I, at Microsoft forums usually encounter a large number of cases related to activation-which include a variety of problems. Some have a pirated copy of Windows(which is either done intentionally or by a PC repair shop), some install a wrong version of Windows during a reinstall, some do a motherboard change hence the PC activation becomes void etc. The case #2 is fairly common, where the user installs a different version of Windows during a clean install(most commonly choosing Windows 10 Home rather than Windows 10 Home Single Language), rather than he has the license for. This also applies to when a user sends a PC for repair to a shop where they install either a pirated copy or a different edition of Windows. I would be discussing this case in this article.
How to install the correct version of Windows
Click on the Start button in the bottom left of your screen and select Settings again (you can also press WINDOWS+I to open the Settings window) Click Update & Security and then select the Activation tab on the left. In the Activation tab, click Change product key Now enter your Windows 10 Pro OEM key and click Next to activate. Windows 7 Forums is the largest help and support community, providing friendly help and advice for Microsoft Windows 7 Computers such as Dell, HP, Acer, Asus or a custom build. I purchased Windows 7 Ultimate from a local store about 20 months ago, unbeknownst to me that it was in fact an OEM version.
If your Windows is not activated after a clean install and you believe you have a genuine license, first of all run the activation troubleshooter. The activation troubleshooter should tell you what is wrong with your license.
Let us take an example. Here the user has Installed Windows 10 Pro where he has got a license of Windows 10 Home Single Language. The activation troubleshooter would say something like this:
In that case, you would have to do a Reinstallation of the correct version of Windows as downgrading editions is not possible. Here are the references for doing a clean install:
How to force Windows 10 Setup media to Install the desired edition
Usually, the installation of the wrong edition of Windows is due to people not knowing that what version license do they have. As they can now know via the troubleshooter, Now, the question here comes that How should you force Windows Setup to install the desired version? The answer is simple, you need to instruct the Setup through a configuration file to install the specific version.
Change Windows Oem To Retail Value
There are a number of cases on this:
- You have a License of Windows 10 Home: To force Windows 10 to install Windows 10 Home during a clean install, you would need to create an ei.cfg file which instructs the setup media to install the mentioned edition and channel. For this do the following steps: (You can also download the file given below and paste it to the sources folder)
- On the USB drive where Windows 10 Setup is, open Sources folder
- Right-click New>New Text document.
- Type in the following:
[EditionID]
Core
[Channel]
Retail - Click File>Save As
- In the file name type in “ei.cfg” (with quotes)
- Here Edition ID means Edition which is Core, Channel is Retail if you purchased it through MS Store.
- You have a License of Windows 10 Home Single Language: This is a pretty common case. To force Windows 10 to install Windows 10 Home SL, you would need to create an ei.cfg file which instructs the setup media to install the mentioned edition and channel. For this do the following steps:
- On the USB drive where Windows 10 Setup is, open Sources folder
- Right-click New>New Text document.
- Type in the following:
[EditionID]
CoreSingleLanguage
[Channel]
OEM - Click File>Save As
- In the file name type in “ei.cfg” (with quotes)
- Here Edition ID means Edition which is Home Single Language, Channel is OEM as Home SL language licenses always are OEM System builder license.
- You have Installed Home but have a license of Windows 10 Pro: In that case, you need not to do a clean install. Go to Settings>Update and Security>Activation and click Change Product key and enter your Windows 10 Pro key.
Download for ei.cfg
You can download these Ei configuration files and paste them into sources folder of Windows 10 Media:
As these are config files, Chrome might mark it dangerous. Please click on Keep in order to download.
So by adding a configuration file to Windows, you can install Windows 10 desired version.
Windows Oem Software
A small note for Windows 10 Home Single Language
As Windows 10 Home Single Language ISOs are not available like Windows 10 Home and Pro, by this method you can create Home Single language Installation media too. This method would also work for doing an inplace upgrade to a more recent version too.
Residing from Chandigarh India, Sumit is a Windows Insider MVP awarded for the first time in 2018. He is also an Independent advisor for Microsoft customers and helps voluntarily as well on the forums.
Can you move OEM Windows 10 to SSD?
OEM (short for original equipment manufacturer) is a full version of the operating system, which ends up preinstalling on PCs. Every OEM version has its own license key. And the license is locked to the hardware on which it was first activated. So, the OEM license key is not transferable. And this is a doubt of many users who want to transfer OEM Windows 10 to new hard drive, just like the following case.
“I've read a lot of posts online and get that OEM license key is not transferable. I recently bought a new disk and want to transfer my OEM Windows 10 to new hard drive. Does it work on this computer? Do I need to buy a new license key? If anyone has any personal experience, that would be great! thank in advance.”
It is okay to say that the OEM license cannot be transferred, but it is more accurate to say that you cannot transfer the license key to another computer. That’s to say, you could move OEM license to HDD/SSD as long as you don’t change the important hardware of your computer, such as, motherboard, CPU.
Why transfer Windows 10 OEM to new hard drive?
As mentioned above, the OEM version can only be used on the first activated computer. In general, if you don’t change the motherboard of your computer, transferring Windows 10 and its license to new hard drive is possible. Here are two main reasons for this operation.
① Want a bigger capacity: If your original hard drive is too small, you may want to migrate Windows 10 to new hard drive and get more capacity. This may be a new life for you computer.
② Need a better performance: After long time use, you may find your computer takes longer to boot, the programs on it gets stuck from time to time, the loading speed is slower etc, then it's imperative to clone Windows 10 to SSD to improve the computer performance, preferably a larger one.
Step by step guide: how do I move OEM Windows 10 to HDD or SSD?
A free and reliable disk cloning software like AOMEI Backupper Standard is indispensible for users to transfer Windows 10 OEM copy in Windows 10/8/7/XP/Vista. With its clear interface and user-friendly design, all the users even novices can use it smoothly.
It supports disk clone and partition clone, and the previous one will contain everything on the disk, including the operating system, boot-related partitions, installed programs, personal data etc. It supports intelligent clone technology, so you can not only use it to clone disk to larger disk, but also clone larger HDD to smaller SSD. In addition, if the target disk is an SSD, you can use its powerful 4k technology to speed up the disk performance.
✎... Please note that the free version of AOMEI Backupper only supports cloning system disk with the same partition style, for example, MBR to MBR or GPT to GPT. To check the disk partition style, you could go to disk management, right click the hard disk or the SSD, choose Properties -> Volume -> Partition Style, then you will see its partition style, either MBR or GPT.
Then, let's get started to transfer OEM Windows 10 to new hard drive, either HDD or SSD. The detailed steps are below.
Step 1. Install SSD on your computer. If it's a laptop, please use USB-to-SATA cable to connect for cloning. Then, download AOMEI Backupper Standard, install and launch it, click Disk Clone under the Clone tab.
Download Freeware
Win 10/8.1/8/7/XP
Secure Download
Note: If the target disk is smaller, you could consider using 'System Clone' in AOMEI Backupper Professional.
Step 2. Select the old hard drive of your computer as source disk and the new HDD or SSD as destination disk successively.
Step 3. Tick 'SSD Alignment' to accelerate the reading and writting speed of SSD disk if it is. Then, Click Start Clone to run the pending operation.
Windows Oem License
Except for 'SSD Alignment', there are two diferent options, namely, 'Edit Partitions' and 'Sector by sector clone'. Both are applicable to clone disk to larger disk, but they cannot exist at the same time. The previous one is to make full use of unallocated space after cloning while the latter is to clone all sectors of the disk including the blank sectors and bad sectors. But it's all your decision.
Conclusion
Change Windows From Retail To Oem
The OEM license key restriction has no effect on the same computer, so you can easily transfer OEM Windows 10 to new hard drive with a trust and reliable disk cloning software like AOMEI Backupper Standard, whether you want a bigger capacity or better performance. With the help of it, you can clone hard drive with different size, either larger or smaller. Also, you can maximize SSD performance with 4k technology. If you happen to have this need, why not give it a try right now?
