Solved Upgrade Home Premium to Enterprise

[justken6265]

Hello,

I the tech person for a university. We purchased the following Laptops with the following specs. Both are brand new.

Dell Inspiron 1545
Windows 7 Home Premium
Processor Pentium Dual Core T4400 2.20 Ghz
4GB RAM
x64-based PC
266 BG Storage

Here is a link on the Dell website to all of the specs.

Dell System Information / Dell Warranty Extensions & Upgrades / Dell Warranty Status

In case it prompts for the Service Tag = 31563K1

The university has a site lic for Windows 7 Enterprise (both 32 bit and 64 bit). Can I upgrade the operating system or do I have to reformat?

Thanks.

Ken

 

[theog]

http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/46168-windows-7-upgrade-paths-faq.html

 

[justken6265]

Good information, but I didnt see the Enterprise version addresses. Unless, the Business version is the Enterprise version of Windows 7?

 

[theog]

Good information, but I didnt see the Enterprise version addresses. Unless, the Business version is the Enterprise version of Windows 7?

Yes, Enterprise is the Bussiness version of Uitmate.

 

[Bill2]

Just a couple of points.

1) Upgrading from one version of win7 to a higher version requires an Anytime Upgrade key, which is not the same as your regular key.

2) Enterprise version and Ultimate version have identical features but they are NOT identical versions. So, as you would have already seen from the link Theog posted, a Home premium upgrade to Ultimate is possible but not to Enterprise. The reason is Enterprise is only sold via a Volume License agreement and a local activation server.

To switch to the university's Enterprise license, you would need to do a clean install. So, back up your data and image your existing windows (since you have paid for them and may want to revert to them at a future date), then clean install Enterprise.

 

[justken6265]

Sounds like a plan. Thank you all for the information.

Ken

 

[fishnbanjo]

Just a couple of points.

1) Upgrading from one version of win7 to a higher version requires an Anytime Upgrade key, which is not the same as your regular key.

2) Enterprise version and Ultimate version have identical features but they are NOT identical versions. So, as you would have already seen from the link Theog posted, a Home premium upgrade to Ultimate is possible but not to Enterprise. The reason is Enterprise is only sold via a Volume License agreement and a local activation server.

To switch to the university's Enterprise license, you would need to do a clean install. So, back up your data and image your existing windows (since you have paid for them and may want to revert to them at a future date), then clean install Enterprise.

Hi Bill2,
Not to be contradictory to your excellent response but I'd like to add my experience with upgrading Windows 7 from one version to another.

I purchased an Alienware M17x which had Windows 7 Home 64 and I also have a DELL XPS Gen1 which I did a clean installation of Windows 7 Professional 32. My desktop came with Vista Home 64 and was later replaced due to issues but the Windows 7 was on my SSD which was not returned since it did not come with the PC.

I purchased a Vista to Windows 7 Professional 64 upgrade disk and when I went to upgrade I chose the Anytime Upgrade and when prompted for the key I inserted the key from the DVD and within 6 minutes the M17x had Windows 7 64 Professional.

Once I saw it was that easy I purchased a Vista to Windows 7 64 Ultimate upgrade for my desktop and did the same thing.

In neither case was it a clean installation Windows simply went to the Microsoft server and downloaded the latest updates it needed and when the system rebooted it was upgrade.

 

[DeaconFrost]

I've been able to do the anytime upgrade as well. I had two Professional licenses that were going unused. My wife's laptop was running Windows 7 Home Premium, and since we were going to start using a domain at home (both in IT, so learning for both of us), I popped in one of the Pro keys and it took the upgrade with only a reboot.

 

[Bill2]

Just a couple of points.

1) Upgrading from one version of win7 to a higher version requires an Anytime Upgrade key, which is not the same as your regular key.

2) Enterprise version and Ultimate version have identical features but they are NOT identical versions. So, as you would have already seen from the link Theog posted, a Home premium upgrade to Ultimate is possible but not to Enterprise. The reason is Enterprise is only sold via a Volume License agreement and a local activation server.

To switch to the university's Enterprise license, you would need to do a clean install. So, back up your data and image your existing windows (since you have paid for them and may want to revert to them at a future date), then clean install Enterprise.

Hi Bill2,
Not to be contradictory to your excellent response but I'd like to add my experience with upgrading Windows 7 from one version to another.

I purchased an Alienware M17x which had Windows 7 Home 64 and I also have a DELL XPS Gen1 which I did a clean installation of Windows 7 Professional 32. My desktop came with Vista Home 64 and was later replaced due to issues but the Windows 7 was on my SSD which was not returned since it did not come with the PC.

I purchased a Vista to Windows 7 Professional 64 upgrade disk and when I went to upgrade I chose the Anytime Upgrade and when prompted for the key I inserted the key from the DVD and within 6 minutes the M17x had Windows 7 64 Professional.

Once I saw it was that easy I purchased a Vista to Windows 7 64 Ultimate upgrade for my desktop and did the same thing.

In neither case was it a clean installation Windows simply went to the Microsoft server and downloaded the latest updates it needed and when the system rebooted it was upgrade.

I'm glad your experience has been positive with WAU. From what i have seen on this forum and others over a period of time, the regular key doesnt always work with WAU. Logically speaking, thats absurd since a full price license should be able to do ANYTHING.

In this case of course, theres no question of any kind of upgrade.

 

[gregrocker]

Bill is correct: mixed reports on whether retail key will always work in an Anytime Upgrade.

But as he points out the licensing scheme is separate under Enterprise anyway, so a retail key (including Anytime) will not work, only a volume license key.

Nor will the popular workaround to fool installer into thinking it is doing a Repair Install (upgrade over itself) by changing two registry keys to reflect same version. Even if it worked, it will not activate without volume license.

 

[harpua]

This has nothing to do with the Enterprise issue but just wanted to note that I was able to use a retail key from my Technet subscription to anytime upgrade a laptop that had Home Premium on it to Ultimate. Took about 5 minutes. So for me a regular Ultimate retail key worked (like a charm) for doing an anytime upgrade.

 

[Lordbob75]

I would highly recommend wiping the laptops (gets off all that crapware) and just install Enterprise. Do this once, make a system image, use it on all the laptops. I am sure you know how to deploy

~Lordbob

 

[mickey megabyte]

i've just tried to upgrade my home premium x64 to ultimate x64 by using a key from my new technet account.

unlike harpa above, it didn't work for me.

well, it was about time for a reformat anyways...

 

[theog]

Try Retyping your key code.

Using TechNet below.

 

[mickey megabyte]

just tried it again with two other keys, same result

i get the same screens as you, it seems to have no trouble verifying the key, it tells me it will take 'as few as 10 minutes' to install, and my computer will restart automatically.

i press the upgrade button, it starts upgrade, and after about a minute i get error message.

i'm not too bothered, as i have been thinking for a few weeks about reformatting anyway. i'm just a little perplexed as to why the key gets verified successfully, but will not perfom the upgrade.

(naturally my current installation of home premium is 100% legit, preordered back in october.)

i dunno - i just hope the keys work when i reinstall!

 

[gregrocker]

You can change Premium to Ultimate using the popular workaround many used to change the RC to any paid retail version: Upgrade the Windows 7 RC to any retail version « Icrontic Tech

In your case you would only need to change the two registry keys shown to ULTIMATE and Windows 7 ULTIMATE which will trick the installer into thinking it is doing a same-version http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html?ltr=R which is always allowed:



In helping people do this after release I always asked that they let us know how the Upgrade compared to a clean install when they got around to doing one. Everyone seemed satisfied with the Upgrade - and that was for the RC which wasn't supposed to be upgradable! So it should be worth a shot.

 

[mickey megabyte]

great advice - thanks a lot greg

i'll give it a try later, bit busy installing home server at the moment...

+rep

 

[gregrocker]

Glad to help a Megabyte Guru and thanks!

 

[mickey megabyte]

hah - i'm not really a guru, it's all bluff and knowing how to use a certain flowchart...:devil:

 

[gregrocker]

I'm really an 80 year old lady in a nursing home in Rapid City.

THey're comin with my meds so I gotta go back to Scrabble.