Windows 7 Home Premium to Pro upgrade

wightwalker · 12 Nov 2014

I have Windows 7 Home Premium 64 & bought the Windows Anytime Upgrade to Windows 7 Pro which upgrades to Windows 7 Pro.

When I rebuild the HD it's a tad laborious to have to install Home Premium, then upgrade to Pro.

ISO images of Windows 7 Pro are available for download from Microsoft which allow Windows 7 Pro to be installed as a clean build but the key for the Windows Anytime Upgrade to Windows 7 Pro does not work as it's intended for upgrade only.

Is there any way around having to install Home Premium 1st then upgrade to Pro which would allow me to install from the Pro ISO download (converted into a boot DVD/USB) using the HP to Pro upgrade key?

Obviously my upgrade to Pro from Home Premium if different from buying an XP/Vista to Windows 7 upgrade, so that's probably why the registry hacks/rearms workarounds haven't worked.

If I decide to upgrade to Windows 10, I hate to be in a situation during a re-build where I'd have to install of 7 HP to Pro, then to 10.

Kaktussoft · 12 Nov 2014

Why do you want to reinstall?
Windows Anytime Upgrade is actually a few clicks and done in a few minutes.
What's the problem?

wightwalker · 12 Nov 2014

Kaktussoft said:

Why do you want to reinstall?
Windows Anytime Upgrade is actually a few clicks and done in a few minutes.
What's the problem?

I've never found it as easy as just 'a few clicks' requiring several attempts to complete successfully.

The need to reinstall is when updating to a new HD or SSD - cloning has never worked that successfully with the cloned HD have the same drive identity as the disk being cloned.

It would be just nice to be able to do a Pro install using the legal key that I have.

Kaktussoft · 12 Nov 2014

wightwalker said:

The need to reinstall is when updating to a new HD or SSD - cloning has never worked that successfully with the cloned HD have the same drive identity as the disk being cloned.

Good cloning software makes an exact copy. Two drives with same "drive identity" are not allowed so... it makes a copy with another "drive identity" and adjusts bootmenu and registry (for drive lettering) accordingly.

Detach the source of the clone from the system after cloning.
Reboot from clone (so without clone source attached).
Attach clone source to system and boot again from clone copy.
To be 100% sure ... check disk management what is C and what is flagged "system". And other drive lettering.

That must work in 99% of cases.

You can change the drive identity very easy btw. In diskpart do:
To display the signature of the MBR disk with focus, type:
uniqueid disk

To set the signature of the MBR disk with focus to 5f1b2c36, type:
uniqueid disk id=5f1b2c36

To set the identifier of the GPT disk with focus to baf784e7-6bbd-4cfb-aaac-e86c96e166ee, type:
uniqueid disk id=baf784e7-6bbd-4cfb-aaac-e86c96e166ee

wightwalker · 12 Nov 2014

Thanks, I had managed to resolve the HD identity problem.

Would still like to able to do a Windows 7 Pro build; just wish I hadn't bought the upgrade (it wasn't cheap at £70)

Kaktussoft · 12 Nov 2014

wightwalker said:

Thanks, I had managed to resolve the HD identity problem.

Would still like to able to do a Windows 7 Pro build; just wish I hadn't bought the upgrade (it wasn't cheap at £70)

Can't help you with that. But upgrading from HP to professional is very easy and fast. Windows Anytime Upgrade - How to