Question re Clean Re-install of Windows 7 Professional

I have three pcs. Two are Windows 7 Home Premium and the third has Windows 7 Professional.

As I plan to continue running Windows 7, and I have a Windows 7 Home disk that I purchased a few years ago, I did a clean reinstall of two of my pcs. I already had antivirus and malware programs, but to be sure, with the clean re-install, I wanted to remove any unknown issues.

I then re-installed Windows 7 Home on the two pcs, installed BitDefender and Malwarebytes. I will no longer use my pcs to access financial or any other important personal information, but will use my Kindle Fires instead, including for email.

For my Windows 7 Professional pc, I do not have that particular disk and cannot do a clean install. I deleted personal and financial info from that pc. However, I would like to know the best way to clean/scrub that pc as if I had done a clean reinstall OR

could I do a clean reinstall using my Windows 7 Home disk, which means I would no longer have the Professional version, whatever that it includes as I have never been able to see any difference between the two versions.

Thank you.

Jane

Best to leave Windows 7 Pro pc as W7Pro. Others have used BleachIt to wipe any personal data away, I never have - cannot tell you how to use it. One can also clean free space with any one of many utilities, if you do so, I recommend not doing much on the pc while wiping free space.

First, Make sure you backup the activation for your win7 pro pc. ( see next post - you can use dism++ to do it)


With the ei.cfg deleted, it will offer a choice of which edition to install:

Janesdf said:

I have three pcs. Two are Windows 7 Home Premium and the third has Windows 7 Professional.

As I plan to continue running Windows 7, and I have a Windows 7 Home disk that I purchased a few years ago, I did a clean reinstall of two of my pcs. I already had antivirus and malware programs, but to be sure, with the clean re-install, I wanted to remove any unknown issues.

I then re-installed Windows 7 Home on the two pcs, installed BitDefender and Malwarebytes. I will no longer use my pcs to access financial or any other important personal information, but will use my Kindle Fires instead, including for email.

For my Windows 7 Professional pc, I do not have that particular disk and cannot do a clean install. I deleted personal and financial info from that pc. However, I would like to know the best way to clean/scrub that pc as if I had done a clean reinstall OR

Jane

To backup activation:

1. If it not the currently running os, Click the os in top pane to highlight it in blue.

Then click Open Session



Dism++10.1.1001.10.zip

2. Click Toolkit in the left pane. Then click Activation backup in the main window




3. Optionally enter a name in case you need to remind yourself which machine it belongs to. Then Click Backup.





4. Done




Then copy the ENTIRE dism++ folder somehere safe ( e.g. a usb stick).

Then clean reinstall or repair install win7.

Then restore the activation in the same way - toolkit>activation backup>click on the backed up activation to highlight it in blue > click Restore

For the updates, use Simplix


It will only install the required updates. It may install in two sections. It will ask to reboot as necessary,
Leave Updates set to never check
Then run WU manually to find updates for Office etc and decide witch one to install.

"...With the ei.cfg deleted, it will offer a choice of which edition to install..." SIW2
I didn't know that could happen! Thanks, I learned something new today. I wonder how that one DVD'd ISO does that.

Several images in install.wim


MS x64 install.wim


1=Home Basic
2=Home Premium
3=Professional
4=Ultimate


MS x86 install.wim


1=Starter
2=Home Basic
3=Home Premium
4=Professional
5=Ultimate

Those are standard MS iso files.

The ei.cfg file tells setup which image to apply. If there is no ei.cfg file, setup will offer a choice.

NOTE: Some Oem supplied "recovery media" only contains one image.

Backup the activation, create an iso and remove ei.cfg as described in my previous posts.

Then, instead of burning your newly created iso to dvd, create a bootable flash disk from it.

You can do that with gburner Tools>Write USB





or with usb7ice Usb7ice.zip