Downgrading from Enterprise to Home Premium

I recently purchased a used computer at a very low price. On it was an installation of Windows 7. All seemed to be fine. I cleared out all the old junk, cookies, registry etc. Now I get a window error saying the computer can not verify my copy of Windows Enterprise and I should check with my IT department. I am a single home user with Win7 Home Premium on my other pc. I spoke with a local computer store and they said it sounds like the previous owner put a "bootleg" copy of Win7 Enterprise on the hard drive. Can I downgrade the Illegal Enterprise edition to my legitimate copy of Win7 Home Premium Upgrade without losing all the programs and stuff I spent the last week installing on the new used pc?

I'm not sure if you can downgrade. You probably should have asked ahead of time, but Enterprise licenses (KMS versions) needs to check in with a server every 6 months to stay validated, or else they give the message you are encountering. Also, if you are not affiliated with the company or organization who purchased the Enterprise licenses, you weren't technically legit to use it anyway.

Now, if your copy of Home Premium is installed on another PC, you'll need a new license for this computer. If that's the case, I'd go get a copy of Home Premium OEM and do a clean install with it. Doing so won't take as long as you think, and you'll be much better off in the end.

aftommy said:

I recently purchased a used computer at a very low price. On it was an installation of Windows 7. All seemed to be fine. I cleared out all the old junk, cookies, registry etc. Now I get a window error saying the computer can not verify my copy of Windows Enterprise and I should check with my IT department. I am a single home user with Win7 Home Premium on my other pc. I spoke with a local computer store and they said it sounds like the previous owner put a "bootleg" copy of Win7 Enterprise on the hard drive. Can I downgrade the Illegal Enterprise edition to my legitimate copy of Win7 Home Premium Upgrade without losing all the programs and stuff I spent the last week installing on the new used pc?

I 'd contact manufacture to buy the recovery cd , properly around $20.00 ..
rather than buying a new license for OS .

If its got a COA sticker on it with an OEM product code on it, you might be able to use that and save yourself some money.