Windows 7 Upgrade Paths - FAQ

Infoman said:

Thanks for the information, Greg - sure seems like the in-place downgrade will work for me. Of course, everything will be backed up prior to doing this.

Last question - in doing this in-place downgrade, would I be able to use the WIN 7 Home premium UPGRADE disk(s) - or for this, would I need the FULL version?

Thanks!

Andy

Yes, this is an in-place Upgrade so that version is all that's needed. However, you should have a qualifying XP/Vista on hand which it replaces under the EULA.

The issue could only possibly come up during a reinstall reactivation where you are elevated to a MS phone person, but no one has reported this yet. Make a Win7 backup image of the finished job so you never have to reinstall again anyway.

They are both 64 bit, correct?

Yes, they are both 64-bit, Greg. And I do have the Vista Home Premium 64-bit DVD that came with my PC. Sounds like a plan. Thanks so much for this info - couldn't find a decent answer on this anywhere - the posts / replies I saw were related or close to this, but not exactly this situation, unless I missed it.

Thanks again and Happy Holidays!

Andy

You're welcome, Andy. Let us know how it goes.

I was quite surprised when people started reporting good results from in-place Upgrading the RC, as this blog post from a Win7 developer had warned against it:
Harold Wong's Blog Site : Can I do an In-Place upgrade from Windows 7 Release Candidate To Release Code??

But so far not one bad report so I have become persuaded otherwise, tho I have only done RTM>HP downgrade myself.

However I will be doing this RC>HP Downgrade while also extracting a friend's XP dual boot when he returns from Antartica next week - all by cross-country Remote desktop!

Wow! That should be some task to do all of that remotely! I wonder how you connect remotely in the middle of upgrading / downgrading Windows???

I will certainly post here when I have details about how it went. It might be a little bit, though - have to get one for a decent price. Was going to get the HP 3-pack until I learned today that Microsoft's "special price" stock on these have "sold out".

Thanks again!

Andy

Hello ,
I dont know whether this question has been answered and i apologize in advance if any of these questions have been asked before but I've scoured the net without any use and i hope someone can help me here..

I m currently running a Win 7 RC Ultimate x86 7100 build .
a)
I would like to know a whether i can use the upgrade options provided to upgrade Win 7 Ultimate RTM OR would i have to purchase Win 7 Ultimate RTM?
b)
Can i perform an inplace upgrade (instead of a clean install ) if i purchased the FULL version of Windows HOME premium from my current RC version???

Thanks in Advance !!!
and happy holidays!

vraider said:

Hello ,
I dont know whether this question has been answered and i apologize in advance if any of these questions have been asked before but I've scoured the net without any use and i hope someone can help me here..

I m currently running a Win 7 RC Ultimate x86 7100 build .
a)
I would like to know a whether i can use the upgrade options provided to upgrade Win 7 Ultimate RTM OR would i have to purchase Win 7 Ultimate RTM?
b)
Can i perform an inplace upgrade (instead of a clean install ) if i purchased the FULL version of Windows HOME premium from my current RC version???

Thanks in Advance !!!
and happy holidays!

You can use an Upgrade version of Win7 if you have qualifying Vista/XP. It doesn't have to be installed, but under the EULA you should not use it if it is used to qualify for Upgrade.

If you have the RC installed, you should boot the Upgrade DVD to do a clean install. It will scan the HD and see an OS to allow Upgrade key. You can also run the DVD from the RC to do a clean install, which will put all of your files in a windows.old folder.

MS developers warn against in-place Upgrading the RC, however some have reported doing it so you can try it since you can always do a clean install if you don't like the results.

Wonderful and useful thread article. Thanks so much for this. And Happy New Year to all :)

Well, Greg, just wanted to let you know that the downgrade worked like a charm! Thanks so much! I did want to point out that the link you wrote is someone that copied the info from another place - wouldn't be so bad except the original link has more accurate info - if it wasn't for that link, I might have got a little messed up - for example, in the one you gave me, the thing about "Check English and German Version for differences in Version Names" is WRONG - you put "HOME PREMIUM", NOT "Home Premium x64".

For anyone that needs it, here is the real link to show how to downgrade from Windows Ultimate to Windows Home Premium / Professional, as an example:

Upgrade the Windows 7 RC to any retail version Icrontic Tech

Thanks again, Greg!

Andy

You're welcome and Thank you! for the better tutorial link.

I only chose that one for its screenshots, since the more popular Digital Life has the radioactive word "Hack" in it's title. But this one's better than either.

Please keep us posted on the performance of in-place "downgrade" RC to Home Premium. I'm doing my friend's by Remote Desktop next week and need to know for sure.