Upgrade Home Premium to Professional? (7)

If you look at the installtion media there is a folder called "sources". In that folder are two files with .wim extension. I suggest you use 7-zip for looking inside .iso and .wim files

Boot.wim contains 2 images.It contains the pre installation environment and repair tools. That is what boots up and loads into RAM so you can install windows from the second ( much larger ) .wim file called install.wim.

Install.wim contains several images - usually it has all 4 editions ( Home basic, Home Premium, Pro and Ultimate.) 32 bit install media also includes Starter edition.

It is possible to "mount" one of the images and integrate the updates ( and drivers if you like ). Then when you unmount the image , saving the changes, the newly saved image contains the updates.

Tomkat said:

What are wim files, and why is it useful to update them?
Just curious before I run that program.

Note: you will need to copy /extract the install.wim from .iso before attemting to mount an image from it.

If I get the time, I may do a tutorial at some stage.

Once you have done it, you realise it is very easy.

Any error messages?

Tomkat said:

I'm at my wits end... I've downloaded and installed over 200 updates, yet my 3D modeling program STILL CRASHES. (It was working for awhile, yesterday.) I've uninstalled and re-installed as admin, tried compatibility modes. Any suggestions?
I'm suspecting nothing short of a wipe/clean install is going to solve this - hopefully I'm wrong.

You need to run 7zfm.exe and browse to your installtion media. That assumes you have installtion media. If not, I suggest you get it.



Dble click the .iso to see this:



Dble click the "sources" folder and scroll down to see this:



Dble click Install.wim to see this:




1=HOME BASIC
2=HOME PREMIUM
3=PRO
4=ULTIMATE

Simply by removing/renaming or toggling off the sources\ei.cfg file, all images become available to install. That means you only need one iso file to install any of the editions. You will need to install the edition you have a license for of course.

Most people get the .iso called Ultimate, toggle off ei.cfg using this:eicfg_removal_utility.zip


winisoutils - Windows ISO Disc Image Utilities

Installation media? You mean burn the iso to DVD, yes?

Anyhow, I think I may have to do a wipe/clean install.

My "Windows Installer" is broken... I can't install or uninstall multiple programs. I just tried re-installing office and the setup.exe crashes.

I've copied all my pictures, documents, important stuff, etc to an external drive... is a clean install worth doing?

IF SO, what is the BEST way to do it?

Yes.