Solved Windows 11 Pro became windows 11 Home after 22H2 upgrade

After completing a clean install of 22H2, I was shocked to see that what had been Windows 11 Pro was now Windows 11 Home. The new version is 22H2, build 22621.608. I don't want to pay for the upgrade to Pro since I did that about 8 months ago. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Your laptop has an embedded Windows Home license key in your Bios/firmware. Thus your clean install caused Home efition to install. There are ways to get around this which I won't go into at this time...


BUT...
Now after you've just installed your new Windows, go into settings and activation and change the key to the one you got from the Windows Pro upgrade purchase.

Windows will automatically install all the pro packages and activate with new license.

If the above did not solve your issue, then there is still another way to get Windows Pro back even without a key...let us know how it goes.

In case you cannot find the product key this is a generic key:
VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T

zbook said:

In case you cannot find the product key this is a generic key:
VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T

Click to expand...

The issue with these laptop installs with embedded keys using multiedition install media is that the setup never asks for a key. But as mentioned before, there are ways to get around this.

Just enter the generic key VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T at change product key.

Hello and welcome to the forum.
This occurred because the product key stored in your UEFI bios was for Home. The clean install matched your installation to what was stored in UEFI. You should have downloaded the multi-edition iso which gives the user a choice of installing Home or Pro. First try what @cereberus advised. If it doesn't work you may have to go the long way.

First see if the machine shows to be connected to a pro license in your MS account. Sign in to your Microsoft account
If it is, it may be that all is necessary is to upgrade the PC to Pro and MS servers will activate it. If that's not the case, it may come down to where you purchased your Pro license.
Again, if you purchased from the MS store there should be a record of it in your account. Also, you should have received an email confirming your purchase that included a digital license instead of a product key. You can use the digital license for activation.

If you acquired your license by some other means than the MS store, this article may help.

How To Upgrade if wherever you purchased from sent you a product key or digital license

1. Select Start > Settings > System > Activation.
2. Select Change product key, and then enter the 25-character Windows 11 Pro product key or digital license.
3. Select Next to start the upgrade to Windows 11 Pro.

If you have no product key or digital license key
This article shows 2 ways. I would use method 2 which gives you 30 days to work out your activation issues with Microsoft.

Once you have upgraded to Pro, first run the activation troubleshooter. It may activate Pro.
Select Start > Settings > System > Activation , and then select Troubleshoot to run the Activation troubleshooter.

If that doesn't work activate by phone,
In the search box on the taskbar, type SLUI 04, select SLUI 04 from the list of results and run as administrator , and then follow the instructions on the screen to activate Windows.
SLUI 4 command shows up as Call Microsoft and Manually Activate windows. This window instructs the User to dial a call to Microsoft Activation Centre and displays a code of 63 digits to enter on the phone for verification. In the phone prompts there should be one for a MS representative. If not just say "representative" Sometime you have to say it multiple times before it will transfer you.

If you are still unsuccessful, you may well have to do another clean install using the proper iso. If it comes to that report back.
Good luck.

glasskuter said:

Hello and welcome to the forum.
This occurred because the product key stored in your UEFI bios was for Home. The clean install matched your installation to what was stored in UEFI. You should have downloaded the multi-edition iso which gives the user a choice of installing Home or Pro.

First see if the machine shows to be connected to a pro license in your MS account. Sign in to your Microsoft account
If it is, it may be that all is necessary is to upgrade the PC to Pro and MS servers will activate it. If that's not the case, it may come down to where you purchased your Pro license.
Again, if you purchased from the MS store there should be a record of it in your account. Also, you should have received an email confirming your purchase that included a digital license instead of a product key. You can use the digital license for activation.

If you acquired your license by some other means than the MS store, this article may help.

Find your Windows product key - Microsoft Support

Learn how to find a Windows product key for activation, and when you'll use a digital license instead.

support.microsoft.com

How To Upgrade if wherever you purchased from sent you a product key or digital license

1. Select Start > Settings > System > Activation.
2. Select Change product key, and then enter the 25-character Windows 11 Pro product key or digital license.
3. Select Next to start the upgrade to Windows 11 Pro.

If you have no product key or digital license key
This article shows 2 ways. I would use method 2 which gives you 30 days to work out your activation issues with Microsoft.

Upgrade Windows 10 from Home to Pro Edition for Free

This article provides two free methods for you to upgrade Windows 10 from Home to Pro edition without formatting or losing any data. If you need a detailed guide, follow this page to upgrade your Windows 10 from Home to Pro edition right now.

www.easeus.com

Once you have upgraded to Pro, first run the activation troubleshooter. It may activate Pro.
Select Start > Settings > System > Activation , and then select Troubleshoot to run the Activation troubleshooter.

If that doesn't work activate by phone,
In the search box on the taskbar, type SLUI 04, select SLUI 04 from the list of results and run as administrator , and then follow the instructions on the screen to activate Windows.
SLUI 4 command shows up as Call Microsoft and Manually Activate windows. This window instructs the User to dial a call to Microsoft Activation Centre and displays a code of 63 digits to enter on the phone for verification. In the phone prompts there should be one for a MS representative.

If you are still unsuccessful, you may well have to do another clean install using the proper iso. If it comes to that report back.
Good luck.

Click to expand...

I am afraid this whilst all good general information, this is rather overcomplicating things - OP already has a digital licence for W11 Pro, so just needs to enter the generic key below. That's it.

VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T

cereberus said:

That's it.

Click to expand...

Yes I added "First try what @cereberus advised. If it doesn't work you may have to go the long way." If the generic key doesn't work he will have to go the long way. It's not overcomplicated if it turns out he needs it. I was writing while you posted and didn't see your post until afterwards.

glasskuter said:

Yes I added "First try what @cereberus advised. If it doesn't work you may have to go the long way." If the generic key doesn't work he will have to go the long way. It's not overcomplicated if it turns out he needs it. I was writing while you posted and didn't see your post until afterwards.

Click to expand...

Sure thing - we often get timing overlaps.

I have never known the generic key method not to work if pc already has a digital licence.

A few years ago, people used to personalise their pc using Home, and then use the generic key even if they did not have a Pro licence, and they would get upgraded to Pro albeit unactivated. The personalisations were retained.

Although they could not easily personalise anymore, users effectively had a personalised version of Pro for free - borderline piracy.

Eventually MS closed this loophole. I have heard claims there are ways around the loophole but even if I knew, I would not publish it here as that would be sailing close to the wind from perspective of the forum rules. Like all things, there is bending the rules, and outright ignoring them.

Wouldn't there be partitions within the ssd? Why not just use diskpart within a USB setup to remove it and do a fresh install

I know that you now have Windows installed, but for future reference, if you ever want to perform a clean install again, here is how to avoid this situation:

Create a text file called ei.cfg. Place the following two lines in that file:

[Channel]
Retail

Drop that file into the \sources folder on your installation media.

That's all!

Now, when you install, Windows will not auto select the edition to install. Instead, you will be shown a list of all available editions and you can select any edition to install.

cereberus said:

I am afraid this whilst all good general information, this is rather overcomplicating things - OP already has a digital licence for W11 Pro, so just needs to enter the generic key below. That's it.

VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T

Click to expand...

The generic key should work. MS had me enter the generic key when I upgraded from Home to Pro through the Windows upgrade offer. The upgrade installed the Enterprise version and by entering the generic key the computer was switched to the Pro version.

TimothyProvost said:

After completing a clean install of 22H2, I was shocked to see that what had been Windows 11 Pro was now Windows 11 Home. The new version is 22H2, build 22621.608.

Click to expand...

Welcome to Eleven Forum.

As others have explained, this always happens when you clean install on a PC that was originally supplied by the OEM with Windows 10/11 Home pre-installed, and that you have subsequently upgraded to Pro. Setup detects the Home key embedded in the PC's firmware and installs Home.

TimothyProvost said:

I don't want to pay for the upgrade to Pro since I did that about 8 months ago. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Click to expand...

Yoy don't have to pay again. When you upgraded from Home to Pro your PC got a permanent digital licence for Pro stored on the MS activation servers. Change the installed key to the generic Pro key cereberus gave you in post #8 and your Home will upgrade to Pro and will be activated by this digital licence.

Winuser said:

The generic key should work.

Click to expand...

It does, I've done it myself.

One of my PC's was supplied with win 8.1 Home pre-installed by the OEM and has an 8.1 Home key in its firmware. All such embedded 8/8.1/10 keys are valid for installing and activating Windows 10, which was what I did. I then upgraded from 10 Home to 10 Pro with a purchased key.

On a clean install later it was of course Home that got installed, but changing the installed key to the generic Pro key was all that was needed to upgrade the installed Windows from Home to Pro.