect in order to activate.)

2. What will happen if I try to run the 2019 installation media on this computer?

3.  If by some miracle, Pro is installed (after asking for activation), can I then upgrade to 22H2?   Or will all this just happen automatically?  (Yeah, right.)

Thanks for any help.

— AWRon

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First, you need to be sure that the Retail License you are buying is valid.
Then you need to be sure you have a full disk image backup of your machine (and a bootable Rescue USB from your backup software) so you have a way to go back if things don’t go well. You should also make a file backup of all your personal data.

If you have Win10 21H2 on your machine, you should not need to install 2019. If the Pro License is valid, all you need to do is change the License number in the Settings App and the “Pro” content will be available and activated. Then you can upgrade to 22H2. Or you could upgrade first, then change the license number.

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AWRon

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Thank you for this.  Sounds simpler than I expected.

I will reply back if for any reason it doesn’t work.

— AWRon

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Well, it worked, but not without some haggling.

Entering the Pro key produced an error, characterizing the key as invalid.  But I knew it was good because it came in a sealed box from Microsoft (even though it was dated 2019), and the actual key card had a scratch-off authenticity label on it, partially obscuring one set of 5 characters of the key, presumably to prevent photocopying.  Suffice to say, very high likelihood of authenticity.

Using setup.exe in the enclosed USB stick took us as far as being ready to install… Windows 10 Home.  Windows 10 Pro key, Windows 10 Home already on the machine, machine offline — no upgrade.  Abort.  Connected the machine online, same result.

Bottom line, would not upgrade until I had fully updated the 21H1 Home machine to 22H2 Home with all non-optional patches (and it still installed an optional driver, even though I had not checked that option).  And it reset some privacy preferences that I had previously turned off.

When it did the upgrade (after confirming that it was really going to install Pro), it briefly flashed on screen that it was going to install Enterprise,  but then it reverted to, and installed, Pro.  Phew.

Interesting side diversions:

1.    I read online that sometimes the upgrade hangs at the “Enterprise” stage.  Didn’t happen to me.
2.    There were online references to an alleged “Generic” key,

VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T

which would supposedly enable the upgrade, but then require subsequent entry of a valid Pro key.  This did not work for me — although I did find this key in another Win 10 Pro machine that reports as Activated.

I suspect this was some rogue volume license key, since blocked, but am curious if anyone knows anything more about this.

Thanks for any input.

— AWRon

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AWRon wrote:

VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T which would supposedly enable the upgrade, but then require subsequent entry of a valid Pro key.  This did not work for me — although I did find this key in another Win 10 Pro machine that reports as Activated. I suspect this was some rogue volume license key, since blocked, but am curious if anyone knows anything more about this. Thanks for any input.

That code is on the computers I have that were upgraded for free from Win7. They were all given a digital license.

TO GET LICENSE KEY: REGEDIT:
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SoftwareProtectionPlatform

Generic Version Key>> VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T

ETA: I will also say, that this digital license has allowed me to upgrade the CPU & the Motherboard without any requests for a new license. I have completely clean installed Win10 Pro with a blank drive, and it received the digital license as well.

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PL1 wrote:

ETA: I will also say, that this digital license has allowed me to upgrade the CPU & the Motherboard without any requests for a new license. I have completely clean installed Win10 Pro with a blank drive, and it received the digital license as well.

Of course, now that I made that statement I jinxed myself. I saw a good deal at Micro Center for a bundle. I changed out the MB and added an I9-12900 CPU & 32Gigs of DDR5 RAM. It de-activated my machine for changing the hardware! I can’t explain why it happened THIS time and not all of the other times, except, I don’t think I ever changed all three of these items at one time. Fortunately, I can still get a Win10 Pro license for $20.  😊

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AWRon

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Please tell us where to get a Win 10 Pro license for $20!

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AWRon wrote:

Please tell us where to get a Win 10 Pro license for $20!

Woot! (Amazon Owned) is selling Windows 10 Home & Pro and Windows 11 Home & Pro

ETA: They send the Validation Key via the shipping tracking number. I just activated it successfully to Win 10 Pro.

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