Using The Command Line To Upgrade Windows Edition

There may come a time when you need to upgrade the edition of Microsoft Windows you are using. Typically you need to do do this to access more memory, say greater than 32GB of Ram, or access advanced Enterprise features of the operating system. In the past you would need to do a full re-install of the operating system. Thankfully things have changed and it's now as easy as running an command to upgrade the edition of Windows.

Note: All of the commands below need to be run from an administrative command prompt. 

Note: After upgrading Microsoft Windows to a different edition you will need to re-activate Windows.

To confirm the edition of Microsoft Windows you are currently running use the following command:

DISM /online /Get-CurrentEdition

This will return output similar to the following:

Current Edition : ServerStandard

To determine what editions of Microsoft Windows you can upgrade to run the following command:

DISM /online /Get-TargetEditions

This will typically return multiple lines depending upon the number of editions available for upgrade. The results will be similar to the results shown below:

Target Edition : ServerEnterprise

Target Edition : ServerDataCenter

Now you can upgrade the edition using the command below. You need to enter the target edition from one of the target editions determined above. You will also need a valid product key for the edition you are upgrading to.

DISM /online /Set-Edition:<Edition> /ProductKey:<XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX>

Finally you will need to reboot Microsoft Windows for the changes to take affect. On restart boot screen Windows will continue with the upgrade process. This may take some time depending on your hardware.