Windows 7: Downgrade from Ultimate to Professional without a clean install

touché

In that case, there's no need for us to give you a comprehensive solution.

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Please read Rule 4.

Wow... I am not using a pirated Ultimate! I am using my brother in law's CD and he already has used the product code for his laptop.

All I ask is for help so that I can LEGITIMATELY use Windows.

Now if somebody would like to help me achieve this goal, I would greatly appreciate it. I would like to get this thing working by next week as I will start the semester once again. I have been unable to downgrade to pro all of this time.

Understand that we are volunteers here and don't need to help anyone with complicated workarounds who is demanding or less than fully cooperative.

Now that you've answered that you used your brother-in-law's Ultimate DVD to reinstall but want to use a student MSDNAA Pro key to activate it without having to reinstall, save externally a backup image of Windows 7: Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup. Also backup your files separately.

Now set a System Restore Point - Create.

Type regedit in Start Search box, rightclick on result to Run as Admin, browse to the following two keys to change them to exactly how they appear in the screenshot below:

click to enlarge

Using the Pro installer from desktop, run a Repair Install.

Afterwards activate with your Windows 7 Pro Product key and save another backup image to use in place of future reinstalls.

So you are using pirated Ultimate!

Some users wrongly think that the 30 days you have to activate is a trial period, which seems to be the case here with OP installing Ultimate while he was waiting to get a student Pro version.

Since he has his legal MSDNAA student key now and only needs to change versions to activate, I am providing him with the workaround that has helped many here.

Isn't downloading an official version the same thing? The ability to try out a operating system for a brief period of time before purchasing a key? This is discussed in http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...-120-days.html, but maybe I misunderstood the licensing agreement... Mind explaining it to me, theog?

The title to http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...-120-days.html would be misleading that it is a trial period, as well...

Good point, writhziden.

That might explain why at the MS MVP Global Summit last year a member of the Windows 7 team specifically objected to our using that tutorial. Since the workaround therein is legal, perhaps the title is what irked him?

But I am basing my assumption that this is not a trial period on the literature MS put out after the Upgrade version Clean Install workaround was published on another website shortly after Windows 7 release. It was also stated clearly in Shawn's Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version tutorial at the time but I notice it has been removed now. In fact I am having a hard time finding now the warnings that were issued at the time that the 30 day grace period is not a Trial period, and some MS references are to an "Evaluation Period" - so what is the difference between that and a "Trial?"

Clarification needed.

Possibly. If it was the workaround that irked him, a simple solution would have been to prevent the workaround from succeeding. Although, I imagine Microsoft frowns on the four month trial period utilization since its four months that the OS is used without being paid for. I've never used more than a few days of the trial period anytime I have installed Windows 7 since I have purchased three valid keys for Home Premium.

I was just trying to understand why Microsoft is against lending their DVDs out, but they provide official download links for users to try out the OS.