How does the Windows 7 Professional Anytime upgrade work?

Hi,

I see that many purchased Laptops come pre-installed with Windows 7 Home Premium. I also note the availibility of a retail upgrade package that allows you to convert your copy of Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional. I know that each copy of the Windows OS actually has all the versions installed, and that these so called 'upgrade' packages just give you a code that you can use online to unlock the Window's Professional features that have already been built into the OS.

My question would be, if I bought a Windows Professional upgrade package, and applied it to the copy of Windows that came with my laptop, what happens when I wipe my harddrive to do a reinstall of the Windows OS using the copy of the original Windows Home Premium that came with the Laptop?(Or one that I create myself) Since it is a complete wipe of the Harddrive, will the clean copy of the Windows Home Premium I just re-installed automatically convert to the Windows Professional when it connects online?(Based on the fact that I used the unlock code previously) Or will I have to call in to a Microsoft Rep to gain permission key for the upgrade again? If this was the case, it would be such a big hassle to always have to call in when the system HD is wiped to do a fresh install. Is the license key for the upgrade tied to the License key of the Copy of Windows Home premium, or is the license key of the upgrade tied to the Motherboard signature of my laptop?

Just been wondering how the upgrade works....Thanks for any enlightenment!

 

The upgrade key is not being tied to anything. You can re-upgrade as many times you want on the same (one) machine that you use without the need to call in. Just online activation.

cheers ...

 

Thanks for your reply!

So I assume each time I reinstall the Win 7 Home premium OS that came with my machine, I just have to enter the upgrade code. This means that if I had two machines with Win 7 Home premium, I can upgrade the Home Premium OS to Win 7 Professional in the first machine, but, if I so decide that I want the second machine to have it's OS upgraded to Win 7 Professional instead, all I need to do is wipe the first machine of its upgraded OS, and re-key the upgrade license to the OS of the second machine.

Please let me know if my assumptions are correct based on your input. Thanks!

 

Every win7 install contains all the versions of win7 from starter to ultimate.
Programs just disabled, depending what oem key entered.

Any version of win7 can be activated by anytime upgrade just by entering new key

Every notebook uses the same key sets

And they expect ppl to pay for upgrading os Could post every version of oem key right from google.

Win7 notebook activation happens offline, bios contains 1 part, and the oem install contains other part.

 

If you do that, you need to phone activate every time you change from one computer to another.

 

Hi,

In the past, I purchased the Win 7 Professional Upgrade version from either Vista or XP, and attempted to upgrade my copy of XP Professional to WIn 7 Professional. Initially, I thought everything was sucessfully accomplished, and my OS from XP Professional was upgraded to the Win 7 Professional. However, little did I know that there is a well known bug which occurs when you do such an upgrade, which does not give you access to any folders I copied over from Win XP. Each time it gave me an error that informed me that I had no admin rights to the folders(Acess Denied Error)..even though I was the only user and could see from the control panel that I was the system admin. I was very angry that such a bug could exist, and decided to get rid of the Windows 7 Professional Upgrade version from XP.

Fast forward to the present time, I have just ordered a laptop that comes with Windows 7 Home Premium, and see that Microsoft sells a product called "Windows 7 Professional Anytime Upgrade for Windows 7 Home Premium". I do understand that this upgrade product just contains a license key to unlock the Windows 7 Professional features already built in inside the Windows 7 OS. However, I am concerned that I will face the same upgrade file acess issues I faced in the past as described in the paragraph above. I guess this is why everyone advises you not to go through the OS upgrade route, but to instead do a fresh clean install from a Windows 7 OS DVD.

Is this upgrade path from the Windows 7 Home premium to Windows 7 Professional considered a clean Windows 7 install that won't have any of the upgrade issues faced by upgrading between different OS's like XP or Vista, and most importantly be bug free?

I am really worried based on my past experience. Thank you so much to whoever can confirm that this can be done without me facing the access denied bug again.

Thanks alot guys for your time and answers.

 

I never had any issues with upgrading Vista to W7 or W7 Home to W7 Pro/Ultimate. Just be sure that you stay within the platform (32 or 64 bit).

cheers ...

 

mobilezila...No need for 2 threads so now they are merged.