I have 1. System with current 8.1 Home...OEM and 2 Purchased Windows 8 Pro. Looking for a "lossless" upgrade path.

The Pro does not recognize 8.1 status and wants to do a clean install.  Bummer.

Can I upgrade to 10 Home, and us the KEY for Window 8 Pro to get a lossless upgrade to 10 Pro?  Perhaps through Win tech support?

Is there another path to support this upgrade path without losing installed programs and data?

The upgrade to win 10 is just that , an UPGRADE.  You cannot change versions, architecture, or anything else from the underlying OS.

You cannot go from 8.1 home>>>win 10 Pro.  Your path would be 8.1 home>8.1 Pro (by changing the key)>win 10 Pro

Thanks,  I do not have 8.1 PRO...alas... I have 8.0 PRO.  So it wants to move back to 8...losing data and aps in the process.   So I can clean install 8 PRO and update to 8.1 PRO and UPGRADE to 10 PRO.  But that is not "Lossless".     What I was hoping was 8.1 HOME, to 10 HOME, and use the WIN 8 PRO key (unused to date) with Customer Service to authorize an further upgrade from 10 HOME to 10 Pro.   That way data is not lost.  But I do not know if applying an unused PRO key would be allowed.

• Edited by rbartlett 8 hours 4 minutes ago

Home to home will work.  Win 10 handles key in an entirely different manner.  Win 10 pro users ALL have the same generic key ( VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T), but it is the activation ID (saved on the MS store servers) that is the unique bit.  Because of this you cannot use a "key" to change from home to Pro UNLESS you purchased a unique win 10 Pro key.

"Customer service" or the Phone "activation" will not be able to provide the activation ID.  You cannot "apply a key" you also cannot upgrade from win 8.0 to win 10.

OK  there is no easy  path.  So... I will have to install 8 Pro.  Then Update to 8.1, then UPGRADE to 10 PRO .  Thank you for the tech underpinnings on why the path I thought might work is not feasible.

After you have updated (if inclined) you can then clean install to get rid of the junk

Thanks,  I do not have 8.1 PRO...alas... I have 8.0 PRO.  So it wants to move back to 8...losing data and aps in the process.   So I can clean install 8 PRO and update to 8.1 PRO and UPGRADE to 10 PRO.  But that is not "Lossless".     What I was hoping was 8.1 HOME, to 10 HOME, and use the WIN 8 PRO key (unused to date) with Customer Service to authorize an further upgrade from 10 HOME to 10 Pro.   That way data is not lost.  But I do not know if applying an unused PRO key would be allowed.

• Edited by rbartlett Tuesday, August 18, 2015 11:21 PM