Vista HP -> Win 7 HP (no key) -> Win 7 Pro (valid key)

[Bronko]

I want to upgrade my Dad's pc currently running Vista 32 bit home premium, fully legal oem copy with his HP. We have a never used fully legal Windows 7 Professional PID. My question is, how do we upgrade from Vista HP to Win 7 Pro?

Can I upgrade first to Win7 HP, without enter a PID, then do an anytime upgrade right away using our legit Win7 Pro PID?

Many thanks!

ps: would really like to do a clean install of Win7 Pro x64 but he wants to try an upgrade first, and I myself am curious if the above vista hp -> win7 hp -> win7 pro scenario would work anyway.

 

[Kari]

Hi Bronco, welcome to the Seven Forums.

I'm sorry to say but the scenario as you describe does not work, for the simple reason that you can only in-place upgrade (upgrade install) from a 32-bit Vista to a 32-bit Seven, or from a 64-bit Vista to a 64-bit Seven. Only 32 to 32 or 64 to 64 is possible; 32 to 64 and 64 to 32 are not possible.

If the Vista and Seven Professional would be the same bit version, then it would be unnecessary to use Seven Home Premium in between. You can directly in-place upgrade all Vista editions except Ultimate and Enterprise to Seven Professional.

If you have install media for both 32-bit and 64-bit Seven Professional, you can choose whichever bit version you want to use. Product keys are bound to edition, not to bit version or language. Your alternatives in this case would be to in-place upgrade Vista to 32-bit Seven Professional, or do a clean install with 64-bit Seven Professional.

You told us you have no product key to Seven Home Premium, so there's absolutely no reason to in-place upgrade the old Vista first to unlicensed Seven Home Premium, even if this Seven Home Premium was also a 32-bit version. If the goal is to get a 64-bit Seven Professional installed on that computer, the only reasonable and possible alternative is to do a clean install with Seven Professional, first backing up the personal stuff on Vista. You can use for instance Windows Easy Transfer to backup and transfer personal files and folders from Vista to Seven.

Additional reading:

• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11470-windows-easy-transfer-transfer-computers.html
• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/31402-clean-install-upgrade-windows-7-version.html

And if you decide to get a product key to that Seven Home Premium and in-place existing Vista with it, or use the existing Seven Professional product key to in-place upgrade to a 32-bit Seven Professional:

• http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/44793-simple-guide-successful-place-upgrade.html
• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1818-upgrade-install-windows-7-a.html

Come back if you need more information.

Kari

 

[Bronko]

Thank you for your reply. To clarify, I am not trying to upgrade 32 bit to 64 bit. I am wondering if I can upgrade vista home premium 32 bit to win7 professional 32 bit by first upgrading vista hp 32 bit to windows 7 hp 32bit. Once that is done I am wondering if I can use my legit win7 PID to then do an anytime upgrade to Win7 Professional 32bit.

In essence, I am trying to get around the fact that I can't upgrade Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional by first upgrading to Windows 7 Home Premium.

PS: thank you for the additional info and links too!

 

[Kari]

Sorry, you mentioned Seven Professional x64 in your footnote so I of course assumed that's the goal.

So, putting it simple this time:

• If the goal is to get Seven Professional x86 (32-bit) to that machine, you can do an in-place upgrade installation directly from Vista Home Premium to it. There simply is no valid reason to do the upgrade install two times, the use of Seven Home Premium in between Vista and Seven Professional is an absolutely unnecessary step. You can always in-place upgrade Vista to the same or better version of Seven.
• If the goal is Seven Professional x64 (64-bit), in-place upgrade first to unlicensed Seven Home Premium is also unnecessary because at the end you'd still had to do a clean install with Seven Professional x64 because the difference in bit versions.

Kari

 

[Bronko]

I tried the in place upgrade, but it was blocked by the installer. The only valid upgrade paths from Vista HP is Win7 HP and Win7 Ultimate, not Win7 Pro (see below link to MSFT page). Hence my question about the intermediate Win7 HP install, then anytime it to Win7 Pro.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/help/upgrading-from-windows-vista-to-windows-7?T1=tab02

I realize this is kind of convoluted so I thank you all for sticking with me!

 

[Kari]

This is not completely new information to me, but you finally confirmed that. Thanks for that link.

I have written that "A Simple Guide to a successful in-place Upgrade", one of the links I gave earlier. In that guide I wrote:

...
As you can see it is not possible to "downgrade when upgrading" i.e. you cannot in-place upgrade from for example Vista Ultimate to Seven Home Premium. You need to have the same or better edition (notice that you can in-place upgrade to Seven Professional only from Vista Business). Your current Vista needs at least service pack 1 to be able to upgrade to Seven.
...

(check it, you can see it's not been edited in 13 months )

I thought I had it right, but then I got controversial information from some other senior geeks saying that although in-place upgrading from Vista Business is only possible to Seven Professional, it does not mean you could not in-place upgrade to Seven Professional also from Vista Home editions.

Back to the topic.

Yes, in that case if you really want to keep all installed applications, user profiles, settings, files and folders, an in-place upgrade as you described would work. You do not need a product key to install Seven, in fact you have 30 days time to enter it and activate, so you have plenty of time to do the second upgrade installation from Seven HP to Pro. But now we are coming to a grey area which I really do not know; I think for Anytime upgrade you need a valid and activated copy of Seven, meaning that when you try to Anytime upgrade upgrade a non-activated Seven Home Premium to Professional, it might not work. I have never done Anytime upgrade so I wouldn't have any experience. In this case an in-place upgrade would be a better alternative because for that the existing OS must not be activated.

Anyway, when in-place upgrading, read those two last links I gave you in my first post really carefully. I'll ask some other geeks about Anytime upgrade, if it works when the old OS is not activated.

Kari

 

[Kari]

Greg, what do you think of that Anytime upgrade when the Home Premium would not be activated? Isn't Anytime meant to be used only if you already have an existing license of Seven, that being the reason to it's quite fair price?

Kari

 

[Bronko]

Thanks a ton Kari! Now that we are on the same wave length, I think you hit the nail with this: Can you perform an anytime upgrade using a legit key when the OS being upgraded from has not been activated. I think that is the remaining issue and if you or anyone else can answer that I would be forever grateful.

In the mean time I will work on convincing my Dad to let me perform a clean install and read through the links and guides provided.

Also, is it kosher to trade legit and never used PID's? Is there anyway to check if a PID is legit and unused?

 

[SIW2]

I have never tried that, Kari.

I think you may be right - will he be able to perform an upgrade to 7Pro, when 7HP isn't activated?

LOL - simultaneous post with Bronko.

 

[Bill2]

My guess is anytime upgrade with a FULL Pro key would work on unactivated windows, but not an UPGRADE Pro key. Logic of course being the reduced price of the Upgrade/anytime upgrade is justified if you have a full underlying OS, not otherwise.

 

[Kari]

This is quite interesting question, thanks to OP for bringing it up.

Each and every one of us who have been playing with computers a bit longer have been in these grey areas like for instance buying a Vista upgrade version, clean installing it first once without a product key and straight after that second time, this time entering the key for upgrade Vista which Vista accepted because it saw that first keyless install as an OS that entitled us to use upgrade version.

But Anytime Upgrade? In my opinion, it should not only test that you have a correct previous OS but also that it is valid; the pricing of Anytime Upgrade is so fair it's clear Microsoft assumes at least that the license for the previous, inferior edition of Seven is paid.

Would be nice to hear from someone who has tried Anytime when old Seven was not yet activated.

Kari

 

[Bronko]

It is a full Win7 Pro key, not an upgrade PID.

 

[Bill2]

Also, is it kosher to trade legit and never used PID's? Is there anyway to check if a PID is legit and unused?

Can you elaborate what exactly you intend to do?
PID checking is not exactly kosher because of the dubious uses it is put to such as developing cracks.

 

[Bronko]

When I mentioned trading, I was asking if it would be legal for me to trade my legal never been used Win 7 Pro PID, for someone else's fully legal never been used Win 7 Home Premium PID.

I am not trying to do anything wrong, in the older days of physical media this wouldn't even be an issue. In any case Win 7 Pro has a higher retail value and I am speaking hypothetically. In said hypothetical trade, I, and presumably the trading partner, would want to verify the PID to be received is legit. That is all.

Sorry for such a wordy response, I think I will just tell my Dad we need to do a clean install. Plus he goes to x64 that way.

 

[profdlp]

...I think I will just tell my Dad we need to do a clean install. Plus he goes to x64 that way.

As a latecomer to this thread, I think that's the best choice. When you weigh the various hoops you have to jump through to do it any other way, along with the potential problems you may encounter, that's probably not only the best choice but the easiest one, too.

 

[Bronko]

Agreed, but I would still like to know if it is possible nonetheless, for good old curiosities sake.

 

[Bill2]

Theres no authorized tool from MS for the end user to pre-check a key's validity. There are some hacker tools around but I strongly advise you not to use those because among other things, it involves passing on your key to the database used by those developers- and after that anything may happen to your key. The only way to validate the key is online activation post-install and validation.

 

[Bronko]

Thanks for confirming that, not interested in giving the key out. I just thought maybe MSFT had a webpage where you could check a PID, guess not. Thanks all.

 

[theog]

Greg, what do you think of that Anytime upgrade when the Home Premium would not be activated? Isn't Anytime meant to be used only if you already have an existing license of Seven, that being the reason to it's quite fair price?

Kari

Hi Karl
Yes, you can use anytime upgrade from a unactivated Windows 7.
Tutorials made using unactivated Windows 7 Strarter to Windows 7 Ultimate activated.
When using a Upgrade key, you will need a qualifying previous version of Windows, XP, Vista or Windows 7.
License Terms

No install files needed.
Only the Upgrade key is neeed.
Anytime upgrade only adds-on the Programs & Features from version to version.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/95744-windows-anytime-upgrade-how.html

Ray.

 

[Bronko]

Greg, what do you think of that Anytime upgrade when the Home Premium would not be activated? Isn't Anytime meant to be used only if you already have an existing license of Seven, that being the reason to it's quite fair price?

Kari

Hi Karl
Yes, you can use anytime upgrade from a unactivated Windows 7.
Tutorials made using unactivated Windows 7 Strarter to Windows 7 Ultimate activated.
When using a Upgrade key, you will need a qualifying previous version of Windows, XP, Vista or Windows 7.
License Terms

No install files needed.
Only the Upgrade key is neeed.
Anytime upgrade only adds-on the Programs & Features from version to version.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/95744-windows-anytime-upgrade-how.html

Ray.

Looks like it will work then, if you are correct in that you can use an unactivated Win7 HP to perform an anytime upgrade to Win7 Pro using a legit PID.

So my next question is media. I have the Win7 Pro disc, but need to burn a Win7 Home Premium 32 bit ISO. I know where to get that, but is there anything I need to do to it for it to work without entering a PID? Or when it asks, do I just skip entering it for now and it will continue? I have read you can do an install without a PID, but is there a certain ISO needed for this to work? Hope I made sense here...