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Windows 11 Home to Pro or Business

Sriraman Nadar 0 Reputation points
2024-08-05T11:59:21.9066667+00:00

Dear Team,

We have Many users who already have Windows 11 Home Editions Laptops. All the users are located in different locations.

We have Office 365 Business Premium which includes Windows 11 Business. The issue is how can we upgrade from Windows 11 Home to Windows 11 Business. We don't want to spend money again to buy Pro licenses the using the key to upgrade from Home to Pro.

Formatting of laptop is also not possible since all these are users are remote based.

What can be best solution for this to upgrade home to Business. We are doing this because we want each device to join Entra ID then we push polices like BitLocker and Other.

Please help me with best Solution.

Windows for business | Windows Client for IT Pros | User experience | Other

3 answers

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  1. Jeremy 90 Reputation points
    2024-10-16T22:36:24.05+00:00

    The answer given by @S.Sengupta is incorrect. You can't upgrade from Windows Home to Windows Business for free with just a Microsoft 365 Business Premium license. You have to first pay for a Windows Pro upgrade license. Once the computer is running Windows Pro, you can then join it to Azure AD and sign in with your Microsoft account that has the Microsoft 365 Business Premium license assigned to it. This will change the SKU from Windows Pro to Windows Business.

    Windows Business requires the computer to first have Windows Pro as a prerequisite, because Windows Business essentially is just Windows Pro with a set of cloud services and device management capabilities added to it.

    For this reason, you can't use an account with a Microsoft 365 Business Premium license on a computer running Window Home, because Windows Home devices can't be Azure AD-joined.

    3 people found this answer helpful.
  2. S.Sengupta 24,636 Reputation points MVP
    2024-08-06T01:15:44.86+00:00

    Microsoft 365 Business Premium includes Windows 11 Business, which allows you to upgrade from Windows 11 Home to Pro without purchasing a separate Pro license. This is achieved by signing into the device with a Microsoft 365 account that has the subscription.

  3. Anonymous
    2024-08-07T02:16:12.52+00:00

    Hello,

    Based on my search, if you have Windows 11 Home Edition laptops and want to upgrade them to Windows 11 Business without purchasing additional Pro licenses, there are a few potential solutions you can explore:

    Subscription Licensing: With Windows 11, Microsoft has introduced a subscription-based licensing model called Windows 365. You can consider subscribing to Windows 365 Business which includes Windows 11 Enterprise. This would allow you to upgrade the Windows 11 Home laptops to Windows 11 Enterprise without the need to purchase separate Pro licenses.

    Microsoft 365 Business: If you have Office 365 Business Premium, you might also consider upgrading to Microsoft 365 Business, which includes Windows 11 Business/Enterprise upgrade rights. This could potentially be a more cost-effective way to get the necessary upgrade without purchasing additional Pro licenses.

    Best Regards,

    Hania Lian

    ============================================

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