UPGRADE 11 HOME TO PRO DOES NOT WORK

Question

UPGRADE 11 HOME TO PRO DOES NOT WORK

Chris Smith 0

TRIED THROUGH STORE, PURCHASE SHOWS TRIED NO INTERNET AND GENERIC LICENSCES NOTHING WORKS SAME ERROR ABOUT KEY NOT VALID

Neil D 34,445 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-08-19T14:45:33.2733333+00:00

Have you purchased a Pro licence successfully but cannot upgrade from Home to Pro?

If Home edition is still installed then make sure the device is NOT connected to the internet. Go to Change product key in settings and enter the generic Pro key VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T and follow any prompts. Restart and you should have Pro edition installed.

Reconnect to the internet and sign-in to windows with the same account the bought the Home to Pro upgrade and it should activate.

1 answer

Your answer

Neil D 34,445 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-08-19T14:45:33.2733333+00:00

Have you purchased a Pro licence successfully but cannot upgrade from Home to Pro?

If Home edition is still installed then make sure the device is NOT connected to the internet. Go to Change product key in settings and enter the generic Pro key VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T and follow any prompts. Restart and you should have Pro edition installed.

Reconnect to the internet and sign-in to windows with the same account the bought the Home to Pro upgrade and it should activate.

Answer 1

The methods you mentioned are the standard methods. If they don't work, perform a repair install first.

To perform a repair installation of Windows 11 using the Windows Media Creation Tool:

The following steps should be done on a working Windows computer:

Download the Windows Media Creation Tool from Microsoft's official website. https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows11 click on the "download now" button under "Create Windows 11 Installation Media"

Run the tool and select "Create installation media for another PC."

Choose "USB flash drive" as the media to use for the installation and select "Next."

Connect a USB flash drive with at least 8 GB of free space to your computer.

Select the USB flash drive you want to use, and then select "Next."

The tool will then download the required files and create the installation media.

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

Now these steps will be done on your problematic computer:

Go to the USB drive via File Explorer, locate and run the Setup.exe file. Ideally, you should disconnect all USB and Bluetooth devices other than mouse and keyboard. Disable any 3rd party antivirus program. Disconnect the internet.

Once you run the Setup.exe file, choose the Install option, and the choose the option that keeps your files and apps.

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

After that, You can go to Settings > System > Activation > Change product key

Disconnect internet, and disable any third party antivirus, key in the generic key instead: VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T

That should get you to Pro. Once restarted, you can connect back to the internet, sign into your Microsoft account. See if it is activated.