Upgrading to an Enterprise License in SharePoint 20XX

In SharePoint 2010, 2013, and 2016 – you at some point may need to upgrade from a Standard License to an Enterprise license. There are too many reasons to list here…

At first, it seems pretty straight forward… go into Central Administration > Upgrade and Migration > Convert farm license type

You can see your current license… however, both the input box, as well as the OK button are disabled.

Seems like this would be the place to do it, right? Yeah, I don’t get it either. In any event, the proper way to do this, is to click on Enable Enterprise Features under Upgrade and Migration

Click on Enterprise

and enter in your Product Key and click OK.

NOTE: You cannot undo this, so make sure that you want to use an Enterprise key and absorb the associated cost of CALs!