Win7 Home Premium to Professional?

Westyfield2 · 9 Mar 2013 at 16:40

Hi,

Computer has Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit installed. This was done from a retail box product – not OEM or Upgrade.
User now wants some of the features that you get with Professional (e.g. network backup, remote desktop, etc.).
Rather than wipe the HDD and start again, is there a way to upgrade in place. Ideally I’d want to buy a Windows 7 Professional license (would it also need to be retail box to match or would OEM do?) and type the product key in to the existing install, and it then downloads/installs/enable the additional Professional features. Is this possible?

Cheers,

Essexraptor · 9 Mar 2013 at 16:51

looks like you can do a in place upgrade

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store...e-Premium-to-Professional/productID.228663600

only problem is it's "out of stock"

may be worth a call to MS Customer Support ???

EDIT

Quite honestly .... I go for the Retail every time now over OEM.... saves soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much hassle

marc2003 · 9 Mar 2013 at 16:51

start>search>anytime

Westyfield2 · 9 Mar 2013 at 17:18

Never knew about "anytime"!

So this is what I get:

Erm, are they having a laugh with the pricing?

Windows 7 Professional 64bit OEM (w/SP1) is available for £107.98 online, and the full retail package is £159.99 online (I would quote OcUK rather than competitors but their website is dead).

Assuming I am mad enough to do "anytime", what's the story with the license? When you reinstall on a new/formatted HDD, do you install straight away with Professional or do you have to install Home Premium again before upgrading to Professional? And does the existing Home Premium license become free to use on another machine? (like normally you can deactivate a Retail copy whereas you can't with OEM)

Anyone know of an unofficial way (registry hacks or whatever) to just do what my original plan was and buy a normal Professional copy and replace the product key, rather than this "anytime" lark?

Westyfield2 · 9 Mar 2013 at 17:34

Right, I've found these two threads elsewhere http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/225426-upgrade-without-windows-anytime-upgrade.html http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...duct-key/12ee697d-6506-4ed3-afda-ba6b8102ac61

From those two threads, you can put a full Retail product key into the anytime program (rather than an anytime upgrade key) and it will work fine

.

So the two remaining questions are "Does it have to be a Retail key? (what about OEM/MSDNAA/whatever)" and "Is the original Home Premium Retail key now free to use elsewhere?"

marc2003 · 9 Mar 2013 at 17:55

ouch at the pricing.

you can hack premium to enable remote desktop. it's just a replacement of a dll that's needed. it's a bit naughty using a feature you're not supposed to have though.

i'd look at alternative backup solutions and stick with home premium.

theheyes · 9 Mar 2013 at 18:07

Pfft, for the extra £5 Ultimate is the better buy.

Westyfield2 · 9 Mar 2013 at 18:18

marc2003 said:
ouch at the pricing.

you can hack premium to enable remote desktop. it's just a replacement of a dll that's needed. it's a bit naughty using a feature you're not supposed to have though.

i'd look at alternative backup solutions and stick with home premium.

Alas it's not for me so probably no naughtiness

.