windows upgrade nightmare (dell laptop from home to pro win11)

[raverx3m]

been at it for 2 days already trying to upgrade from home to pro and seems like microsoft created bunch of bottlenecks with this process.

i have used keys from HRK webpage for years with no issues. and that page was recommended by multiple people on forums

until i tried to upgrade this laptop

first it was the media drivers issue (dell xps 9310)

then it was the microsoft account bottleneck
now it keeps installing the home edition by default and i cant get this damn box to upgrade to pro no matter what i do

i had to disable raid in bios
then had to disable and bypass the wifi
and now im stuck at trying to get it to upgrade to windows 11 PRO from home for last few hours
i tried reinstalling but it never prompts me to enter the license key during install
i tried using generic upgrade key but none of them work

this is absolute bs and im honestly thought about switching to apple for a moment thats how tired i am.
how the hell do i get this to upgrade to pro?
i literally spend hours trying all kinds of workarounds.
why do i have to become microsoft certified to just install the damn windows pro?

in the process i also noticed that many corporations (including microsoft) figured out a way to shield themselves from unhappy customers and create bottlenecks for those who want to complain about certain company's product that doesnt work. we get dragged through endless stall process to make us give up and not get our problem resolved...
that way the product looks like its a great product and there are no issues with it...
becasue at the end of the day when there are only 3 working products and they all agree to do same thing the is no choice for a consumer to go somewhere else.
because the monopoly now is not a single company but multiple companies agreeing to share the top spots in the market to control it

 

[tehnokraat]

Why did you make two posts with the same content?
Check out this post, it contains everything you need to do.
https://www.techist.com/forums/threads/dell-9310-why-so-hard-to-upgrade-windows.405753/

 

[raverx3m]

the other one was more towards the laptop i was trying to see if theres anything specific about that model that was causing all the nonsense.

based on past experience in forums if i make post too complicated with may different questions none of them get answered and post derails from people suggesting stuff i didnt ask about
so i started making multiple posts separate by topic. it seems to work better.

 

[Dewanyagen]

I totally get your approach of breaking down the posts by topic to get the best responses! It can be a bit of a "Windows upgrade nightmare" when things get too complicated, and you end up with more questions than answers.

 

[Joe C]

Maybe you should ask a mod/admin to combine your two threads because I would not be one to answer your question knowing that someone else may or may not have asked the same question from the other thread and I am not going to read two threads on the same issue.

 

[PP Mguire]

Use Media Creation Tool to make a new Windows 11 22H2 ISO. During creation process, uncheck "use recommended options for this pc" so it will give you every version available during install.
Download Rufus Portable, insert an empty useable flash drive that is at least 8GB in size. Point it to the new ISO you created and hit start.
You'll see a popup box with options. Check the box to disable hardware requirements, and check the second box to disable requiring a Microsoft account. Optionally you can check the last 2 boxes to disable telemetry and make sure Bitlocker isn't enabled after install.
Go back into your bios and change the RAID back to AHCI if you only have one storage device.
Go to install Windows, select Windows 11 Pro x64, delete every partition on the drive inside the WIndows setup and create a new one allowing it to make the additional system partitions.
When it asks for a license select I don't have a license.
Now you should boot into Pro without needing to disable wifi or going through any other process.
Once you're in Windows, click activate this PC and insert your Pro license.

 

[tehnokraat]

Everything is fine, only in this case the result is exactly what it was before the start of this procedure, if you don't enter the Pro version key, the version that was there before will be activated on the first Internet connection.
And You'll get again Home, if there was before Home version.
I have already told the tale, how it all should be done at it all takes less than 10 minutes without any kind of nightmare.

 

[Dewanyagen]

I totally get your approach of breaking down the posts by topic to get the best responses! It can be a bit of a "Windows upgrade nightmare" when things get too complicated, and you end up with more questions than answers.

By the way, speaking of Windows, I've been on the hunt for a cheap Windows 10 key lately. If you have any advice or recommendations on where to find one, that would be awesome!

 

[camilasaunder89]

You can directly upgrade from home to pro from the Settings app > System > Activation.
It's a bit complicated but once it's done the system runs smoothly.