How to go from Ultimate to Home Premium

[matthew w]

Hi, my brother's friend installed Windows 7 Ultimate on our computer (illegaly against what I wanted) and 2 days later it keeps saying not genuine. So I went out and bought Home Premium and I am wondering if there is anyway to go from Ultimate to Home premium without losing our programs. If I try to upgrade it says you cannot upgrade form Ultimate to Home premium.

Thanks,
Matt

 

[Bill2]

Well, theres a registry trick to do it. Try it.

UNAWAVE - Downgrade Ultimate to Home Premium or Professional

 

[not so gray matter]

I highly recommend a clean install and a bios update. Not only do illegal copies of Windows often contain malicious code, but some use BIOS modification methods to get around activation. Either way, as long as you know what you're doing it'd be best to atleast do a clean install and maybe a BIOS update/reflash. Let us know if you need any help with the process.

 

[seavixen32]

Clean install, it's the best way to go.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/91339-ssd-hdd-optimize-windows-reinstallation.html

 

[shablah]

Got this, and it sort of applies to my recent thread here. If I HAVE to do a clean install, this sounds like great info. But if somebody could take a look at my thread, as it's a little different since it's not a pirated copy that I currently have, it would be much appreciated. I'd SO like to just change keys for the sake of my themes, drivers, etc. Thanks a lot, and thanks again for the clean install info.

 

[seavixen32]

Backup your complete registry to your desktop and try the workaround in the link you were given.

If it does the trick, great, if not just restore your registry from the backup you made.......right-click and merge should do it.

 

[shablah]

Got it -- thanks very much!

 

[seavixen32]

OK, keep us posted, it'll be interesting to see how things turn out.

 

[gregrocker]

It's worked several times a week here since Win7 came out, when thousands used it to change to their paid version.

It may require uninstalling SP1 if prompted when you being the Repair Install.

uninstall Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1)