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    Force install Windows 10 Pro instead of Home edition

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by Annihil, Dec 9, 2015.

  1. Annihil

    Annihil Notebook Guru

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    When installing Windows using the Microsoft Media Creation Tool, you will end up with a multiple version iso containing Home & Pro, and then when you boot on your usb pendrive and install it, as XPS 15 9550 has an embedded Windows 10 Home UEFI product key, you haven't got the choice of the edition that you want to install, it select Home for you without even telling you. Well, there is a way to force the edition selection :

    Note: You will need a Windows 10 Professional product key to activate Windows after the install.

    1. Use the Media Creation Tool to create a bootable Windows 10 Home & Pro install USB thumbdrive.

    2. Now open Notepad and copy/paste following piece of code in Notepad:
    Code:
    [EditionID]
    Professional
    [Channel]
    Retail
    You can also totally skip the [EditionID] part in the "ei.cfg" file so that Windows 10 setup asks you to choose desired edition at the time of clean installation:
    Code:
    [Channel]
    Retail
    Now save the file into Sources folder of the previously selected USB thumbdrive with the name "ei.cfg" (use the double-quotes "" while saving the file otherwise Notepad will create a text file with the name ei.cfg.txt).
     
    Last edited: Dec 9, 2015
    reycat likes this.