Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version

How to Do a Clean Install with an Upgrade Windows 7 Version​

   Information

This will show you how to do a Clean Install using a retail Upgrade Windows 7 installation disc.

   Warning

Remember that you need to legally own a valid qualifying previous version of Windows to use a Upgrade Windows 7, and to stop using (or uninstall) the qualifying OS while you have the upgrade installed. Microsoft only made doing a clean install from a upgrade Windows 7 possible to make it more convenient so you do not have to reinstall both the old Windows version (ex: Vista) and upgrade to Windows 7 everytime you needed or wanted to reinstall.

If you do not legally own a valid qualifying previous version of Windows, then you are violating the terms of Microsoft's Windows 7 End User License Agreement and could get your product key number invalidated by Microsoft. Plus, it is considered illegal.

For more about this, please see: Microsoft SMB Community Blog : Regardless of what any hack says, a Windows 7 Upgrade is an Upgrade. What you need to know.

OPTION ONE

A Normal Clean Install

1. Do a clean install at boot without checking the Automatically activate Windows when I'm online box during the installation process.

2. When the installation is finished, then manually activate Windows 7 with your product key number.

3. If your Windows should fail to activate, then pick up at step 2 in OPTION THREE below.

OPTION TWO

Through a Custom Install

   Note

This option will let you do a clean install of Windows 7 without formating the current Windows installation to have your current Windows installation backed up to the Windows.old folder during the installation of your retail upgrade Windows 7. This way you can copy any files back that you want from the C:\Windows.old folder (previous installation) back into your new installation afterwards.

1. Do a custom install at boot or from within your current Windows installation without checking the Automatically activate Windows when I'm online box during the installation process.

2. When the installation is finished, then manually activate Windows 7 with your product key number.

3. Copy any files that you want back from the C:\Windows.old folder into where you want it in you new installation.

4. You can now delete the Windows.old folder using Disk Cleanup to have a clean install now.

OPTION THREE

Clean Install with a Registry Workaround for Error Code 0xc004f061

   Note

If you get a activation error code 0xc004f061 while doing OPTION ONE or OPTION TWO above, then you will need to use this option instead

1. Do a clean install of your upgrade Windows 7 at boot without checking the Automatically activate Windows when I'm online box during the installation process.
NOTE: If you already did this from OPTION ONE above and got a activation error, then skip this step and just proceed to step 2 below instead. There's no need to reinstall again.

2. Click on the Download button below to download the .bat file below, and save it to your desktop.
Activate_Windows_Upgrade_after_Clean_Install.bat


Download


3. Right click on the downloaded .bat file, and click on Run as administrator.

4. If prompted, click/tap on Run and Yes (UAC).
NOTE: If you like, you can stop getting the Run prompt by unblocking the downloaded .bat file.

5. You will now notice a command prompt quickly open and close while applying the changes to your registry.

6. Click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

7. Restart the computer.

8. When the computer is finished restarting, then manually activate Windows 7 with your product key number.

OPTION FOUR

Double Installing Windows 7

   Note

This option is the same that was used to do a clean install of an upgrade copy of Windows 7. It's more work, but if the options above did not work for you, then this should since this is the most reliable option.

1. Do a clean install of your upgrade Windows 7 at boot without checking the Automatically activate Windows when I'm online box during the installation process, and do not activate Windows 7. When finished with the clean install, do not or install any Windows Updates, drivers, or programs yet.

2. When finished with the clean install, start at step 4 at this link to do an in-place "upgrade" install with your upgrade Windows 7 installation disk from within the just now finished clean install of Windows 7.

3. When the in-place upgrade installation is completely finished, then manually activate Windows 7 with your product key number. You can now also install any Windows Updates drivers, and programs you like.
That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Do a Upgrade Installation with Windows 7
• How to Do a Clean Installation with Windows 7
• How to Do a Custom Installation of Windows 7
• How to Create a Windows 7 Installation USB Key
• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/30470-make-bootable-iso-student-d-l.html
• How to Partition the Hard Drive in a Windows 7 Install
• How to Install Windows 7 on Computer with Less than 512MB RAM
• How to Install Windows 7 Using "Unified Extensible Firmware Interface" (UEFI)

 

[Xiigen]

Hello Xiigen,

It depends on what you change in the registry, but yes it's possible to completely hose Windows by messing something up in the registry. If you are referring to the .bat file in the tutorial, then it's completely safe to use as intended.

If you get a full version of Windows 7, then yes you will only need to do a normal clean install instead of the process in this tutorial to clean install an upgrade version of Windows 7.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

What I mean is, after using the upgrade key, will it become a full license or will I have to go through this entire process again if I want to use the same key if and when I get an SSD for windows?

So say I use this and go through with, say, method three. I now have the full version of windows 7 64 bit, service packs, updates, and all. But then a year later I buy a 200GB SSD on sale to use for windows. Now when I install windows to the SSD will the upgrade key act as a full key, or will going through the refistry editing process be necessary?

 

[Brink]

An upgrade product key will always be an upgrade key. This tutorial just shows you how to install and activate Windows 7 with an upgrade product key.

Anytime you use an upgrade product key to activate Windows 7 with, you'll need to go through the process in this tutorial to do a clean install with an upgrade.

 

[Xiigen]

An upgrade product key will always be an upgrade key. This tutorial just shows you how to install and activate Windows 7 with an upgrade product key.

Anytime you use an upgrade product key to activate Windows 7 with, you'll need to go through the process in this tutorial to do a clean install with an upgrade.

Thank you very much! I really hate microsoft. Some day though, the company will be long gone, and I can not wait for that.

 

[Britton30]

The first time I installed the OS with an Upgrade key, also from a university, I had to use the registry change. I've done it twice since and did method one.

My install media. The text in the reflection says:
"All use subject to volume license agreement. Do not make illegal copies of this disc."

I used the disc for the initial install and the next ones with this tutorial: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html#post16008 using a downloaded .iso placed on a bootable USB stick. Info is under "Here's How" in the blue Note box.

 

[Xiigen]

The first time I installed the OS with an Upgrade key, also from a university, I had to use the registry change. I've done it twice since and did method one.

My install media. The text in the reflection says:
"All use subject to volume license agreement. Do not make illegal copies of this disc."

View attachment 295653

Thanks very much for the verification. This is by far the best support website I have ever used.

 

[Britton30]

Thanks very much for the verification. This is by far the best support website I have ever used.

Thank you, much of the success is due to Brink's tuts.

 

[Brink]

Thanks very much for the verification. This is by far the best support website I have ever used.

Thank you, much of the success is due to Brink's tuts.

Nar, I'd say it's how everyone works together to help the OP with their issue.

 

[Brink]

An upgrade product key will always be an upgrade key. This tutorial just shows you how to install and activate Windows 7 with an upgrade product key.

Anytime you use an upgrade product key to activate Windows 7 with, you'll need to go through the process in this tutorial to do a clean install with an upgrade.

Thank you very much! I really hate microsoft. Some day though, the company will be long gone, and I can not wait for that.

Well, you can't really blame Microsoft for this.

The license (product key) you purchased with Windows 7 is either an "upgrade" or "full" version. You basically get what you pay for.

Upgrade = Deeply discounted price for customers that already own say Windows Vista to be able to upgrade from say Vista to Windows 7. In exchange for the discounted price, you are not able to do a clean install without having to go through the process in the tutorial.

Full = For customers that do not own a previous version of Windows, or do not want an upgrade Windows. Allows you to do a clean or upgrade install. The drawback is that there's no discount.

 

[Xiigen]

Well, you can't really blame Microsoft for this.

The license (product key) you purchased with Windows 7 is either an "upgrade" or "full" version. You basically get what you pay for.

Upgrade = Deeply discounted price for customers that already own say Windows Vista to be able to upgrade from say Vista to Windows 7. In exchange for the discounted price, you are not able to do a clean install without having to go through the process in the tutorial.

Full = For customers that do not own a previous version of Windows, or do not want an upgrade Windows. Allows you to do a clean or upgrade install. The drawback is that there's no discount.

The main problem for me is their business model of releasing different versions with limited features until you get to the ultimate edition which has a few features I would love to have, but it's rediculously expensive. I have no access to a student upgrade version, but my friend who is getting a new PC at the same time I am does, and the price for the oem or the upgrade edition, the supposedly low cost ones, it's still simply rediculous. I could be getting a much better gpu for how much I'm going to have to shell out for an operating system that's getting pretty old. Not to mention that if I want to upgrade my motheroard in the future it may be impossible for me to use the same windows key. It's insane the monopoly Microsoft has on the operating system market, and it just annoys me to no end.

 

[Britton30]

You can use the same key with a new motherboard, I've done that too but had to do a "robo call" to MS to get it activated.

 

[Xiigen]

You can use the same key with a new motherboard, I've done that too but had to do a "robo call" to MS to get it activated.

So I've read. But that is probably going to be one of the first things to go when Microsoft cuts off support for windows 7. Still, I don't want to buy the most reasonably priced one, Home Edition, because it lacks a huge amount of features that should be inherently included in any modern operating system.

 

[Britton30]

Check w7 Professional's features, it lacks Bit Locker and Language packs.

 

[Brink]

Yeah, Microsoft tries to come out with a blend of different editions to meet the features that people want/need at different price points based on the included features. The more features included, the more it costs.

Nope, you will always be able to activate a "full" retail copy of Windows 7 on any PC as long as it's not currently installed on another PC.

The support is for Windows Updates that will eventually be dropped, but that's not going to be until January 14th 2020.

Windows lifecycle fact sheet - Microsoft Windows Help

 

[Xiigen]

Yeah, Microsoft tries to come out with a blend of different editions to meet the features that people want/need at different price points based on the included features. The more features included, the more it costs.

Nope, you will always be able to activate a "full" retail copy of Windows 7 on any PC as long as it's not currently installed on another PC.

The support is for Windows Updates that will eventually be dropped, but that's not going to be until January 14th 2020.

Windows lifecycle fact sheet - Microsoft Windows Help

Isn't support going to be dropped january 2015?

 

[Brink]

That's for mainstream support. Extended support is until to January 14th 2020 though.

What is the difference between mainstream support and extended support?

• Mainstream support—Microsoft will offer mainstream support for a minimum of 5 years from the date of a product's general availability, or for 2 years after the successor product is released, whichever is longer. For example, if you buy a new version of Windows and five years later another version is released, you will still have two years of support left for the previous version.
  
• Extended support—Microsoft will offer extended support for either a minimum of 5 years from the date of a product's general availability, or for 2 years after the second successor product (two versions later) is released, whichever is longer.

 

[Xiigen]

That's for mainstream support. Extended support is until to January 14th 2020 though.

What is the difference between mainstream support and extended support?

• Mainstream support—Microsoft will offer mainstream support for a minimum of 5 years from the date of a product's general availability, or for 2 years after the successor product is released, whichever is longer. For example, if you buy a new version of Windows and five years later another version is released, you will still have two years of support left for the previous version.
  
• Extended support—Microsoft will offer extended support for either a minimum of 5 years from the date of a product's general availability, or for 2 years after the second successor product (two versions later) is released, whichever is longer.

Interesting. Thanks again. Now I just have to find the cheapest place to buy oem or upgrade version of pro or ultimate 64 bit.

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome. Hope you find a good sale.

 

[jmichae3]

The 64 bit ultimate upgrade here will work fine if I reformatted a hard drive that had XP on it and am putting into my new gaming rig, correct. I assume I will have to use method three, and it is known for a fact that the batch file is still up to date?

upgrade? you may have to have the old OS install discs or a recovery partion maybe at least. not sure, but if you work it right, you may be given the option to put in the product key of the xp rather than installing it first.

have not worked with the 7 upgrade, but I understand this was the way things worked with earlier versions.

 

[Britton30]

The switch from XP to w7 requires a Custom (New) install, only Vista can be directly upgraded. The requirement is one has to own a previous Windows version, XP or later.

 

[the jimmy]

Option 3

Downloaded the bat file and successfully activated Win 7 HP edition, thanks.