Can one go from a pirated Windows 10 Pro OS, to a legitimate Windows 10 Home OS on the same drive without wiping clean?

[Dirty_Sprite]

My friend has a pirated Windows 10 Pro on his 256GB SSD, he's building a new PC and wants to know if he can go from that to legit Windows 10 Home without wiping the drive completely and reinstalling clean because that would mean that his steam games would need to be reinstalled (100 games) it's a long story but steam glitches out and won't recognize the games and forces you to reinstall sometimes.

He wants to upgrade to legit version anyway regardless of steam issues, but even if wiping is necessary, how does one go about that? Will the SSD need to be connected to another PC and then wiped from the desktop of that PC using a program? He can't use his old PC for that, because he's taking parts from it and putting it in the new PC, so the old one won't even turn on.

 

[BringerOfTea]

I remember back when I sported a non legitversion of windows 7, the upgrade to win 8.1 had to involve a complete wipe... I doubt that it is possible...

 

[smorizio]

he cant go from pro to home. he has to use a pro oem code. you can go from home to pro with a new key. his best bet is to move the stream folder to a usb stick or another hard drive. then wipe the ssd and reinstall windows. if he has to get the new pc to boot to move stuff. boot into safe mode and remove all of the older drivers. then move software and see if windows boot normal.

 

[guanyu210379]

Theoretically possible with tricks but not recommended.
Yu do not really know how the "crack" really works.
Illegal softwares are using cracks. Cracks are not to be trusted and could also working as a virus or malware or spyware at the same time.
I would not recommend you to simply upgrade your Windows from illegal to legal without fresh install.
If this is confusing you, I will simplify by saying...it is impossible.
Just install your legal copy from scratch!

BTW, I missed the one from pro to home...you must install everything from scratch! There is no other way

If you just want to save games from Steam, there is a way so that you do not have to download all of those games all over again.
Please ask in Steam's forum.
hint:
- copy your entire steam folder somewhere else before you re-install Windows, your games go there by default.
- you can teach Steam, where your games are.

After you copied important stuffs somewhere, you can re-install Windows from scratch. IT is best to re-install or install the legal copy on the PC+SSD, which you want to use (license related reasons). Just boot to the media (DVD or USB pen drive), just follow the instruction. You can google or search in youtube, there are tons of tutorials to install Windows from scratch.

 

[atomicWAR]

This topic is pushing the edge on Tom's terms of use. We cannot help with pirated software. Your friend needs a legit copy. Regardless i would encourage him to do a fresh install of windows. No telling what the pirated version may have loaded on his system. If just expired trial...well doesn't change the fact he is trying to down grade from Pro to Home. Still need a fresh install.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Asking how to go legit is OK.

 

[atomicWAR]

So yeah going with a Thumb drive or separate HDD/SSD and save his steam folder their. When he re-loads windows install steam, when it is done he can copy and paste his files back into the folder. He may have to re-install but he should avoid re-downloading them.