Using Upgrade key on an Retail Install

Jacen · 21 Oct 2009

I have purchased 2 retail copies of W7 Pro for 29.99 with my student discount. If you have questions as to how I achieve this go to this thread

Full Retail Version of Pro For Students only 29.99

I now have another computer that I want to put W7 pro on. I am thinking about purchasing an upgrade key and just using the retail version to install so I don't have to reinstall Vista in order to do the upgrade.

Anyways, do you think I could purchase an upgrade key, install with my retail disk without filling out the product key and then activate with the upgrade key?

I think this should work with no problems.

thefabe · 21 Oct 2009

I'm not sure a upgrade key might be different than a retail key. Since your not really upgrading. I'm probably wrong we'll find out soon enough from someone here that knows more about this. Fabe

Jacen · 21 Oct 2009

I don't think it would be an issues as there is no difference between the upgrade software and the retail other than the upgrade verifies that there is an activated copy of a Windows OS system before it install.

My thought is that the upgrade disk looks for an activated version of windows first whereas the retail doesnt.

I would think the key is assigned to the software version and that the key can not distinquish between and upgrade install or retail install.

bodmas · 21 Oct 2009

upgrade key is used in specific way for MS world. generally upgrade means upgrading from one edition to higher within the same OS version. like upgrading from vista basic to vista home premium or from HP to Ultimate or Win7 professional to win7 ultimate etc. etc. and this upgrade key is different from the general key as this is provided under heavy discount as you have already purchased win7 basic and now you simply want to upgrade to ultimate in case of upgradation from basic to ultimate. os this upgrade key will only work when you upgrade your basic to ultimate.

upgrade key is not defined as upgradation from xp to win7 or xp to vista or vista to win7.

your case is that you have retail key for win7 pro copy. so in your case, this retail key will work for everything. for clean install, for upgradation of edition within the same version and even upgradation from one version to other(like from vista to win7).

bobkn · 21 Oct 2009

Jacen said:

I have purchased 2 retail copies of W7 Pro for 29.99 with my student discount. If you have questions as to how I achieve this go to this thread

Full Retail Version of Pro For Students only 29.99

I now have another computer that I want to put W7 pro on. I am thinking about purchasing an upgrade key and just using the retail version to install so I don't have to reinstall Vista in order to do the upgrade.

Anyways, do you think I could purchase an upgrade key, install with my retail disk without filling out the product key and then activate with the upgrade key?

I think this should work with no problems.

If it's like Vista, no.

A version of Vista that was installed without a key would not accept an upgrade key. (If it did, you'd have to be foolish to buy a Full version.)

Incidentally, I'm not certain, but I believe that the Win7 student deal gets you an upgrade version.

Tomorrow (later today, Eastern time), I hope that the limitations of the various licenses begins to come clear. I wonder why Microsoft never published them.

Disk4mat · 21 Oct 2009

I bought Vista Business Upgrade and I used to install it without the key. After install, re-run setup again from within Windows and choose the upgrade option. Durring the 2nd install I would enter the upgrade key and poof! Activated just fine every time. Windows thought I was upgrading a previous edition.

Now it wouldnt work if I entered the key the first time. Activation would fail saying the key didnt match the edition of Windows I had installed.

I found out the hard way. Having formatted the drive and entering the key durring the first install. A kind MS rep helped me out with the solution for installing an upgrade lic on a clean drive

bobtran · 21 Oct 2009

bodmas said:

upgrade key is used in specific way for MS world. generally upgrade means upgrading from one edition to higher within the same OS version. like upgrading from vista basic to vista home premium or from HP to Ultimate or Win7 professional to win7 ultimate etc. etc. and this upgrade key is different from the general key as this is provided under heavy discount as you have already purchased win7 basic and now you simply want to upgrade to ultimate in case of upgradation from basic to ultimate. os this upgrade key will only work when you upgrade your basic to ultimate.

upgrade key is not defined as upgradation from xp to win7 or xp to vista or vista to win7.

your case is that you have retail key for win7 pro copy. so in your case, this retail key will work for everything. for clean install, for upgradation of edition within the same version and even upgradation from one version to other(like from vista to win7).

Actually while upgrading from Win7 basic to Win7 Pro could be done with an upgrade disk, what you are referring to as upgradation is called "Windows Anytime Upgrade".

The Upgrade disks can be used to upgrade from XP or Vista to Win7 whatever version you purchased upgrade media for,( I.E. Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate). If upgrading from XP to Win7 you MUST do a clean install whereas if you upgrade from Vista to Win7 you CAN do a clean install (recommeded by the way) or you can do an in place upgrade if you have a prior OS installed on the partition to be upgraded.

bobtran · 22 Oct 2009

bobkn said:

Jacen said:

I have purchased 2 retail copies of W7 Pro for 29.99 with my student discount. If you have questions as to how I achieve this go to this thread

Full Retail Version of Pro For Students only 29.99

I now have another computer that I want to put W7 pro on. I am thinking about purchasing an upgrade key and just using the retail version to install so I don't have to reinstall Vista in order to do the upgrade.

Anyways, do you think I could purchase an upgrade key, install with my retail disk without filling out the product key and then activate with the upgrade key?

I think this should work with no problems.

If it's like Vista, no.

A version of Vista that was installed without a key would not accept an upgrade key. (If it did, you'd have to be foolish to buy a Full version.)

Incidentally, I'm not certain, but I believe that the Win7 student deal gets you an upgrade version.

Tomorrow (later today, Eastern time), I hope that the limitations of the various licenses begins to come clear. I wonder why Microsoft never published them.

Actually you are wrong about this. The dbl install method is well documented and yes a version of Vista installed without a key will indeed accept an upgrade key when you upgrade from the prior trial install (This is a documented fact).

sup3rsprt · 22 Oct 2009

but you can't activate the full version of Vista with an upgrade key unless you upgrade over top of itself.

Windows 7 doesn't have that loophole does it?

bobkn · 22 Oct 2009

[quote=bobtran;320306]

bobkn said:

Jacen said:

If it's like Vista, no.

A version of Vista that was installed without a key would not accept an upgrade key. (If it did, you'd have to be foolish to buy a Full version.)

Actually you are wrong about this. The dbl install method is well documented and yes a version of Vista installed without a key will indeed accept an upgrade key when you upgrade from the prior trial install (This is a documented fact).

The installed version of Vista did *not* accept the upgrade key.

You could use the unactivated Vista installation to qualify the use of the upgrade version for an upgrade installation. The key had to be entered during the upgrade, in a second installation. That could be an upgrade-in-place or custom (clean) install. (The custom install was faster.) I did this a few times, in preference to installing XP on new hardware and then the Vista upgrade.

You still couldn't install Vista without a key, and directly activate it with an upgrade key later. Somehow, having to run another upgrade installation so the key could be used doesn't quite seem to be the same as having a version installed without a key accepting an upgrade key.

Supposedly, Microsoft has prevented this with Win7 by requiring the upgrade to be run on an *activated* qualifying OS. Even if that turns out to be false, and it's just like Vista, what I wrote is correct.