Question about Acer Windows 7 upgrade kit

I had bought an Acer laptop with Vista Home Premium 32 bit in the period before the launch of Windows 7, and applied for the free Windows 7 upgrade kit.

Acer sends an upgrade disc that is of the same type as your Vista OS.

So I got an upgrade disc for Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit, as well as a product key on the COA.

What I want to ask is whether it is possible for me to install Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit through a clean install by finding a friend with the normal retail Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade DVDs, using the 64 bit DVD and then entering the product key that came with my Acer 32 bit Windows 7 HP upgrade disc.

Thanks for any help.

 

In theory, yes. 32-bit and 64-bit product keys are supposed to be interchangeable, but I'm not sure if OEM COAs are the same way.
Worth a shot!

 

I have an acer tm5730 and I installed windows 7 home premium x64 with the license number of a x86 windows 7 home premium upgrade version, without any problems.

 

Is this the Acer Windows 7 Upgrade Kit, or a retail Windows 7 upgrade?

I also did some more research and I found a person with a similar question to me that seems to suggest it can't be done, you can't activate Windows 7 that was installed from a retail disc with an OEM Upgrade key, and you can't active Windows 7 that was installed from an OEM upgrade disc with a retail product key.

"I purchased in June a new computer from Dell with a free upgrade to Windows 7. I wanted 64-bit but was not given the option. I received my 32-bit upgrade disc from Dell. My brother purchased a retail upgrade and so he has both 32-bit and 64-bit upgrade discs. I know that I must do a clean install. I want to know if I can use his 64-bit disc to run my install but then use my upgrade key from Dell. So in the end I have 64-bit OS using my product key that Dell gave me."

Reply:

"As it stands your bother's retail install disk will not work with your OEM product key. It'll install, but your product key would be rejected for activation.


That's because, in a file on the install disk, there is a preset value for the 'Channel' to which the licensing belongs. In a file called ei.cfg one of the entries is called 'Channel' and the value set for that variable on a retail install disk is set as 'Retail'. For the OEM key to be accepted that variable needs to be set to 'OEM'."
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Can anyone shed more light on this?

 

If anyone has any information, it would be much appreciated.

 

I downloaded the official Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit iso (for free, google the links), burned the iso onto a dvd, and activated using the product key which came with my Acer W7HP 32bit upgrade kit. No problems, very simple.

 

The key I got from Acer with my 32-bit Windows 7 upgrade kit activated a clean 64-bit install just fine also. That seems to be the consensus around here, so you should be okay with what you want to do as well.

I got tired of waiting for the upgrade kit to arrive last fall, so I installed a retail copy and activated later. This past weekend I was reading where some are still having problems with getting their kits from Mentor Media - almost four months later! What a fiasco that was and continues to be!

 

Thanks for the help guys, I think I'll give it a try.

 

One more question guys.

If a 64-bit install of Windows 7 with the product key on my Acer 32-bit upgrade kit does not work, can I then use the 32-bit upgrade disc and the key to get an activated 32-bit Windows 7 running?

 

It will work.