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]

Hello Valory, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Since you will be doing a clean install with OPTION ONE, then you will not need to do anything else to the hard drive since you will be formating the drive or partition for Windows 7 during the installation. Normally the installation DVD should boot from it when you press a key at the "Press a key to boot from CD drive" message the displays briefly (few seconds) at boot.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[valory]

Thanks, Brink. What procedure needs to be followed if I need to reinstall 7 in the future? (I haven't taken the plunge yet!)

 

[Brink]

Valory,

Well, hopefully you will not need to reinstall or at least often. You can use the same method in the tutorial to reinstall it again though.

 

[boony]

I'm having a problem, like Ballie had.
I installed Windows 7 Ultimate Upgrade on a blank hard drive, all prepared to use Method 3 (I have licenses for both XP Pro and Vista HP).
I chose custom install and let Windows format the hard drive.
I went thru the install, and when I entered my product key ( I had made sure to uncheck "Automatically activate Windows when I'm online"), it said the Product Key was not valid.
Again, this isn't the activation process, this is when you first enter your Product Key.
I can't get past this prompt to my desktop, so I can't attempt the reghack/rearm method.
Any ideas?
Unlike Ballie, I don't have another key I can use to get to my desktop.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Brink]

Hello Boony, and welcome to Seven Forums.

You will need a valid Windows 7 Ultimate product key number to type in at that point. If you are using one, then double check to make sure you did not have a typo, or mistakenly type 0 (number) instead of a o (letter).

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[devilians]

thank you very much it was easy to follow and to understand got my avtivatrf in no time cheers mate

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Devilians, and welcome to Seven Forums.

 

[bobinette]

HI
I am located in canada and the windows 7 academic edition is listed
Microsoft® Windows 7 Professional UPGRADE (32-bit & 64-bit)

Microsoft Office for Students - The Ultimate Steal

1- is the academic edition consider retail or OEM?
2- if i buy this edition can i still do a clean install with the upgrade?

 

[DocBrown]

HI
I am located in canada and the windows 7 academic edition is listed
Microsoft® Windows 7 Professional UPGRADE (32-bit & 64-bit)

Microsoft Office for Students - The Ultimate Steal

1- is the academic edition consider retail or OEM?
2- if i buy this edition can i still do a clean install with the upgrade?

It looks like this would be a retail upgrade version as I see it, I do not think it would be OEM.

Microsoft® Windows 7 Professional UPGRADE (32-bit & 64-bit)
$95.00*

Yes, there are some tutorials here how to do clean install with upgrade version.

 

[jtan710]

Thnx, installing on my vista pc on Fri

 

[m00nd0g]

Nice tutorial Brink , Though i'm curious about something . Even knowing those methods work ? How are we to know later Microsoft doesn't lock up all upgrade version install without any previous versions ? Didn't they mention thats what they will do ?

More or less what they stated below

If you do not have 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.


Thanks

 

[Brink]

Hello M00nd0g,

If you have ever activated another qualifying Windows (say Vista) on that computer, then Microsoft will have a record of it being activated on that particular computer last thus fulfilling your EULA agreement as long as you do not install and activate that say Vista on any computer while you have the upgrade Windows 7 installed.

 

[m00nd0g]

Hello M00nd0g,

If you have ever activated another qualifying Windows (say Vista) on that computer, then Microsoft will have a record of it being activated on that particular computer last thus fulfilling your EULA agreement as long as you do not install and activate that say Vista on any computer while you have the upgrade Windows 7 installed.

Hello Brink,

Thats true enough . I thought you also mention you could do this on a clean blank new drive ?

Thanks

 

[Brink]

Yes you can.

 

[m00nd0g]

Yes you can.

When you say yes , do you mean that a previous version must be install first or none at all ? Just using the upgrade disc only ?

 

[SenojNW]

Hey Brink
Nice tuturial - thanks.

Just wondering how a clean install would go if you are installing new core hardware (mobo, cpu, video) prior to the upgrade? Hard drive will stay the same. I've posted here with my query - hope you can help?

Hi
I have a legit copy of Vista 32 installed and have just bought an upgrade disk for Windows 7.

I see there are a few ways to achieve a clean install:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/31402-clean-install-upgrade-windows-7-version.html

I'm also planning to upgrade most of my core hardware at the same time (mobo, CPU, video, RAM) so I'm just wondering what the best approach would be in my case?

Do a standard "in place" upgrade from Windows before the hardware upgrade and then a
clean install once the new hardware is installed?

I would want a clean install at some point to make sure it is all running smoothly.

Thanks

Ta

 

[Brink]

Hello Senoj, and welcome to Seven Forums.

I would recommend that you install all of your new hardware first, then have all of the Windows 7 driver installation files handy to install them after installing Windows 7. After installing the new hardware, you should have no problem doing only a clean install of a retail upgrade Windows 7 version using this one of the methods in this tutorial.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[motc7]

This is one of my favorite reg hacks. Honestly Microsoft should have not allowed the clean install option to even be available if they wanted to protect heir precoius profits.

 

[ilcaa]

Would this install method ALSO clean your hard-drive of any previously installed apps?, meaning all your apps will have to be re-installed again?


sort of an important issues with me since some of my apps will be very troublesome to re-install and I am weighing which WIN7 install method would be best for me...

Wants:
1. Completely remove VISTA from my HD..Completely!
2. Not need to reinstall any of my third party apps that I have installed previously..


let me know if i can accomplish both!

 

[Brink]

Hello Ilcaa,

I'm sorry, but anytime that you do a clean or custom install, you will have to reinstall your programs and drivers.

The only way not to have to reinstall your programs is to do a inplace-upgrade from Vista to Windows7. However, it does not remove Vista completely for a fresh install of Windows 7 instead, and you will still need to install Windows 7 driver versions.

Hope this helps,
Shawn