Clean Intall a different Edition of Win7 other than the one preinstalled and get OEM activated?

khealou

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Feb 4, 2013
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10,510
Good day everyone,

I own an Acer laptop which came with Windows 7 x64 Home Premium pre-installed and, of course, OEM licensed/activated.

I want to wipe the entire HDD and do a clean install of Windows 7 x64 Professional using a Retail ISO.

My question is, how can I get the same licence (OEM activation) after installing Windows 7 Pro?
I read something about installing (not upgrading) an edition of Windows 7 other than the one that came pre-installed on the laptop and get activated by using the corresponding OEM-SLP key (or the COA key, i'm not sure) and a Digital Certificate (some *.xrm-ms file)..... but again I'm not really sure! Can someone please guide me?

Thanks a lot.
 
Solution
Nope -- in order to use Professional you'd need a new key (either buying a retail key or using anytime Upgrade ) -- the license key is for a specific version of the OS that was paid for by the OEM and is not able to be used on a different version of the OS. (ie. a key for Home Premium will only work on Home Premium and a key for Professional will only work on professional) -- also if you reinstall Home using anything other than the OEM restore media that came with your system it will not activate until you change the key from the OEM SLP key to the activation key that is printed on the sticker that was applied to the system case (the SLP key is used only to activate using the OEM's media and using any other media will require entering...
If you install a retail copy, you must use the Product Key that's supplied with it to install it. Then activate it online.
The licence and key provided with the Acer pre-installed copy is then irrelevant and redundant as far as you're concerned.

Alternatively, If you haven't bought the retail copy yet, you can upgrade from within the pre-installed version:
Start > All Programs > Windows Anytime Upgrade

 

khealou

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Feb 4, 2013
16
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10,510


Thanks for your reply :)
I don't have a Retail key, I only have the Retail ISO I downloaded from Digital River repository.



I want to do a clean install, not an upgrade.
In my case, the edition of Windows 7 I want to install is different than the one that came pre-installed on my laptop.
So I'm trying to figure out :
a. is there a way, after installing Win7 Pro, to get activated using a combination of an oem:slp (or oem:coa) key AND a Digital Certificate ? (I backed up the *.xrm-ms file from my current installation).
b. or my laptop will only accept an OEM license for the same edition that came pre-installed with it (which is Home Premium)?

I don't want keys or anything, I just want to know if that's possible or not, I'll do the rest by myself
 
Nope -- in order to use Professional you'd need a new key (either buying a retail key or using anytime Upgrade ) -- the license key is for a specific version of the OS that was paid for by the OEM and is not able to be used on a different version of the OS. (ie. a key for Home Premium will only work on Home Premium and a key for Professional will only work on professional) -- also if you reinstall Home using anything other than the OEM restore media that came with your system it will not activate until you change the key from the OEM SLP key to the activation key that is printed on the sticker that was applied to the system case (the SLP key is used only to activate using the OEM's media and using any other media will require entering the product activation code from the sticker rather than the SLP key - which is why they apply the sticker to your case)

Also -- the iso's downloaded from digital river are OEM versions and not Retail versions so using them will result in an oem install that is tied to the original MOBO it is installed on and not a retail license that can be moved from system to system.
 
Solution

khealou

Honorable
Feb 4, 2013
16
0
10,510


From what I could understand, I can only use the COA key printed on the back of the laptop to activate the "same edition" of Windows originally shipped with my laptop (Home Premium, in my case). So I guess there is no free upgrade here :p well a retail key is a must-buy then!



Ok, but what if I install it using a Retail key, won't I get a Retail version of Windows instead? because from what I read around these forums, It's the key that decides whether the copy will be a retail or an OEM version, no? so it doesn't matter which ISO to get, be it Retail or OEM, correct me if I'm wrong.