Solved Windows 11 Education

Dru2 · Oct 25, 2021

Anyone using Windows 11 Education?

Currently running Windows 11 Pro but thinking about upgrading to Windows 11 Education by changing my generic product key to my Windows 10 Education key. Would be doing this via the Change product key via System - Activation page under System settings.

cereberus · Oct 25, 2021

You would end up with an unactivated version which would present issues.

You cannot buy an Education licence, only obtain one via an education establishment (as a student or employee.

NavyLCDR · Oct 25, 2021

cereberus said:
You would end up with an unactivated version which would present issues.

You cannot buy an Education licence, only obtain one via an education establishment (as a student or employee.

I'm curious as to how you know that Dru2 did not obtain a product key for Windows 10 Education from an education establishment.

NavyLCDR · Oct 25, 2021

jimbo45 · Oct 25, 2021

NavyLCDR said:
I'm curious as to how you know that Dru2 did not obtain a product key for Windows 10 Education from an education establishment.

Me too !!!

Plenty of places offering part time / remote / evening courses -- at least where I am can offer W11 education. I've got a copy but haven't installed it as I'm 100% happy with my Pro for Workstations edition.

Cheers
jimbo

ShamrockRig · Oct 25, 2021

Ive been using my education key since 10 for about 4 or 5 years now. Works fine on win 11

NavyLCDR · Oct 25, 2021

And the digital license for Windows 10/11 Education, once you get it, works just like the digital license for Pro. You can easily move between Pro and Education editions simply by changing the product key to the generic product key for that edition. I can switch at will between Education and Pro just by changing the generic product key. No reboot. No downloads. Reinstalls will activate with the generic product keys as well.

cereberus · Oct 26, 2021

NavyLCDR said:
I'm curious as to how you know that Dru2 did not obtain a product key for Windows 10 Education from an education establishment.

He said he would change using a generic key but made no mention of having an Education key. If he had, he would upgrade using actual key.

I suspect he does not have a key but could be wrong of course.

cereberus · Oct 26, 2021

NavyLCDR said:
And the digital license for Windows 10/11 Education, once you get it, works just like the digital license for Pro. You can easily move between Pro and Education editions simply by changing the product key to the generic product key for that edition. I can switch at will between Education and Pro just by changing the generic product key. No reboot. No downloads. Reinstalls will activate with the generic product keys as well.

Are you saying that you can downgrade Edu to Pro by inputting generic key?

An interesting discovery I made was that If you install a lower version e.g. Home on a pc with a Pro digital licence, Home activates without a key even if never installed previously.

So in theory, you only need one licence to enable flip flopping between Pro and Education PROVIDED you install/activate Edu first.

Dru2 · Oct 26, 2021

Hey guys, thanks for the replies. I wasn't ignoring anyone I just wasn't getting notification of any replies to my post

That said, let me first address these...

cereberus said:
You would end up with an unactivated version which would present issues.

You cannot buy an Education licence, only obtain one via an education establishment (as a student or employee.

I DO have fully functional license. I got it from my school when I was working on my Bachelors degree in Computer Information Systems. Here you can see it's fully activated without issue....

NavyLCDR said:
And the digital license for Windows 10/11 Education, once you get it, works just like the digital license for Pro. You can easily move between Pro and Education editions simply by changing the product key to the generic product key for that edition. I can switch at will between Education and Pro just by changing the generic product key. No reboot. No downloads. Reinstalls will activate with the generic product keys as well.

cereberus said:
He said he would change using a generic key but made no mention of having an Education key. If he had, he would upgrade using actual key.

I suspect he does not have a key but could be wrong of course.

My Windows 11 Education OS. Digitally activated :wink:

This is on my backup system which was running Windows 10 Education, before I did the insider's upgrade to Windows 11 :wink:

On my main system which was running Windows 10 Pro, I simply did a clean install of Windows 11, which obviously used the Windows 10 Pro digital license tied to my Microsoft Account. Thus the current OS installed is Windows 11 Pro.

My aim now is to change the license from Windows 11 Pro to Windows 11 Education by proving the Windows 10 Education key.

Now that I have the RTM version installed on my main system (system one), I'm thinking of moving from Pro to Education. Just want to know if anyone has run into any weird issues from running the Education version. I never noticed anything of of the ordinary on my backup system, but then I don't/didn't run that system every day as I do my main system.

Anyway, sorry for the late replies. As said, wasn't getting any post notifications so I figured the post had gone dark.

Hope this clarifies :)

cereberus · Oct 26, 2021

Dru2 said:
Hey guys, thanks for the replies. I wasn't ignoring anyone I just wasn't getting notification of any replies to my post

That said, let me first address these...

I DO have fully functional license. I got it from my school when I was working on my Bachelors degree in Computer Information Systems. Here you can see it's fully activated without issue....

My Windows 11 Education OS. Digitally activated

View attachment 11468

Thias is on my backup system which was running Windows 10 Education, before I did the insider's upgrade to Windows 11

On my main system which was running Windows 10 Pro, I simply did a clean install of Windows 11, which obviously used the Windows 10 Pro digital license tied to my Microsoft Account. Thus the current OS installed is Windows 11 Pro.

My aim now is to change the license from Windows 11 Pro to Windows 11 Education by proving the Windows 10 Education key.

Now that I have the RTM version installed on my main system (system one), I'm thinking of moving from Pro to Education. Just want to know if anyone has run into any weird issues from running the Education version. I never noticed anything of of the ordinary on my backup system, but then I don't/didn't run that system every day as I do my main system.

Anyway, sorry for the late replies. As said, wasn't getting any post notifications so I figured the post had gone dark.

Hope this clarifies :)

cereberus · Oct 26, 2021

Ok. If you upgrade main machine to Edu, then you need to downgrade backup to Pro?

Is the Edu key a multi-user?

NavyLCDR · Oct 26, 2021

cereberus said:
Are you saying that you can downgrade Edu to Pro by inputting generic key?

An interesting discovery I made was that If you install a lower version e.g. Home on a pc with a Pro digital licence, Home activates without a key even if never installed previously.

So in theory, you only need one licence to enable flip flopping between Pro and Education PROVIDED you install/activate Edu first.

Interesting.....I'll have to try that on a new VM.

jvickers · Oct 26, 2021

Dru2 said:
Hey guys, thanks for the replies. I wasn't ignoring anyone I just wasn't getting notification of any replies to my post

That said, let me first address these...

I DO have fully functional license. I got it from my school when I was working on my Bachelors degree in Computer Information Systems. Here you can see it's fully activated without issue....

My Windows 11 Education OS. Digitally activated

View attachment 11468

This is on my backup system which was running Windows 10 Education, before I did the insider's upgrade to Windows 11

On my main system which was running Windows 10 Pro, I simply did a clean install of Windows 11, which obviously used the Windows 10 Pro digital license tied to my Microsoft Account. Thus the current OS installed is Windows 11 Pro.

My aim now is to change the license from Windows 11 Pro to Windows 11 Education by proving the Windows 10 Education key.

Now that I have the RTM version installed on my main system (system one), I'm thinking of moving from Pro to Education. Just want to know if anyone has run into any weird issues from running the Education version. I never noticed anything of of the ordinary on my backup system, but then I don't/didn't run that system every day as I do my main system.

Anyway, sorry for the late replies. As said, wasn't getting any post notifications so I figured the post had gone dark.

Hope this clarifies :)

I was always under the impression that Education keys somehow expired once you stopped attending or working at the school. Of course, I use an educational key on my Windows 10 system since I work for a university. I was always ready to abandon it if I quit working there. But hey, if yours works, I say use it!

cereberus · Oct 26, 2021

jvickers said:
I was always under the impression that Education keys somehow expired once you stopped attending or working at the school. Of course, I use an educational key on my Windows 10 system since I work for a university. I was always ready to abandon it if I quit working there. But hey, if yours works, I say use it!

No - Edu keys are for life.

NavyLCDR · Oct 26, 2021

cereberus said:
Are you saying that you can downgrade Edu to Pro by inputting generic key?

An interesting discovery I made was that If you install a lower version e.g. Home on a pc with a Pro digital licence, Home activates without a key even if never installed previously.

So in theory, you only need one licence to enable flip flopping between Pro and Education PROVIDED you install/activate Edu first.

I just tried it in a new VM. Entered my Windows Education Product key, so it installed Windows 11 Education, activated with a digital license, local account, no MS account. Changing to the Windows 11 Pro generic product key failed with the expected error message that there was no digital license for Windows 11 Pro. As expected, you can only flip versions by changing product keys to generic product keys if there is already a digital license established for that computer for the edition you want to switch to. I doubt very highly that Windows 10 Home will activate with the generic product key, but I guess I shall try it.

NavyLCDR · Oct 26, 2021

jvickers said:
I was always under the impression that Education keys somehow expired once you stopped attending or working at the school. Of course, I use an educational key on my Windows 10 system since I work for a university. I was always ready to abandon it if I quit working there. But hey, if yours works, I say use it!

With Windows 10/11 it doesn't matter, once you get the digital license established, you don't even need the unique product key anymore - the generic product key will work after that.

NavyLCDR · Oct 26, 2021

cereberus said:
Are you saying that you can downgrade Edu to Pro by inputting generic key?

An interesting discovery I made was that If you install a lower version e.g. Home on a pc with a Pro digital licence, Home activates without a key even if never installed previously.

So in theory, you only need one licence to enable flip flopping between Pro and Education PROVIDED you install/activate Edu first.

I just tried a Home installation on the same VM. It would not activate. Then I changed the product key to the generic product key for Windows Education. It upgraded and activated. The generic product keys will only activate different editions of Windows 10 or 11 if there is an already existing digital license for that edition of Windows for that computer.

Dru2 · Oct 26, 2021

jvickers said:
I was always under the impression that Education keys somehow expired once you stopped attending or working at the school.

Well all I know is I haven't been to school since 2017, yet we see the key still works :wink:

Also my copies of Project 216 and Visio 2016, which I also got from my school, also still works :)

Dru2 · Oct 26, 2021

cereberus said:
Ok. If you upgrade main machine to Edu, then you need to downgrade backup to Pro?

Is the Edu key a multi-user?

I don't think the key is multi-user.

As for downgrading the backup machine back to "Pro", that's a good question as I've not crossed that bridge yet. I guess I'll find out tomorrow when I actually try the key on my main system.

That said, I still have my cloned Windows 10 drive installed on the backup so even if Education complains I'll simply deactivate since I'm reverting the machine back to Windows 10 anyway :)

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