Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version

How to Do a Clean Install with an Upgrade Windows 7 Version​

   Information

This will show you how to do a Clean Install using a retail Upgrade Windows 7 installation disc.

   Warning

Remember that you need to legally own a valid qualifying previous version of Windows to use a Upgrade Windows 7, and to stop using (or uninstall) the qualifying OS while you have the upgrade installed. Microsoft only made doing a clean install from a upgrade Windows 7 possible to make it more convenient so you do not have to reinstall both the old Windows version (ex: Vista) and upgrade to Windows 7 everytime you needed or wanted to reinstall.

If you do not legally own a valid qualifying previous version of Windows, then you are violating the terms of Microsoft's Windows 7 End User License Agreement and could get your product key number invalidated by Microsoft. Plus, it is considered illegal.

For more about this, please see: Microsoft SMB Community Blog : Regardless of what any hack says, a Windows 7 Upgrade is an Upgrade. What you need to know.

OPTION ONE

A Normal Clean Install

1. Do a clean install at boot without checking the Automatically activate Windows when I'm online box during the installation process.

2. When the installation is finished, then manually activate Windows 7 with your product key number.

3. If your Windows should fail to activate, then pick up at step 2 in OPTION THREE below.

OPTION TWO

Through a Custom Install

   Note

This option will let you do a clean install of Windows 7 without formating the current Windows installation to have your current Windows installation backed up to the Windows.old folder during the installation of your retail upgrade Windows 7. This way you can copy any files back that you want from the C:\Windows.old folder (previous installation) back into your new installation afterwards.

1. Do a custom install at boot or from within your current Windows installation without checking the Automatically activate Windows when I'm online box during the installation process.

2. When the installation is finished, then manually activate Windows 7 with your product key number.

3. Copy any files that you want back from the C:\Windows.old folder into where you want it in you new installation.

4. You can now delete the Windows.old folder using Disk Cleanup to have a clean install now.

OPTION THREE

Clean Install with a Registry Workaround for Error Code 0xc004f061

   Note

If you get a activation error code 0xc004f061 while doing OPTION ONE or OPTION TWO above, then you will need to use this option instead

1. Do a clean install of your upgrade Windows 7 at boot without checking the Automatically activate Windows when I'm online box during the installation process.
NOTE: If you already did this from OPTION ONE above and got a activation error, then skip this step and just proceed to step 2 below instead. There's no need to reinstall again.

2. Click on the Download button below to download the .bat file below, and save it to your desktop.
Activate_Windows_Upgrade_after_Clean_Install.bat


Download


3. Right click on the downloaded .bat file, and click on Run as administrator.

4. If prompted, click/tap on Run and Yes (UAC).
NOTE: If you like, you can stop getting the Run prompt by unblocking the downloaded .bat file.

5. You will now notice a command prompt quickly open and close while applying the changes to your registry.

6. Click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

7. Restart the computer.

8. When the computer is finished restarting, then manually activate Windows 7 with your product key number.

OPTION FOUR

Double Installing Windows 7

   Note

This option is the same that was used to do a clean install of an upgrade copy of Windows 7. It's more work, but if the options above did not work for you, then this should since this is the most reliable option.

1. Do a clean install of your upgrade Windows 7 at boot without checking the Automatically activate Windows when I'm online box during the installation process, and do not activate Windows 7. When finished with the clean install, do not or install any Windows Updates, drivers, or programs yet.

2. When finished with the clean install, start at step 4 at this link to do an in-place "upgrade" install with your upgrade Windows 7 installation disk from within the just now finished clean install of Windows 7.

3. When the in-place upgrade installation is completely finished, then manually activate Windows 7 with your product key number. You can now also install any Windows Updates drivers, and programs you like.
That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Do a Upgrade Installation with Windows 7
• How to Do a Clean Installation with Windows 7
• How to Do a Custom Installation of Windows 7
• How to Create a Windows 7 Installation USB Key
• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/30470-make-bootable-iso-student-d-l.html
• How to Partition the Hard Drive in a Windows 7 Install
• How to Install Windows 7 on Computer with Less than 512MB RAM
• How to Install Windows 7 Using "Unified Extensible Firmware Interface" (UEFI)

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Daniel, and welcome to Seven Forums.

 

[mrthrun]

If I could pass on a donation I would

Thanks for the tutorial and download that made my windows reinstall possible. I just upgraded my MB and Processor and for whatever reason Windows wouldn't allow me to do a clean install. Thanks again and a lot. Cheers from the melting great white north.

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome mrthrun, and welcome to Seven Forums. I'm glad it could help.

 

[jooohn]

If I have Windows 7 Home (FPP) and Ultimate (WAU) licenses, can I perform clean install of Windows 7 Ultimate and use WAU key ? Will it accept it ? Or I must use Home key and then Ultimate key ? How it works please ?

There is more than 50 pages in this thread. So I am sorry if someone else already asked this question. I appreciate any help.
Thanks in advance

 

[Brink]

Hello John,

You will be able to use an option in this tutorial to do a clean install of Windows 7 Ultimate using your WAU key.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
With the new iso OddBall offered you
You'd use the upgrade key with it using Option 4 and option 3's bat or reg file before activating windows.
http://www.sevenforums.com/windows-...pgrade-new-installation-disc.html#post3220988

 

[jooohn]

Hi,
With the new iso OddBall offered you
You'd use the upgrade key with it using Option 4 and option 3's bat or reg file before activating windows.
http://www.sevenforums.com/windows-...pgrade-new-installation-disc.html#post3220988

Thank you for your answer. Sorry that I ask like this, but are these options fully legal ? I just don't want to violate any policies or something. I already know that image provided is safe and legal directly from microsoft. But what about that .bat file and registry ?
Thanks

 

[ThrashZone]

Brink would have to ban himself if it was illegal

I used it on a laptop 2 years ago with a win-7 home premium from Vista
It works like a charm and to this day is still shown as activated and genuine

 

[Brink]

No worries John. It's perfectly safe and legal.

 

[mstrmind5]

Using one of the four install options, could I install on a brand new pc build using the win 7 upgrade disk without having any older windows version/product key available?

 

[Brink]

Using one of the four install options, could I install on a brand new pc build using the win 7 upgrade disk without having any older windows version/product key available?

Hello mstrmind5, and welcome to Seven Forums.

You would be able to do a clean install with an upgrade copy of Windows 7, but you will of course need a product keep for the same edition to activate with.

 

[mstrmind5]

Hello mstrmind5, and welcome to Seven Forums.

You would be able to do a clean install with an upgrade copy of Windows 7, but you will of course need a product keep for the same edition to activate with.

Thank you for the welcome.

So, if I'm reading your reply correctly, all I would need is a product key for the upgrade version of the windows 7? Do windows 7 home prem upgrade family pack editions come with a product key?

 

[Brink]

Yes, the family pack comes with a product key that can be activated on up to 3 separate computers at the same time.

 

[mstrmind5]

Thanks for the help.

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome.

 

[Vista32toWin7]

Clean Install after infections?

My laptop has Windows Pro 7/64 SP1 OS installed.

I recently had some infections, rootkits, that got into my system. My malware scanners picked them up and quarantined them. I deleted those infections and reran several malware scanners thereafter with no traces of infections. Some of those infections and issues are listed in the below thread I started.

http://www.sevenforums.com/windows-...dates-wont-install-error-code-80070005-a.html

I was told that a clean install would be the best thing to do just to be safe. As my system may have been compromised, ie; my online banking account/credit/debit cards and passwords may have been stolen. So it is something to be concerned about.

I'm not sure which way is the best to handle this issue?

I have the original Win 7/32 & 64 bit Upgrade disks and activation number. I'm not sure how many times I can use these disc's to reinstall/clean install/repair any corruption issues on my current OS?

I believe I read somewhere that you can use these discs to install Win 7 on up to 3 computers?

Or if I can use the Win 7/32 bit Pro Upgrade disc to upgrade a neighbors outdated Windows 32 bit OS XP3 laptop?

If I did a clean install on my laptop using the Win 7 discs, I would have to format my current disc before reinstalling Win 7, correct? My HD is a Seagate 750GB SSHD.

Could I follow the "Clean install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version" tutorial to reinstall my OS?

Any answers appreciated, thanks!

 

[Brink]

Hello Vista32toWin7,

Unless you purchased a retail Windows 7 Family Pack like below to be able to activate up to 3 computers, you can only use the product key to activate Windows 7 on one computer. It would have to be removed from that computer before you could activate on a different computer.

https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows-Premium-Upgrade-Version/dp/B002MV2MG0

You can use this tutorial with the upgrade installation disc to clean install Windows 7 on any computer, but each computer will need a different product key to activate with.

 

[Vista32toWin7]

Thanks, Brink

So if I understand your response, I can only use my 64 bit disc and activation key to reinstall Win 7/64 on my machine, correct?

And I can use the "Clean install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version" tutorial to reinstall Win 7.

I should format my disk before reinstalling Win 7, correct?


Thanks, Vista-Win7.

 

[Brink]

You could use the installation disc to install W7 on any computer, but the key can only be used to activate one computer and not multiple computers.