Solved MS server rejects Win Pro Licence We Found Win 11 Home digital Licence for this device running Win 11 Pro

Hi

I have a new ASUS ROG Strix G16 G614PM laptop that came with Windows Home so I purchased a digital key for Windows 11 Pro
and downloaded Windows 11 Pro from Microsoft using the media creation tool so I know the Win Pro is legit..

The OS drive was reformatted during the Win Pro install and as soom as it was done, I went into Win 11 Pro and
changed/added the new Win 11 Pro key, connected to the internet and tried to activate it.

I got the error:
"We have found a Windows 11 Home digital licence for this device running Windows 11 Pro.
To activate using this digital licence, you need to install Windows 11 Home."

I have performed these kind of operations many times before on different machines and
I have never had this issue before?

Can any suggest what can be done?

Many thanks

If the Home key is embedded in BIOS, it is detected automatically and Setup will install Windows 10/11 Home. You can then change the key to the generic Windows 10/11 Pro key and upgrade to Windows 11 Pro. Since it is at least once activated it has a digital license and it will activate again automatically. The original Pro key doesn't work because it's a single use upgrade key. As I said you don't need it, just type the generic Pro key to upgrade from Home.

Change the key to a generic Win 11 Pro key (VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T), restart the computer and then change to the one you bought and restart again.

Megahertz said:

Change the key to a generic Win 11 Pro key (VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T), restart the computer and then change to the one you bought and restart again.

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No need to use the bought key. If the computer has a digital license for Windows 11 Pro it should upgrade to Pro with the generic key and activate automatically on next restart.

Thanks everyone. Got it sorted.

spapakons said:

No need to use the bought key. If the computer has a digital license for Windows 11 Pro it should upgrade to Pro with the generic key and activate automatically on next restart.

Click to expand...

It has a digital license for Windows 11 home, not Pro

Event2020 said:

Thanks everyone. Got it sorted.

Click to expand...

Please explain to others how did you got it sorted.

Megahertz said:

It has a digital license for Windows 11 home, not Pro

Click to expand...

He said it is not the first time he upgraded from Home to Pro. So he should have a digital license for the Pro version as well.

I don't know why everyone does this the hard way .

Create an ei.cfg file on the installation media. You will now have the option to install the Pro edition. After installation, enter the product key you purchased. Done.

I include the ei.cfg file on EVERY Win install media that I create whether I need it or not just to guarantee that I can install any edition on any machine.

hsehestedt said:

I don't know why everyone does this the hard way .

Create an ei.cfg file on the installation media. You will now have the option to install the Pro edition. After installation, enter the product key you purchased. Done.

Click to expand...

I do! Not everyone knows about the ei.cfg file or how to use it.

Winuser said:

I do! Not everyone knows about the ei.cfg file or how to use it.

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True, so let me spell it out here. The clip below is from my own personal notes so it may read a little funny here:


Create a text file called ei.cfg. Place the following two lines in that file:

[Channel]
Retail

NOTE: Use something like notepad to create this file. Don’t use a program like Word that can insert special formatting characters into the file.

Place the ei.cfg file in \sources on the installation media.

Notes about ei.cfg: Let's say that you have a computer that shipped with Windows 11 Home, but you upgraded to Pro. You may find that when you try to perform a clean install, Windows simply starts installing Home and doesn't even show you the menu from which you can select other editions. By placing this file in the sources folder, we prevent that from happening. This happens because Windows setup reads a signature in the BIOS that tells setup which edition of Windows the system was shipped with. This makes it easy for a user who may not even know what edition of Windows they have - Windows setup knows what the system ships with so it simply starts loading that edition.

Note that when doing an unattended install, this file is not needed because the autounattend.xml specifies the edition of Windows to install, but you can leave the ei.cfg in place as it won't hurt anything. My preference is to always include an ei.cfg file.

@hsehestedt Is this listed in the Tutorials thread? I can see how that could be very helpful for those trying to do a clean Windows Pro install on a device that was activated with a Win Home embedded key.

Good question. It's possible that I am failing in my search but I'm not finding it.

spapakons said:

He said it is not the first time he upgraded from Home to Pro. So he should have a digital license for the Pro version as well.

Click to expand...

He did in other computers, not in his new

Event2020 said:

Hi

I have a new ASUS ROG Strix G16 G614PM laptop that came with Windows Home so I purchased a digital key for Windows 11 Pro

The OS drive was reformatted during the Win Pro install and as soom as it was done, I went into Win 11 Pro and
changed/added the new Win 11 Pro key, connected to the internet and tried to activate it.

I have performed these kind of operations many times before on different machines

Click to expand...

My bad, sorry.