Windows 10 Pro is downgrading to the Home version, but why?

If you ask anyone about their impression of Windows 10, among the answers, there is one which is very consistent – Windows 10 is extremely buggy. Windows XP and Windows 7 are still considered the most stable operating systems Microsoft has created, Windows 8 is at the other end of the scale, while Windows 10 is still dancing in between.  The concept of Windows 10 is the best we have seen, but what kills the operating system is its instability and buggy updates. Not very long ago, users complained that a new update has deleted lots of important data from their computers. Currently, we are here to talk about another update problem.

Many users have been complaining that they get a downgrade from Windows 10 Pro to Windows 10 Home after an update. So, we created this article to show you how to fix the Windows 10 Pro downgrading issue.

Here are some of the complaints by users:

Matt Wadley tweeted: “After updating to Insider Build 18277 my Windows 10 digital license became invalid. I don’t understand! I’ve always installed. Insider builds, and retail builds on this machine and never had an activation problem. No hardware changes, nothing has changed. I don’t know what to do.”

The first comment on Reddit about the Windows 10 Pro downgrading issue reads as follows “All of a sudden after years of having this key which was from windows 8 pro then migrated to Windows 10 for free, I got a notification saying my key is Windows 10 home version and that I need to install it.. wtf is going on?”

This problem may be occurring to many more people, but they do not know the difference between Windows 10 Pro and Windows 10 Home.

We are going to talk about the features of Windows 10 Pro which are absent in Windows 10 Home

• The first difference, apart from the price, is the amount of RAM which can be allocated to the version. On the Windows 10 Pro, it is 2 TB, while the Home edition has 128GB.
• Another feature that Windows 10 Pro has is Hyper-V, which allows you to run a virtual computer on Windows. The virtual computer allows you to run multiple versions of Windows or other operating systems which are isolated from the operating system installed on your PC. This can also be done by third-party software like VMware or VirtualBox, but with the Pro version, it is built-in. The virtual machine can be used for testing and developing software.
• The next feature is the Remote Desktop. Note that all versions of Windows support Remote Desktop in the sense that you can control other devices with it. However, only the Pro version and above can be controlled through a remote desktop. So, you could use a Windows 10 Home PC to control a Windows 10 Pro computer, but the reverse cannot be done. Again, there are other third-party apps that can allow you to do it.
• The next feature is something that the average person will use quite often, which is that the Windows 10 Pro version will allow you to delay updates. Windows 10 Home does not allow you to do so. The updates will be downloaded and installed automatically. The Windows 10 Pro version allows you to delay updates for up to a month or more. Unfortunate to say, but even though most of the Windows 10 users’ problems come from updates, it is never advisable to disable them completely. You should always try to keep Windows up to date, especially for security reasons. But if you are a professional who uses Windows 10, then it could be helpful to delay them, in case you are worried that the update will break something which is critical to your work. This is especially true for the major updates which Microsoft does twice a year like the 1809 update which deleted users’ files. So, it may be necessary to delay an update until it is stable.
• Another feature is Domain Join, which means that you can use the Windows 10 Pro version to connect to a domain. This allows your computer to be controlled by an administrator who sets policies of the domain you are connected to. There is also the Group Policy editor in Windows 10 Pro, which allows admins to mask control configuration on many different computers in a network.
• Another interesting feature with the Windows 10 Pro version is Assigned Access, which allows you to restrict a user from being able to use anything except one app. This could be good for use in a mall where you want only one app running on a PC and you don’t want people to access the Start menu.
• The Windows 10 Pro also allows you to use Windows Store for Business, which permits users to buy multiple licenses of an app. For example, if you have ten business computers, you do not have to buy the same app ten times. With this feature, you can buy an app and distribute it to all those computers through the Windows Apps Store for Business.

Now, if you are using Windows 10 Pro and the features mentioned above are no more available after an update, high chances are you are facing the downgrading problem.

On Microsoft’s forum, they acknowledged the fact that there is an issue with Windows 10 Pro and Windows 10 Enterprise activation. Also, users mentioned that they encountered the following message: “Error: you are running Windows 10 Pro, but you have valid digital license for Windows 10 Home” or error codes such as 0X803F8001 and 0xC004C003. Microsoft made mention of the fact that this issue will be resolved within 24 hours.

This problem can be fixed by running the activation troubleshooter. Many users confirmed that it had solved the problem for them, and Microsoft also announced that users should use it.

Here is how to run the activation troubleshooter:

• Press the Window logo key + I on your keyboard to open the Settings app.
• Click on Update and Security from the available options.
• Now, go to the Activation tab and select Troubleshoot.
• Windows will try to fix the problem.

If that does not work for you, you can still use your computer like that for the moment and wait for a fix from Microsoft. They have guaranteed that the issue will be fixed automatically within 24 hours.

Pro tip: During the course of using your computer, files accumulate and make your system slow

Also, you install third-party apps which come with additional software. These additional programs run in the background and make your computer sluggish. To fix this issue, we recommend that you download and install Auslogics BoostSpeed. This tool will delete all the junk files from your computer, creating more space in your hard drive and eliminating files which could be potential hosts for viruses. Also, it will disable all the unnecessary apps which are running in the background and draining your system’s resources.

We hope that this article has given you the information you need. Share it with others in need of such knowledge.

We appreciate your ideas and comments, and we are ready to answer all your questions regarding the above topic.