A way to upgrade to Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate with regular key?

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r00tb33r

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Jan 21, 2011
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Hey all,

I've got a machine running Windows 7 Home Premium and I've hit the 16GB memory limit (24GB installed). Unfortunately I have a lot of software with keys issued for my installation, so I can't just do a clean install to use the extra Professional and Ultimate (legal) keys laying around. Since I already have extra copies for Professional and Ultimate it makes no sense to spend money on the Anytime Upgrade while I already own the product. Besides, Windows 10 is out in like a month, and I would also like to upgrade to 10 Professional instead of Home.

I would like to know if there is a way, even if complicated, to swap (like in registry?) my Home Premium key to Professional or Ultimate key and re-activate. I also have the installation media if additional files are required. Is there a way?

Thanks in advance!
 
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Reyaz123

Reyaz123

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I believe you have to deactivate your current windows key and afterwards you just activate the windows ultimate key
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows/activate-windows#1TC=windows-7


If you are not sure, just boot from your Windows Ultimate installation media and install it on another partition on your hard drive (input your product key there)

Boot to the Windows Ultimate you've installed
Then remove the older OS from the boot tab in msconfig
 
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R

r00tb33r

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Yep, Anytime Upgrade rejects my retail key for Professional, and I see you already edited that out.

As far as de-activating, changing key and activating again, you might be onto something there. I will probably have to fix the Windows SKU first, as Windows activation will probably be asking me for a Home Premium key again. I was wondering if anyone has worked out the exact process. I can't really afford to nuke the system.

Can't do a clean install on another partition. I'm doing the upgrade because I need to keep activated software.
 
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R

r00tb33r

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Well, that didn't work.

It's too bad Tom's Hardware forum selects false solutions if nobody posts a valid solution. Next person searching for the same issue comes across a wrong solution (rather, something that isn't a solution).
 
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