Restoring Asus Factory Windows 10 Home after upgrade to Pro

[jylong_away]

Hi All,

I'm a first time Asus ROG owner, and first time poster. I've been sifting through the ROG forums, as well as other windows forums, but can't *quite* seem to find a definitive answer for my query. Calling both ASUS and Microsoft supports hasn't helped to clarify things either.

I have a new G752VS running Windows 10 Home OEM from the factory. I'm hoping to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro for a bit more control over updates, group policy, etc.

As I understand it, I can do this either directly through the Microsoft store, or buy a retail version of Windows 10 Pro, and enter the activation code into my computer. I'm planning on the second option, as I can get a pretty good price locally , and it allows my some flexibility if I need to transfer devices.


Here's where it gets a bit sticky for me:

ASUS has informed me that upgrading to Pro will void my software warranty, and may screw up the computer OEM customizations, etc etc. They have also stated that upgrading to Pro will mean that there's no way I can return to the original factory software state (Windows 10 Home OEM) for warranty purposes.

Microsoft support has said that upgrading to Pro by activation code (not clean install) will add/unlock the pro functions, and not mess up what's already there.

Being the paranoid that I am, I'm planning to make a full Macrium image of my OS drive (including recovery partition, etc) before my attempted Pro upgrade. As I understand it, if I have trouble after the Pro upgrade, restoring the Macrium image *should* restore the computer back to the original Windows 10 Home OEM. Is this correct? Or am I totally off? Does upgrading to Pro make the Microsoft servers detect your computer as Pro forever, due to electronic licensing?

Sorry for the ramble...

[CladMaster]

Macrium image plus a bootable USB recovery drive made with Macrium will allow you to restore the Original OS.

Place the image file on a drive that's never going to be used again so that the image does not get damaged / erased.

or .....

Copy the eSupport folder that's on C: drive to a USB drive.

Remove the original drive and put it in the box that the laptop came in and leave it there.

Replace the drive you removed with a new one and install Windows 10 fresh on it. The USB drive with the eSupport folder will allow you to install drivers and other programs that you want.

[jylong_away]

Thanks for that CladMaster.

Just to check that I am understanding correctly - If I aim to use the USB/Image method you described, I would need to create the drive image, and the USB Recovery on separate media? Or am I creating a USB-bootable recovery drive, with the backup image on it?

[CladMaster]

jylong_away wrote:
Thanks for that CladMaster.

Just to check that I am understanding correctly - If I aim to use the USB/Image method you described, I would need to create the drive image, and the USB Recovery on separate media? Or am I creating a USB-bootable recovery drive, with the backup image on it?

USB Recovery drive (flash drive, thumb drive) is just the Macrium program that boots from the USB, when you select the USB Recovery drive to boot from it runs WinPE shell and then runs Macrium, this allows you to restore or make an image, the image of the original OS would be on another drive that's big enough to hold the image, like a USB external hard drive.

[jylong_away]

thanks much for that. Have just created both media on separate USB flash drives. It boots OK, and can detect the other drive with the image on it.

The last thing I need to ask before I fork out $200ish for a Windows 10 Pro retail code - can anyone confirm that the ASUS ROG Windows 10 Home OS can be upgraded to bro just by entering the activation code?

[CladMaster]

Yes, It can.

I use the key released by Microsoft that's publicly available that allows the Home edition to upgrade to Pro, then I use my purchased Pro key to activate it.

VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T << This key is from Microsoft and allows you to upgrade to Pro but not activated. Make sure you have a backup image, once the Pro upgrade is done, there is no way to downgrade to Home unless you have made an image of the boot drive (all partitions, there should be 4 partitions) to do a system restore.

[jylong_away]

Awesome! *Will give it a go. I've read in several places abt that method of entering the 'generic' Pro code, and activating with a retail code. *How is this different from just entering your purchased activation code directly?

Would directly entering the activation code not prompt an upgrade to pro right away?*

[Clintlgm]

hmm never heard before that upgrading to pro would void anything? Basically pro is already on your computer imputing the upgrade key just unlocks it. I couldn't see any reason to RMA a notebook over anything do with software anyway Your just making things difficult for yourself.
MR is a great program and making an image is a great Idea no matter what. I keep several to go back in time to several points in time.
As Justin will probably chime in on this too, why not just get a new and better M.2 SSD like a 960 Pro 500GB and just clone your current drive to it. then remove your factory hard drive and put it up. If you some how have to make an RMA just drop it back in.
With windows 10 Asus is not going to be much help in any case. You'll get good help here and I would suggest window10forum lots of specific windows 10 help there.

[Julskey]

Clintlgm wrote:
... Basically pro is already on your computer imputing the upgrade key just unlocks it...

I agree with this one.

My question now is if you do an upgrade, would the new product key be saved over the old one in the BIOS? As I understand our product keys are embedded in the BIOS? If so, even if you do an image restore of the previous version, it will still be the version that coincides with the product key in the BIOS. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks.

[haihane]

Julskey wrote:
I agree with this one.

My question now is if you do an upgrade, would the new product key be saved over the old one in the BIOS? As I understand our product keys are embedded in the BIOS? If so, even if you do an image restore of the previous version, it will still be the version that coincides with the product key in the BIOS. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks.

color me shocked too when i first saw the thread. i was tempted to post and ask for source representative post ( a screenshot of them saying it'll void warranty if one upgrades to pro), but then dropped it, thinking it wasn't my business to butt in in the first place.


if you do an upgrade, i suspect the product key and your motherboard identifier (HWID, or whatever identifies your PC) get sent to microsoft activation servers, they mark the key as used and bound it to the motherboard, then microsoft sends an activation message back to your pc.

if you do a full format afterwards (implying the destruction of manufacturer recovery partition), and then doing a clean install; this is where i'm not sure anymore. it could be:
- microsoft will try to check for product key embedded into your UEFI by system manufacturers, and then activates the pc via internet automatically. also with some automated wizardry linking your UEFI product key to your new windows 10 purchase, therefore simplifying the whole process. OR
- microsoft will try to check your hardware ID and cross compare it with their activation server database and automatically activating the Win10 Pro version. OR
- microsoft will simply just activate your original UEFI key embedded into the bios. you can then manually re-activate the win10 Pro version by re-keying the product key.

i'm curious too, which of the above is true.