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I wonder, if it is possible to upgrade from Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Enterprise like with Windows 8.1 where you can add features by entering a valid key for Pro. I'd test it, if I wouldn't have to reinstall everything in case it doesn't work...

I ask, because I need Remote Desktop for work, which Win10 Home hasn't.

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5 Answers 5

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Windows 10 Home can be upgraded to Windows 10 Education in-place. To upgrade to Enterprise, though, you need Pro installed first however.

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  • This is not a correct answer.
    – david.pfx
    Sep 25, 2016 at 7:11
  • How is it wrong?
    – askvictor
    Sep 25, 2016 at 21:36
  • because it doesn't answer the question (and it's too short). The question was how to upgrade without reinstalling and your answer says to install Pro first. That isn't true, and it certainly isn't a correct answer to the question. -1, but feel free to edit your answer and I'll reconsider.
    – david.pfx
    Sep 26, 2016 at 22:55
  • as per technet.microsoft.com/en-us/itpro/windows/deploy/… , you can't upgrade home -> enterprise.
    – askvictor
    Sep 27, 2016 at 0:49
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    If that's what you wanted to say, then put it in your answer, not in the comments. And it doesn't make your answer right, for the reasons I already gave. See my answer for the correct method: upgrade to Pro first, then to Enterprise. No reinstall required.
    – david.pfx
    Sep 27, 2016 at 4:46
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The standard way to upgrade from one version of Windows to another is to use Change Product Key on the Control Panel System page. There are other ways using the command line, but in most cases they just do the same thing.

But unfortunately you cannot upgrade directly from Windows 10 Home to Enterprise. If you try to enter a new product key you will get an error such as "Error code 0xc004f050".

However, it seems you can upgrade by a two step process. First enter a Windows 10 Pro key. After a warning, the system will proceed to install new components, reboot once or twice and then magic! Now you have a Windows 10 Pro system. It will still need to be activated.

Now you can go back to Change Product Key, enter that Windows 10 Enterprise key and it just works. Since this is a MAK/KMS key it will need to contact a key server.

Assuming you have an MSDN subscription, both keys can be obtained from the MSDN licence key page. If you prefer to use your corporate keys, that should be OK too.

You may also be able to get to Pro using the standard Microsoft key (which cannot be activated), but I haven't tried this. The key is: VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T

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  • Thanks, this solved it for me. And I can confirm that you can use the standard key as mentioned above, you won't be able to activate it, but it doesn't matter as you will change the key to enterprise immediately. The upgrade only took me a couple of minutes and two restarts. A bit silly in my opinion that MS, doesn't allow you to upgrade to enterprise directly and the error message you get when you try it is not helpful at all.
    – Robin
    Nov 16, 2016 at 12:44
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    This upgrade path works well, but the process of upgrading home to pro will fail without disabling all networking first. Windows will identify the new key as bogus while it can still talk to its licence servers, so disable your wifi, or remove your network cable before entering the pro key. After that everything works fine.
    – AnotherLongUsername
    May 28, 2019 at 11:47
  • anotherlongusername: The method as described does not fail. If you have legit Enterprise keys then you probably can borrow a legit Pro key for the intermediate step.
    – david.pfx
    Jun 14, 2019 at 14:55
  • For me upgrading with the standard Microsoft key also failed until unplugging the computer from the network. AnotherLongUsername's hint was helpful.
    – Paul B.
    Nov 2, 2020 at 8:47
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You cannot upgrade from Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Enterprise by entering a valid Windows 10 Enterprise key to Windows 10 Home. I have tried that on my Windows 10 Home. I afraid you have to do a clean install :(

You can however, upgrade from Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro by entering a valid Pro key.

@Ramhound has mentioned this as well in the comments.

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  • And from Pro to Enterprise, install not needed
    – david.pfx
    Sep 25, 2016 at 7:11
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Ian Pringle is correct. Go to: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/get-started/kmsclientkeys

Then scroll go to "Windows Server Semi-Annual Channel versions" and "Windows Server, version 1903 and Windows Server, version 1809" and I used "Windows Server Standard N2KJX-J94YW-TQVFB-DG9YT-724CC"

I entered this key in "Activation Settings" page of Win10 Home, by clicking on "Change Product Key" Note: Win 10 Home was already activated before this step.

Win 10 Home 1903 -> Win 10 Enterprise 1903. The upgrade worked quickly and easily (after at least one automatic restart) And it automatically activated itself as well. Possible caveat: This is Win10 Enterprise that validates itself from a KMS server.

(before I tried this, I also set the kms server explicitly, but this step might not be necessary, especially if the KMS is set correctly in DNS etc - slmgr.vbs /skms kms1.server.com:1688 - replace server.com with your KMS)

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Wanted to contribute an up to date answer. You can upgrade Windows 10 Home directly to Enterprise. If you are licesning with KMS then you will want the KMS keys found here

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    Windows 10 Home cannot be activated by a KMS, it isn't eligible, due to the fact it cannot connect to an Active Directory domain. The link you provided does not have a KMS key for Windows 10 Home. However, I suspect I know what you wanted to suggest, but you simply failed to provide that level of detail. Of course, what you wanted to suggest, is already suggested by another answer.
    – Ramhound
    Jun 27, 2019 at 17:04
  • I did this exact thing today, twice. You go to the link I gave, which does indeed have KMS keys (you want to look on the right side of the table where it says KMS Client Setup Key). You then take that key (for me I used the Windows 10 Enterprise, though I suspect if Enterprise works any version ought to work, maybe not the LTS builds) and stick it into the Settings > System > Activation. If you are on a domain with KMS, regardless of being bound to the domain, it will activate. Restart, then bind to the domain and you'll be good to go. Like I said.
    – Ian Pringle
    Jun 27, 2019 at 21:42
  • The website you linked to does not have a Windows 10 Home KMS key. If you used a Windows 10 Enterprise KMS key to upgrade to Windows Enterprise it means you were already on Windows 10 Professional which was connected to a domain. Windows 10 Home cannot connect to an AD domain.
    – Ramhound
    Jun 27, 2019 at 22:11
  • I never said Home KMS keys, that doesn't exist. We are talking about going from Windows 10 HOME to Windows 10 ENTERPRISE. The website contains Windows 10 ENTERPRISE keys that are used to tell Windows to get the license from a KMS server. By putting the desired KMS key into a Windows 10 HOME installation it will switch to Windows 10 ENTERPRISE. Please, if it can't be done then I'd love to see something written by MS to say so, because I have done this four times yesterday and will do it 6 more times next week with another batch of machines.
    – Ian Pringle
    Jun 28, 2019 at 13:21

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