Upgrading from Windows 11 Home to Pro without Reinstalling

Most laptops and computers sold today come with Windows 11 Home (or Windows 11 Home Single Language) pre-installed. This Windows edition is sufficient for most home users’ typical tasks. However, if you need features that are available only in the Pro or Enterprise editions of Windows 11, you can upgrade the installed Home edition to the more feature-rich Pro edition without reinstalling the operating system. This is officially supported. In this tutorial, we’ll show how to upgrade Windows 11 Home to Windows 11 Professional without reinstalling the operating system, while preserving user data, installed apps, and settings.

There are several ways to upgrade from Windows 11 Home to Windows 11 Pro.

Upgrade From Windows 11 Home to Pro via Microsoft Store

The official, Microsoft-recommended method for upgrading from Windows 11 Home to a higher edition is to use the Microsoft Store. With it, you can immediately purchase a license for the Windows edition you need and upgrade the operating system.

1. Go to Settings -> System -> Activation
2. Click the Open Store button under the Upgrade in the Microsoft App section.
3. To upgrade to Windows 11 Pro, select the upgrade option in the Microsoft Store and pay for the license. Once complete, the new license will be linked to your Microsoft account, and the operating system edition will be upgraded.

Converting Windows 11 Home to Pro Using CMD

Now, let’s look at how to upgrade from Windows Home to the Professional edition using command-line tools. Open a command prompt and check your current Windows version and edition:

DISM /online /Get-CurrentEdition

The command returned that the current edition is Core, meaning that the Home edition of Windows 11 is installed. If the command returns CoreSingleLanguage, then the Home Single Language edition is in use.

List the editions to which you can upgrade from your current version of Windows:

DISM /online /Get-TargetEditions

Professional is listed in the Target Editions, meaning that an in-place upgrade is possible. Run the command:

сhangepk.exe

This will take you to the activation section of the Settings app. Click the Change product button and enter the retail product key that you purchased for Windows 11 Pro.

If you do not yet have a Windows 11 Pro product key, you can use the generic installation key VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T, which is applied by default during a clean installation of Windows 11 when no key is entered. In this case, the operating system will run in evaluation mode and will require later activation with a valid product key.

Confirm that you want to upgrade your Windows edition.

You may encounter error 0x803fa067 when upgrading Windows:

Unable to upgrade your edition
We can’t activate Windows on this device because you don’t have a valid license or product key. If you think you do have a valid license or key, select Troubleshoot bellow (0x803fa067).

To work around this issue, disconnect the computer from the network temporarily (disable the network adapter) and then retry the upgrade.

If this doesn’t help either, try deleting the Windows product key that was previously installed:

slui.exe /upk

Then install the new product key:

changepk.exe /ProductKey xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

Preparation for the edition upgrade will begin, after which the computer will automatically restart.

The upgrade process will take 5–10 minutes. After the reboot, check that your Windows 11 edition has been upgraded to Pro:

winver.exe

or use DISM:

DISM /online /Get-CurrentEdition

All your files and installed apps will remain in place, as will your user profiles.

Once the upgrade is complete, check that Windows has been activated using your product key. Check the Windows activation status:

slmgr /xpr

The following errors may occur when upgrading your Windows edition:

• 0xc004f050 – the product key specified is either invalid or does not match the edition of Windows currently installed on your computer.
• 0xC004F069 – before installing a new product key, you must first uninstall the previous one: slui.exe /upk Then use the changepk.exe command to install the new key.

To find out more about Windows activation or edition upgrade errors, use the built-in slui.exe command. Specify the error code that Windows returned to you as the second argument to the command. For example:

slui.exe 0x2a 0xc004f050