How To Select Windows 11 Home Or Pro Edition During Installation

There are two ways to download Windows 11 ISO image files from Microsoft. One can either use the official Media Creation Tool or download the Windows 11 ISO within the web browser.

As you might have discovered by now, none of these methods allow you to download a specific edition. For instance, Microsoft does not allow you to download only the Home or Pro edition of Windows 11. Instead, the ISO that you download from Microsoft servers (by using the official methods) includes all editions of Windows 11.

In short, it’s not possible to download only Home, Pro, or any other edition of Windows 11.

When installing Windows 11 on a computer, the setup automatically installs and activates the edition whose key/activation is found on the computer. For instance, if Windows 11 Home edition was previously activated on the same computer, the setup automatically installs and activates the Home edition. Similarly, if the Pro edition license is found in the BIOS/UEFI, the exact edition will be installed and activated.

Luckily, if you want to install a specific edition of Windows 11, there is a workaround. All you need to do is copy and paste a small file in the Windows 11 bootable media. Here is how to do that.

Select Windows 11 edition while installing from USB

In this method, we place a tiny file called ei.cfg file to the bootable media to force Windows 11 setup to display to the edition selection screen.

NOTE: In addition to Windows 11, this method can be used to select an edition while installing Windows 10 as well.

Step 1: Create a bootable USB of Windows 11 with any tool or any method. You can use the official Media Creation Tool or any third-party tool like Rufus to prepare the bootable USB.

Step 2: Once the Windows 11 bootable USB is ready, click here to download the ZIP file containing the ei.cfg file. Extract the ZIP file (right-click on it and then click Extract All) to get a folder called ei.cfg. Click on the folder to get the ei.cfg file.

If you are wondering what this ei.cfg file contains, look at the following picture. Nothing more. In fact, you can open the downloaded ei.cfg file to view the same.

Step 3: Open up the bootable USB drive. To do that, double click on the bootable USB drive in This PC. Next, double-click on the Sources folder located at the root of the bootable USB to open the same.

Step 4: Lastly, copy and paste the downloaded ei.cfg file (and not the ZIP file) to the Sources folder. That’s all!

You can now start installing Windows 11 from this bootable USB. The setup will display the following screen where you can select the Windows 11 edition that you want to install.

Select Windows 11 edition while installing from Windows 11 ISO

If you are installing Windows 11 right from the ISO file or want to prepare the Windows 11 bootable DVD, you need to add a file called ei.cfg to the Sources folder in the ISO image file. Here is how to do that.

Step 1: First of all, create a new folder anywhere on your PC (for example, Desktop).

Step 2: Extract the Windows 11 ISO image to this newly created folder. You can use any software for this job. However, we prefer the free 7-Zip software.

To extract, right-click on the ISO file, click More Options, click 7-Zip, and then click Extract files option. Next, select the newly created folder as the location and save the extracted files in that folder.

Step 3: Once the files are extracted, open up the folder containing the files extracted from the ISO and then navigate to the Sources folder.

Step 4: Now, download this ZIP file and extract the same to the Desktop or any location to get the ei.cfg file.

Step 5: Copy and paste the ei.cfg file to the Sources folder (present in the folder containing extracted files from the ISO image).

Step 6: Finally, refer to our how to prepare Windows ISO image from files/folders guide to prepare the Windows 11 ISO image.

The new ISO image can then be burnt to a USB/DVD to prepare the bootable media. The ISO can also be used to install Windows 11 without bootable media.

Select Windows 11 edition while installing from DVD

If you prefer installing Windows 11 from a bootable DVD, please complete the directions given below.

Step 1: First of all, prepare the bootable Windows 11 ISO containing the ei.cfg file. Refer to the directions mentioned above to include the ei.cfg file in the ISO image file.

Step 2: Next, use any software to burn the ISO to DVD. That’s it!