Win 1o Pro reset itself to Enterprise

Here’s a new one. I reset my Win 10 Pro install last night, chose the ‘clean sheet’ option of not retaining files and settings—and when the reset completed, I found a fresh install of Win 10 Enterprise rather than Pro. Took a minute to digest it….

Of course now I get nags to activate it, which I cannot do since I do not have an Enterprise product key. Last night I could at least access the Activation window in Settings. Today I can’t even do that; Activation is blank.

I searched for ways to downgrade back to Pro, but it seems you first need to activate Enterprise—which I cannot do. Any ideas or suggestions? Anyone hear of this happening before? (I found one post that told a similar story, but that guy did a clean install rather than try to fix it.)

Both the Pro install and the Enterprise re-set are 1803.

If the only answer is a clean install I am seriously thinking of Win 7. Fun times.

Conversation 6 comments

  • scoop

    30 May, 2018 - 11:43 am

    <p>I tried to edit the thread title to 10 rather than 1o, but it seems the edit function only works for the text of the post. Not my best day in cyber-land.</p>

  • lvthunder

    Premium Member
    30 May, 2018 - 11:47 am

    <p>If you did the option of not retaining files just do a clean install. It's not like you are losing anything. Even though it's not your preferred choice for some reason I bet you'll waste more time looking for the answer then it would take to clean install. As for me I would never go back to Windows 7.</p>

    • scoop

      30 May, 2018 - 12:23 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#279450"><em>In reply to lvthunder:</em></a></blockquote><p>Actually, even with the "do not retain files and settings" option, there was still a Windows.old folder with the old data and program files, etc. I think a clean install will be the only answer, but I worry that if I try that I will end up with Enterprise again. As for 7 vs, 10: For a normal user on a non-touch desktop or laptop I could argue either side. Each has pluses and the opposite. But that's a whole 'nother subject. </p>

  • Lauren Glenn

    30 May, 2018 - 8:30 pm

    <p>Clean install of Windows 10 is not really a big deal though. Especially if you just did it last night. You could boot from an ISO on a USB stick created with Rufus formatted as GPT (or if your drives are MBR, I guess). Install it as a fresh install and choose Win 10 Pro. When it boots up, it should automatically activate it. At least you didn't install all your programs again or do an upgrade.</p>

  • scoop

    31 May, 2018 - 12:21 am

    <p>Re-installed Win 10 again tonight, back to Pro, all is well. But this was a strange one.</p>

  • epguy40

    01 June, 2018 - 1:37 pm

    <p>do you have the correct Win10 ISO image or media when re-installing Win10, scoop?</p>

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Thurrott © 2024 Thurrott LLC