Force installation of Pro, Enterprise or other editions of Windows from 24H2 onwards

Question

In a system with an Original Equipment Manufacturer license tied to the motherboard, it's not possible to freely choose what edition of Windows to install.

Changing from say, Windows 11 Home Single Language to something as a purchased Windows 11 Pro edition, used to be possible by adding some files to the installer Pen Drive or media.

Starting with 24H2 version of Windows 11, ei.cfg and PID.txt files seem to get ignored and using them is no longer a working solution to choose different Windows editions freely during the installation process.

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 10 '24 at 22:25

Using a Windows install automation tool such as Ventoy does the trick, allowing selection of whichever Windows edition to install by specifying the appropriate generic license key.

Instructions for the procedure I did:

Download the desired Windows ISO
(most editions come included in the same ISO by default)
Connect an ≥8GB USB drive to the PC and backup its contents
(Ventoy will format it, erasing all contents)

Download Ventoy:

Run: Ventoy2Disk.exe → Select: USB drive from the dropdown menu → Install
Drop downloaded Windows .iso inside USB drive named Ventoy

Within the directory the .iso was dropped:

Create file script.xml with a text editor containing:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
  <settings pass="windowsPE">
    <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
      <UserData>
        <AcceptEula>true</AcceptEula>
        <ProductKey>
          <Key>VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T</Key>
        </ProductKey>
      </UserData>
    </component>
  </settings>
</unattend>

Replace with a generic key of the Windows edition to install:
(Generic keys force the install of their Windows edition, but won't activate)

# Generic key: Windows 11 Pro
  VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T

Create folder ventoy → Within it, create file ventoy.json containing:

{
  "auto_install":[
    {
      "image": "/Windows11_InsiderPreview_Client_x64_en-us_26100.iso",
      "template":[
        "/script.xml"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Replace with name of the Windows .iso:

Windows11_InsiderPreview_Client_x64_en-us_26100.iso

Boot the USB drive
(the edition selection will be skipped according to the generic key chosen in Step 3.3.1)

Extra tips:

Remember to save files as .xml, .json, etc., as a file saved as text file script.xml will end up being text file script.xml.txt
Running VentoyPlugson.exe gives you a GUI to easily create and customize a ventoy.json with the preferred options

Force installation of Pro, Enterprise or other editions of Windows from 24H2 onwards

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