Win 10 RTM Core OEM:DM seems to give me digital license for for my Windows 11 Pro

As far as I know, once a key is used to Upgrade it cannot upgrade again. You can move it to another device using the Activation Troubleshooter or MS Support, but you can't use it to Upgrade another PC.

So why did you force Windows 11 Pro to install when you had Home?

If you look at the slmgr -dlv output it says Retail channel with a partial generic Pro Version key, which usually means that there was a retail key that the Digital License derived from.. Once there's a Digital License it will reactivate with it when you reinstall the licensed version, no need to insert the retail key any longer.

Do you know the history of the PC before you bought it? It's possible the owner upgraded to WIndows 11 Home and then bought a retail Upgrade to Pro so that there is actually both Home and Pro DL's on the PC. This is a very common scenario, and either version will activate if you reinstall it. DL's are permanent for the life of the hardware, stored in Microsoft Activation servers.

1. Yes I am sure that BIOS contained Win 10 RTM Core OEM:DM. I confirmed with the make model.
2. The installer did not force install Window 11 Pro. I have to manually edit ei.cfg to be able to manually select Windows 11 Pro for installation. If not it will default to Windows 11 Home
3. "It appears from the slmgr output there must have been a retail Pro key used on the PC at some point." The retail key you mean the generic key? If its the retail key used at some point. Is there a way to find out what retail key is self activating my digital license?
4. Yes i did run wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey and get the key outputed.
5. perhaps the seller activated Home with an illegal crack because they didn't know it had a Pro OEM key and DL. I checked the OEM key outputted with the program called ShowKeyPlus **** and the result is the key Win 10 RTM Core OEM:DM. So my bios OEM key can't possible be Pro OEM/DL right?

I really hope I can make sense of all this. What do you think is happening?

Yes, the slmgr -dlv output says it's retail so that should be the case. It will normally say if it's Volume or MAK (similar to Volume). If the reason you stated is the only hesitation you have then it's probably genuine.

The only way I know of to confirm the retail key used is if it shows up in Produckey. But they do not always show up once they convert to Digital. This is the reason Support started requiring the retail key to reactivate, because they could not always derive a retail key like they can a Factory OEM with the command we ran earlier.

I hope you learned a lot. I was one of a group of MVP's who had special training in Digital Licenses by the head of Microsoft Support (at the time) in around 2015. I've always found activation interesting, however I do miss the phone activation method of changing a key to new hardware as it seemed to work better.

Hi Zanko. I'm Greg, 10 years awarded Windows MVP, here to help you.

It appears from the slmgr output there must have been a retail Pro key used on the PC at some point. Retail keys often convert to Digital Licenses so they can use the Activation Troubleshooter to move to different hardware as explained more here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/rea...

You said you performed a Clean Install with Windows 11 Pro. Unless you remove it the installation media contains both Home and Pro and will force Pro install only if Pro is already installed and activated, or there is a Pro OEM key embedded in the BIOS. The only way around this is if you surgically removed Home from the ISO before creating the media using ei.cfg method.

Are you sure it had Windows 11 Home installed? If so and the installer forced Pro version install, that would mean there is a Pro license embedded in the BIOS from factory. You can google the make/mode specsl to see what edition of WIndows it shipped with.

There's no reason to try this since it activated Pro, unless it deactivates after an Update pushes a Genuine Check, but you could prepare Home media to install only Home to see if that activates as well. If not then if you're sure it was Home perhaps the seller activated Home with an illegal crack because they didn't know it had a Pro OEM key and DL.

The key you posted is the generic Version Key for Pro used by Digital Licenses. You can confirm the presence of a factory OEM-BIOS key using the Command Prompt, type CMD in Search, Run as Administrator, copy and paste the command here and press Enter:

wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey

Feel free to ask back any questions. Based on the results you post back I may have other suggestions if necessary.

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