W7 Home Premium upgrade to Ultimate

sapat said:

Hubby has a brand new computer with Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit. But he needed a version of Win7 that would still let him run XP mode which this doesn't allow.

He bought a copy of Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit because the university book store doesn't carry the Win7 Professional.

Anyway, I am trying to install the Ultimate version of Windows for him, and it won't take the key. It keeps telling me to cancel out and go to the 'anytime upgrade'. I don't want to do that. I already have a purchased copy of Ultimate, I don't have any need for the anytime thing.

How can I get his computer to let me install the Ultimate so it overwrites the current version of Home Premium? It's a computer from HP, so it has things on it he doesn't need and will uninstall, but there's also things on it he would like to keep.

Why won't the computer take the key, and just let it install? If I try to do a customized install, then it says it's going to just install a 2nd copy of Win7 and leave the other one there, which is stupid.

Help please

I'm not sure that I understand what you've tried.

However, the least-effort way to go from Home Premium to Ultimate is through the Anytime Upgrade. The necessary components for the upgrade are already installed with Home Premium; the Anytime Upgrade simply turns them on.

I have never done it, but I have read numerous claims (including one or two in this thread) that you can use an upgrade key to activate the anytime upgrade. I'm not sure that a full version key would do the same, but I'd hope so.

Try using the Ultimate license key in the Anytime Upgrade. If it works at all, you'll have a regular Ultimate version in 10 minutes, and you won't need to use a DVD at all.

I hope that you have some way of backing up all critical files before trying this, though. Doing anything as major as an OS upgarde without having a backup is risky.

If you can't use the key to do an Anytime Upgrade, you could reformat the OS partition and install Win7 from scratch. That would require you to re-install every program, though, and it'd be a lot of work. If you are relying on any pre-installed software, it would be gone.

mikedl said:

Hi, sapat, welcome to the Seven Forums! :)

Why don't you want to perform the Anytime Upgrade? It is the easiest way and you'll lose none of your existing data or programs. You've already got Windows installed, just do the upgrade with the key you just purchased.

Thanks, didn't even know about these forums.

I tried it that way very first thing, and it wouldn't accept the key. Told me it was invalid...which it isn't. My husband purchased this from the university since he's on staff. It just doesn't come in a box, it comes in a little sleeve with the big yellow sticker on the front. So I don't know why it wouldn't take the key. Previous versions of Windows, Office, etc. that he's purchased through the university have had no problems installing at home so he can work from here.

bobkn said:

sapat said:

Hubby has a brand new computer with Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit. But he needed a version of Win7 that would still let him run XP mode which this doesn't allow.

He bought a copy of Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit because the university book store doesn't carry the Win7 Professional.

Anyway, I am trying to install the Ultimate version of Windows for him, and it won't take the key. It keeps telling me to cancel out and go to the 'anytime upgrade'. I don't want to do that. I already have a purchased copy of Ultimate, I don't have any need for the anytime thing.

How can I get his computer to let me install the Ultimate so it overwrites the current version of Home Premium? It's a computer from HP, so it has things on it he doesn't need and will uninstall, but there's also things on it he would like to keep.

Why won't the computer take the key, and just let it install? If I try to do a customized install, then it says it's going to just install a 2nd copy of Win7 and leave the other one there, which is stupid.

Help please

I'm not sure that I understand what you've tried.

However, the least-effort way to go from Home Premium to Ultimate is through the Anytime Upgrade. The necessary components for the upgrade are already installed with Home Premium; the Anytime Upgrade simply turns them on.

I have never done it, but I have read numerous claims (including one or two in this thread) that you can use an upgrade key to activate the anytime upgrade. I'm not sure that a full version key would do the same, but I'd hope so.

Try using the Ultimate license key in the Anytime Upgrade. If it works at all, you'll have a regular Ultimate version in 10 minutes, and you won't need to use a DVD at all.

I hope that you have some way of backing up all critical files before trying this, though. Doing anything as major as an OS upgarde without having a backup is risky.

If you can't use the key to do an Anytime Upgrade, you could reformat the OS partition and install Win7 from scratch. That would require you to re-install every program, though, and it'd be a lot of work. If you are relying on any pre-installed software, it would be gone.

Well, it's a brand new computer, so he hasn't installed anything on it yet. Yesterday I made the recovery discs, and then was trying to install the Ultimate upgrade. So he'd be losing all the HP 'branded' stuff I guess, but no programs thus far.

As I told someone else, the 'anytime upgrade' thing keeps telling me the key for the Ultimate is invalid. So it won't work. Perhaps as another said, since the version of Windows that's on his computer is OEM, maybe it's reacting differently to the upgrade???? Not sure, but it's seriously frustrating.

If I do put the Ultimate on a different partition, how does that work? Why would he want 2 different versions of Windows on the same computer?

He needs the XP mode which is why he bought the Ultimate. The Home Premium doesn't offer that option.

If you haven't installed any programs yet, do a clean install.

How to Do a Clean Installation with Windows 7

Thanks for the help everyone. I got the Ultimate installed finally. I just did a clean install since it was a full version and not an upgrade. Everything is working fine so far except the home network. We have the internet connection, and it says the wireless network is working (from the desktop to his laptop), but we still can't file share or see each other on the network. We also have to set up his VPN on the new box. Ugh....

I have upgraded my windows 7 home premium to windows 7 ultimate. I had noticed when I had premium that I was unable to use remote desktop. I found out that it only works with ultimate or professional. I was wondering if now that I upgraded if I could now use remote desktop? I have installed Teamviewer to be able to use remote desktop. But I would really like to be able to use the standard version that comes with windows 7 ultimate. If there is something I need to download now can I do it for free. If so what is the link please.
Also, I was wondering about any other cool things or anything that I might not know about windows 7 or that I might have to that I did not know in the upgrade. I do know about bitlocker. I have already got that working with a USB drive thanks to these forums. But if there is anything else that might be useful of cool to know that I may not know. Please inform me.

Hi all, I just did an upgrade from home premium to ultimate on a brand new HP laptop.

Since I did the upgrade I'm seeing what I believe to be some "undesirable" side effects. I've noticed that accessing shares in my domain (successfully added the PC to the domain and using a domain account logged into the PC) can be slow and flaky. I thought it was a bit odd, but wondered if my WiFi signal was a bit weak.

But now I just installed some updates from Windows Update and clicked to reboot. The PC has been sitting at the "Logging Off" screen for 10 minutes or more and the HDD light is flashing as if it is doing something.

If it was actually applying the updates, I'd expect the "Configuring updates" screen to be displayed.

Starting to wonder if I should blow the whole thing away and just load Ultimate from the bare metal. Just a bit concerned because sometimes they mess with the OEM versions and you can't get all of the drivers & etc. needed from the web site.

Advice and opinions welcomed!

The Win7 installer is nearly driver-complete, with newer quickly arriving via optional Windows Updates. Any drivers missing can then be imported from the HP Support Downloads webpage for your model along with some apps. Other apps can be extracted from the HP Recovery Disks: https://www.sevenforums.com/installat...tml#post488270

What you'll avoid is all of the HP bloatware and useless factory utilties which have better versions built into Win7, e.g. HP Wireless Manager which adds 30 seconds to startup. This bloatware is corruption itself, hampering Win7 from being the lightweight instantaneous OS it truly is. So a clean reinstall is actually better than getting a new computer!

Here are tips on clean reinstalling factory pre-install to get a purrfect install: re-install windows 7