Windows 10 Pro (Not activated) to Windows 10 Home

[pulledporkk]

I bought my PC in 2016 from a friend, and yesterday did a major hardware change, everything besides the SSDs and HDD. When I purchased the PC in 2016 it had an activated version of Windows 10 Pro. Now that I did the hardware change, I don’t have a digital license, or product key for customer service to activate my version of Windows.
I don’t have the product and neither does the friend I purchased it from... So I decided to buy the download version of Windows 10 Home from Microsoft’s store.

Would I need to reinstall all my programs, or reformat my SSD for the switch from Windows 10 Pro (not activated) to Windows 10 Home?
And since I already have Windows 10 Pro files, would it be best to do clean install and wipe the drive that windows is on, or will downloading Windows 10 Home remove the files it won’t be using?

This question is lengthy and I hope I described it clearly.

 

[USAFRet]

Yes, you'll need to do a whole new OS install, along with everything else.

Clean install instructions here: http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-3567655/clean-installation-windows.html

 

[pulledporkk]

Yes, you'll need to do a whole new OS install, along with everything else.

Clean install instructions here: http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-3567655/clean-installation-windows.html

Thanks for replying! I got it figured out by using the Windows media creation tool, and changed the registry data too. I was able to technically downgrade from an inactivated Windows 10 Pro version to Windows 10 Home (activated with key,) without having to do a clean install.

 

[volkgren]

I know I did that with 2 different version of Windows 10 Home, but I wasn't sure if it would work with Pro to Home. Glad you got it figured out