Upgrade Win 7 Home Premium to Win 7 Pro on DVD

I have Win 7 Home premium installed and activated.(it came on the computer) The non profit that I do work for allows us to buy the Win 7 Pro upgrade DVD for almost nothing so I did. When I try to upgrade from within Windows, it tells me that I need to use Windows anytime upgrade. When I attempt to use it, and type in the provided 25 digit license, it takes it, starts the upgrade, and then tells me that the license number is valid, but not for anytime upgrade.

When I try and boot directly from the DVD with the system BIOS set for DVD as 1st boot item, it skips right past the DVD and boots from the hard drive.

Is there anyway to do this upgrade from the DVD, or is it only good if I do a complete re install?

Thanks!

http://i.zdnet.com/blogs/windows_7_upgrade_chart.png

It's not permitted to do an upgrade-in-place from Vista Home Premium to Win7 Pro. Only a custom (clean) install is allowed.

I don't know why Microsoft set it up that way.

Will you want to keep the key for the Home version active, or do you care? The anytime upgrade is one way to keep your stuff and pay just a difference price.

If you really want to keep you old stuff, you might do an in-place upgrade. Most folks advise against this, but maybe Win 7 to Win 7 will not hurt. But you probably loose the use of the other key, which is why it would not make sense for someone paying full price to use an upgrade path instead of anytime upgrade.

bobkn said:

http://i.zdnet.com/blogs/windows_7_upgrade_chart.png

It's not permitted to do an upgrade-in-place from Vista Home Premium to Win7 Pro. Only a custom (clean) install is allowed.

I don't know why Microsoft set it up that way.

I thought I had read that, but I wasn't sure that it was correct, so I wanted to check here. Thank You!

Saltgrass said:

Will you want to keep the key for the Home version active, or do you care? The anytime upgrade is one way to keep your stuff and pay just a difference price.

If you really want to keep you old stuff, you might do an in-place upgrade. Most folks advise against this, but maybe Win 7 to Win 7 will not hurt. But you probably loose the use of the other key, which is why it would not make sense for someone paying full price to use an upgrade path instead of anytime upgrade.

I want to keep all my stuff. The key from the OEM installed version is not important, The upgrade isn't important enough that I want to wipe my HD to do it.


Am I correct in believing that if I ever have to do a total reinstall, that I will be able to use my 7 Pro upgrade and one of my licensed XP pro disc's, if for example, the current drive become unustable?

zone 5 said:

I want to keep all my stuff. The key from the OEM installed version is not important, The upgrade isn't important enough that I want to wipe my HD to do it.


Am I correct in believing that if I ever have to do a total reinstall, that I will be able to use my 7 Pro upgrade and one of my licensed XP pro disc's, if for example, the current drive become unustable?

Yes but you needn't install XP as there are legal workarounds to install Upgrade to new or formatted HD.

The WIn7 installer will also accept Upgrade key if any OS is currently on the drive, even if you boot from the installer and format before install.

thanks for all the answers!!!

This website should lead to answers for all your posted questions: Install, upgrade, and activate - Help & How-to - Microsoft Windows.

Cheers,
Tara
Windows Outreach Team

TaraSWinTeam said:

This website should lead to answers for all your posted questions: Install, upgrade, and activate - Help & How-to - Microsoft Windows.

Cheers,
Tara
Windows Outreach Team

Great site. Thank you!