I am using Windows 8.1 (neither home nor pro) and want to do an "in-place" upgrade of my OS (including perhaps 100 hours of software installs)to Windows 10 Pro. I have downloaded the Windows 10 setup files from the Windows 10 setup webpage and used the "media creation tool" to create a bootable USB drive. Prior to that, I purchased a CD key for Windows 10 Professional. When I put the Win 10 Pro flash drive into the machine and ran "setup.exe," I was NOT asked for a CD key but I was immediately informed that my machine would end up having Windows 10 Home installed and that only the essentially worthless "apps" would continue to work. I was never even asked for the CD key that I purchased and was unpleasantly surprised that the "mediacreation tool" not only failed to offer the choice of an "in-place upgrade" but also determined that I could not do that "upgrade" to the "Pro" version of Windows 10.
I have read in several places that the best way for me to proceed is to invoke an "in-place" upgrade and that it is almost always successful.
How can I accomplish what I need to accomplish?
Reply
Reply: First, make sure that the setup file you downloaded is Windows 10 Professional, not Windows 10 Home.
In fact, the installation of Windows 10 does not need to create a bootable USB driver. If you want to upgrade the OS to Windows 10, you can use the built-in Windows Update to upgrade your system; the whole process is fully automatic, and do not need you to operate. However, I do not recommend the use of Windows Update for upgrade, because the network transmission is not reliable, and the installation time will be very long. You can go to download Windows 10 ISO setup file, and the file size is about 6G or so. This is the fastest and most stable. Remember to choose the "Upgrade the old system" option, and do not choose "Newly set up system"; otherwise it will cover all your data. Of course, the safest way is backing up your data before installing your system.