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Windows 10 Multiple Edition does not prompt which version to install

Question

Friday, November 27, 2015 11:24 PM | 1 vote

I have downloaded the ISO for Windows 10 (Multiple Editions), Version 1511 (x64) - DVD (English) from MSDN Subscription. The issue that I have is that I am unable to select a version of Windows 10 to install. I have attempted to do a clean install of Windows 10 Pro. I do not get a prompt to select a version to install. It simply installs the Home version. During install, how can I get a prompt to select which version of Windows 10 I want to install?

All replies (12)

Saturday, November 28, 2015 4:03 AM âś…Answered | 20 votes

After doing additional research and reviewing several books on Windows 10, I have managed to find out what was causing my issue and I managed to solve the problem. Incase anyone else is having the same problem, this is what I did to solve my issue. The culprit of my problem stemmed from the fact that I have bought a brand new computer that utilized a UEFI firmware vice a BIOS. With that being said, the UEFI firmware has an embedded certificate with a product key to Windows 8.1 Home edition. Therefore, when ever I attempt to install Windows 8/8.1/10, the installation media retrieves the information in the UEFI and auto selects the edition of Windows X to install. It does this because it already knows that the system has a valid license for Windows and it will install the version of Windows edition that coincides what is stored in the UEFI. To bypass this UEFI check, I had to create a USB install media using the Windows 10 (Multiple Editions) iso. After that, on the USB install media, in the 'Sources' folder I created a text file named 'PID.txt' and added the product key in the format as shown below:

[PID]
Value=XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

I saved the file, rebooted the computer and boot to the USB drive, and everything else went smooth and I was able to install Windows 10 Pro with no problems.


Friday, November 27, 2015 11:38 PM | 2 votes

Well with the public 1511 install it comes up with a screen to choose during setup. So can you double check the download the link or perhaps the link is wrong.


Friday, November 27, 2015 11:45 PM | 2 votes

  I haven't used the Windows 10 Multiple Editions ISO but I thought they rely on the product key to define the version. That always worked for me in earlier versions.

 Selecting a version manually was always a problem because if you installed one which did not match your product key you could not activate it.

Bill


Saturday, November 28, 2015 12:01 AM | 1 vote

Did skip the product key to get the screen I posted so a good suggestion IMHO.


Saturday, November 28, 2015 1:02 AM | 2 votes

During the installation, there is no product key prompt. Also, during install there is no screen to select a version of Windows 10 to install. I find this quite a dissapointment.


Saturday, November 28, 2015 1:03 AM | 1 vote

During the install, I did not get a product screen. Otherwise I would have skipped it to select Windows Pro.


Saturday, November 28, 2015 6:07 AM | 1 vote

  That makes sense. The latest versions of Windows 10 install media allow installation of Windows 10 using a product key from a qualifying OS, and the upgrade has always been "like to like", so a Win 8.1 home product key would install Win 10 home. I must admit that I had not realised how that would affect a UEFI install.

  Glad to hear that you sorted it out.

Bill


Friday, December 18, 2015 4:31 PM | 1 vote

Thanks--that did the trick for me as well. I had a newer Acer laptop that shipped with Windows 10 Home. We wiped it out and used Win 8.1 Pro for a while, and ran into the same issue when I first tried to upgrade to Win10 PRO.


Wednesday, February 14, 2018 6:58 PM

Thank you so much!


Monday, March 12, 2018 5:40 PM

Props to BrilliantOne! This fixed our Win 10 Pro problem perfectly. Thanks so much.


Tuesday, August 14, 2018 1:02 AM

EXCELLENT!  I purchased 3 PCs with Win 10 Pro pre-installed. I am trying to install Windows 10 Enterprise.  I get all these issues trying to install from USB with UEFI and GPT & MBR.  I figured all that out but it was painful.  I was trying to install by copying the extracted ISO to the HDD and launch there...normally it works, but with this multi-installer (1803), it wanted to just install Win 10 Pro again.  When I started the second PC, I decided to search the web again and saw your solution.  I made the PID.txt file and put it in the sources folder on the extracted installer set on the HDD.  When I launched, it still did not give me a choice, but it switched it's assumption to Win 10 Enterprise.  Thanks, saved me a lot of trouble as I need to do another one after this.


Sunday, November 24, 2019 1:14 AM

What do you do if you have a regular bios? Do you include [PID] and Value= inside the text file or just the product key?