Revert back to Home Premium from Professional

I performed an Anytime Upgrade to Professional from Home Premium because I wanted to use XP Mode. But the XP Mode, which was the only reason I wanted the Upgrade, won't work on my computer as it doesn't support virtualization.

Am I stuck with having to activate Professional or can I revert back to Home Premium?

My Home Premium is a full retail version which I had activated prior to the Anytime Upgrade to Professional.

Hello Hopsteiner, welcome to Seven Forums!



If you entered the 'upgrade' key when you ran the upgrade to Pro I believe that nullifies the previous key making it no longer possible to use to activate Windows.

There is a way to go back to Home Premium without reinstalling.
UNAWAVE - Downgrade Ultimate to Home Premium or Professional
I used this method to go back to Home Premium from Ultimate. I think there is a tutorial on this, on this site, but I couldn't find it. If you have already activated with your anytime upgrade key it may be tied to that PC. If you can't reuse it on another PC I wouldn't bother trying to go back to Home Premium.

Why do you need to downgrade anyways? Professional has everything Home Premium does and more. You paid for the upgrade you might as well keep and use it.

Why revert back to Home Premium?

Because it does everything I need except for the XP issue and I would like to save the upgrade for a new computer that is virtualization capable. Some may call me cheap but I prefer the term frugal. Why waste the upgrade on a computer that can't utilize all of the features of the Professional version? As I said I'm not cheap, but?????


EDIT: My computer is becoming very insistent about the need to activate Professional. If I don't and the OS would default automatically back to the last activated OS I would be as happy as a tornado in a mobile home park. Gotta run. County Superior Court jury duty won't wait.

These are retail keys which can migrate for life. No key is invalidated when an Upgrade is done over it's installation - it is only made unavailable for use under the EULA while it is acting as qualifier for Upgrade version.

To revert from Pro back to HP, use the workaround suggested by Alphnumeric by which many beta testers migrated to their paid version of Win7.

By changing the two Registry Keys show below to exactly HOMEPREMIUM for the EditionID, and Windows 7 HOMEPREMIUM for the ProductName, it tricks the installer into doing an always-allowed http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html?ltr=R which is an in-place Upgrade:


Then run the HomePremium DVD from the desktop, agree to remain connected to internet to get latest drivers and Updates into installer, resolve any issues given, select Upgrade install.

Afterwards you'll need to reactivate using Home Premium key at Computer>Properties which may require a robocall to update the hardware profile. Your Pro Anytime Upgrade key is then free to migrate.

Hopsteiner said:

Why revert back to Home Premium?

Because it does everything I need except for the XP issue and I would like to save the upgrade for a new computer that is virtualization capable. Some may call me cheap but I prefer the term frugal. Why waste the upgrade on a computer that can't utilize all of the features of the Professional version? As I said I'm not cheap, but?????


EDIT: My computer is becoming very insistent about the need to activate Professional. If I don't and the OS would default automatically back to the last activated OS I would be as happy as a tornado in a mobile home park. Gotta run. County Superior Court jury duty won't wait.

Click to expand...

If you haven't activated yet you shouldn't have any problem using that any time upgrade product code on another PC. I wouldn't think it would be so easy once activated. The work around works well, I didn't have to reinstall any of my previously installed programs. All I had to do was hit windows update again to reapply all the updates.

Playing in and with the registry, if you don't know what you are doing, is not a good thing.
It is not a good place to experiment. As a result I don't and haven't so I am a complete
novice at this project. I opened Registry Edit and couldn't get a display anything like
shown on UNAWAVE or as shown by gregrocker's screen shot.

I opened regedit and clicked on Computer which produced these drop down options:


Next I clicked on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE which produced these options:


From these I selected SOFTWARE which gave a list of all software on the machine:


As there was only one Windows type option I clicked on it then the options that followed
(CurrentVersion, then Explorer, then Browser Helper Objects). The right side of the page
remained blank unless I clicked on the words directly. It made no difference which of the
words (other than Computer which had no effect). They all produced the same response
on the screen's right side. And when I clicked on Default nothing happened.







So here are my next questions:
“Where is Windows NT hiding?” or most importantly
“How do I get to a place where I can edit the registry keys?”


HELP! Further guidance is needed.




After a few hours sleep my brain is starting to function a bit more. It dawned on me,
I should be looking for hidden files. So did a search of the Help files and followed that advice.
I went to Folder Options>View and under Advanced Settings:
clicked Show hidden files, folders, and drives.
I also deselected the Hide extensions for known file types and the
Hide protected operating system files buttons.
Pressed the Apply button then the OK button. I even restarted the computer.
Then back into RegEdit.... No Change, still no Windows NT.
Everything just the same as before. Things are getting desperate.
I don't have very much hair on my head to pull out.


Is the fact that the computer is now operating with reduced functionality
having an effect on all this?

You missed Microsoft and jumped to Windows.

Before proceeding set a http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/697-system-restore-point-create.html?ltr=S and back up your files.

Take your time and ask back any questions. It is a great learning experience.

Remember the changes have to appear exactly as typed.

You can still run XP Mode on systems that don't support hardware virtualization.....

Download and run the Hardware-Assisted Virtualization Detection Tool

• If you receive the message “This computer does not have hardware-assisted virtualization,” your computer does not meet the hardware requirement for Windows Virtual PC, but you can still use Windows 7 XP Mode by running this hotfix. Be aware that XP Mode will run much better if hardware-assisted virtualization can be enabled.

Click to expand...

More info here - Windows Virtual PC: Configure BIOS

How well it works??? I can't say.

Hello again.



If you're going to fool with the Windows registry and you don't know how; please do yourself a favor and export a back-up of the registry in conjunction with (also) creating a system restore point; you may just be glad you did.

Editing the registry is not something that should be suggested to casual users in the first place.

How to Backup and Restore the Windows 7 Registry

OP is attempting to change versions as a last resort before clean reinstalling.

As long as files are backed up he has nothing to lose.

Honestly you should just leave it alone....Do you even have a second computer to put Professional on at this time? If not maybe you should just leave things as they are. Less trouble and less chance of screwing your only computer.

First the good news. Many thanks for the patient and helpful advice from Alphanumeric and Gregrocker in telling me that there is a way to do what I desired... and further thanks to Gregrocker for pointing out where I deviated from the trail that was shown in his screen shot but I was too impatient to follow to the finish. The registry has been successfully modified.

Now for the bad news. The repair install to do the upgrade to Home Premium from Professional freezes at a point when the end is in sight. It is so close I can almost taste it and feel it in my hand. The freeze occurs during the Transferring Files, Settings, and Programs portion. The display is at 72% of completion. But that figure is misleading. It is actually at 99.9729+%! There are only 77 items left to transfer. This first pass at the install was with all the recommended settings for the install in place including the internet. Then I tried a second time. Everything the same except no internet for this attempt. Except for the total number of items to be transfered being a few less the result was the same. Another freeze with only 77 items to go.

Now I am off to do more studying and research on the forum for ideas for the cure to this problem.

Hopefully it rolled back. The last entry in any of the following logs should give you a clue as to what is hanging:
C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\Panther\setuperr.log
C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\Panther\setupact.log
C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\Panther\miglog.xml
C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\Panther\setupapi\setupapi.dev.log
C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\Panther\setupapi\setupapi.app.log
C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\Panther\PreGatherPnPList.log
C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\Panther\PostGatherPnPList.log

None of this is a good omen for a perfect in-place Upgrade. Best to wipe the HD and start fresh.

Are you ready to clean reinstall? http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/125874-re-install-windows-7-a.html#post1086729

The saga continues in a new thread Repair Install Freezes at 72%

Woah...this wasn't necessary.

You could have just run XP Mode (which you are licensed for) under VMWare Player (which is also free), without having to have hardware assisted virtualization;
Run XP Mode on Windows 7 Machines Without Hardware Virtualization - How-To Geek

Edit: And didn't MS remove the hardware assisted virtualization require quite a number of months ago
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft...irtualization-barrier-to-running-xp-mode/5607