Recently, the Windows Out of Box Experience (OOBE) source code was dissected revealing some interesting details. While it has some cool shortcuts related to deploying the OS, including one that is seemingly a secret, certain things like quickly switching between different Windows editions without running a clean installation are not an option.
An unofficial script has been devised to combat this inconvenience. It has been released by GitHub user TheMMC, who has created a BATCH file (.bat) that allows users to switch editions as in-place upgrades instead of clean installing your Windows 10 and 11.
The utility is called "Helper-Tool für Windows 10/11 Inplace-Upgrades und Editionswechsel" which translates to "Helper tool for Windows 10/11 inplace upgrades and edition changes". The Inplace_Upgrade_Helper.bat file needs to be placed alongside the setup.exe of the Windows installation media (ISO) before running the setup EXE.
The dev explains:
Does it bother you when the Windows setup itself decides what it should do? You want to install Pro, but the setup automatically jumps to Home because the key is stored in the firmware? Have you installed Pro but only realize afterwards that you only have a license for Home but are too lazy to do a clean install?
[...]
This tool helps. To find out exactly how it works, just take a look at the batch. This is not an activation tool, only official pre-installation keys are used. Simply copy this batch to the setup.exe in the installation medium and start it.
If the appropriate version is not available on the installation medium, the setup is able to generate the appropriate image on the fly. Most likely this is the same function that DISM /Get-TargetEditions and DISM /Set-Edition use
This is the method with which, for example, https://uupdump.net/ can generate all other editions from the two Home and Pro editions (create_virtual_editions.cmd, https://github.com/abbodi1406/BatUtil/tree/master/uup -converter-wimlib)
When run, it provides the user the option to select which edition they want to switch to. For example, option 1 is for Windows Home, option 2 is for Windows Pro, 3 is Windows Pro for Workstations, and 4 is Windows Enterprise, and so on.
The list of choices (Google translated to English) is given below:
- u: Start the upgrade with the selected edition
- k: Try to install the selected key with slmgr (edition change without inplace upgrade).
- s: Standard upgrade without edition selection, setup decides alone
- f: Forced upgrade on/off
- 0: exit
The full changelog list for the tool is given below. The latest version fixes a formatting issue while the previous ones have added support for Windows N and non-N editions as well as LTSC 2021:
Changelog:
V0.41
- Formatting fixed, the readme now looks neat on Gitgub [sic] and in the Windows editor. Added some comments to the batch.
V0.40
- LTSC 2021 added.
V0.30
- Added N editions.
V0.21
- Added keychange function.
V0.20
- Added remaining non-N editions.
You can get the Inplace_Upgrade_Helper BATCH file from its GitHub page (via Deskmodder). Be warned though that this is an unofficial tool. It"s best to avoid running this on your main PC or with no backup.