Upgrade Home Premium to Enterprise

Hello,

I the tech person for a university. We purchased the following Laptops with the following specs. Both are brand new.

Dell Inspiron 1545
Windows 7 Home Premium
Processor Pentium Dual Core T4400 2.20 Ghz
4GB RAM
x64-based PC
266 BG Storage

Here is a link on the Dell website to all of the specs.

Dell System Information / Dell Warranty Extensions & Upgrades / Dell Warranty Status

In case it prompts for the Service Tag = 31563K1

The university has a site lic for Windows 7 Enterprise (both 32 bit and 64 bit). Can I upgrade the operating system or do I have to reformat?

Thanks.

Ken

Windows 7 Upgrade Paths - FAQ

Good information, but I didnt see the Enterprise version addresses. Unless, the Business version is the Enterprise version of Windows 7?

justken6265 said:

Good information, but I didnt see the Enterprise version addresses. Unless, the Business version is the Enterprise version of Windows 7?

Yes, Enterprise is the Bussiness version of Uitmate.

Just a couple of points.

1) Upgrading from one version of win7 to a higher version requires an Anytime Upgrade key, which is not the same as your regular key.

2) Enterprise version and Ultimate version have identical features but they are NOT identical versions. So, as you would have already seen from the link Theog posted, a Home premium upgrade to Ultimate is possible but not to Enterprise. The reason is Enterprise is only sold via a Volume License agreement and a local activation server.

To switch to the university's Enterprise license, you would need to do a clean install. So, back up your data and image your existing windows (since you have paid for them and may want to revert to them at a future date), then clean install Enterprise.

Sounds like a plan. Thank you all for the information.

Ken

Bill2 said:

Just a couple of points.

1) Upgrading from one version of win7 to a higher version requires an Anytime Upgrade key, which is not the same as your regular key.

2) Enterprise version and Ultimate version have identical features but they are NOT identical versions. So, as you would have already seen from the link Theog posted, a Home premium upgrade to Ultimate is possible but not to Enterprise. The reason is Enterprise is only sold via a Volume License agreement and a local activation server.

To switch to the university's Enterprise license, you would need to do a clean install. So, back up your data and image your existing windows (since you have paid for them and may want to revert to them at a future date), then clean install Enterprise.

Hi Bill2,
Not to be contradictory to your excellent response but I'd like to add my experience with upgrading Windows 7 from one version to another.

I purchased an Alienware M17x which had Windows 7 Home 64 and I also have a DELL XPS Gen1 which I did a clean installation of Windows 7 Professional 32. My desktop came with Vista Home 64 and was later replaced due to issues but the Windows 7 was on my SSD which was not returned since it did not come with the PC.

I purchased a Vista to Windows 7 Professional 64 upgrade disk and when I went to upgrade I chose the Anytime Upgrade and when prompted for the key I inserted the key from the DVD and within 6 minutes the M17x had Windows 7 64 Professional.

Once I saw it was that easy I purchased a Vista to Windows 7 64 Ultimate upgrade for my desktop and did the same thing.

In neither case was it a clean installation Windows simply went to the Microsoft server and downloaded the latest updates it needed and when the system rebooted it was upgrade.

I've been able to do the anytime upgrade as well. I had two Professional licenses that were going unused. My wife's laptop was running Windows 7 Home Premium, and since we were going to start using a domain at home (both in IT, so learning for both of us), I popped in one of the Pro keys and it took the upgrade with only a reboot.

fishnbanjo said:

Bill2 said:

Just a couple of points.

1) Upgrading from one version of win7 to a higher version requires an Anytime Upgrade key, which is not the same as your regular key.

2) Enterprise version and Ultimate version have identical features but they are NOT identical versions. So, as you would have already seen from the link Theog posted, a Home premium upgrade to Ultimate is possible but not to Enterprise. The reason is Enterprise is only sold via a Volume License agreement and a local activation server.

To switch to the university's Enterprise license, you would need to do a clean install. So, back up your data and image your existing windows (since you have paid for them and may want to revert to them at a future date), then clean install Enterprise.

Hi Bill2,
Not to be contradictory to your excellent response but I'd like to add my experience with upgrading Windows 7 from one version to another.

I purchased an Alienware M17x which had Windows 7 Home 64 and I also have a DELL XPS Gen1 which I did a clean installation of Windows 7 Professional 32. My desktop came with Vista Home 64 and was later replaced due to issues but the Windows 7 was on my SSD which was not returned since it did not come with the PC.

I purchased a Vista to Windows 7 Professional 64 upgrade disk and when I went to upgrade I chose the Anytime Upgrade and when prompted for the key I inserted the key from the DVD and within 6 minutes the M17x had Windows 7 64 Professional.

Once I saw it was that easy I purchased a Vista to Windows 7 64 Ultimate upgrade for my desktop and did the same thing.

In neither case was it a clean installation Windows simply went to the Microsoft server and downloaded the latest updates it needed and when the system rebooted it was upgrade.

I'm glad your experience has been positive with WAU. From what i have seen on this forum and others over a period of time, the regular key doesnt always work with WAU. Logically speaking, thats absurd since a full price license should be able to do ANYTHING.

In this case of course, theres no question of any kind of upgrade.

Bill is correct: mixed reports on whether retail key will always work in an Anytime Upgrade.

But as he points out the licensing scheme is separate under Enterprise anyway, so a retail key (including Anytime) will not work, only a volume license key.

Nor will the popular workaround to fool installer into thinking it is doing a Repair Install (upgrade over itself) by changing two registry keys to reflect same version. Even if it worked, it will not activate without volume license.