Windows 7 Product - changing it?

SandLake

I have 2 PC's which have both got Windows 7, one came with Vista and an upgrade disk and the other originally had no OS and I installed Win7.

The one that came with Vista is starting to creak a bit and I would like to re-install Windows, can I use the 'full' key from the other one to simplify the installation (i.e. not have to install Vista and then upgrade it to Win7) and then change it to the 'upgrade' key

Not trying to cheat, I do have the licences, just trying to make things easier.

Thanks

S0litaire

Depends on how Windows have done the "update".
In the past it only looked for a eligible "install disk" from the older Version of the OS for the Update to install.
But sometimes they required the OS to be installed before the upgrade could run.

Not sure of the Vista -> win7 upgrade path.
But you can install Win7 with no CD-Key for 30 days (i think) before it locks you out and requires you to enter a valid key to run.

Best thing is to make a backup of the machine and stick in the Upgrade disk and do a reinstall. It should clean everything out and leave you with a new tidy OS.

But i've not installed Win7 in ages!! (Was a beta tester, but i dumped it and went for Ubuntu...) ^_^

prowla

Some of the Windows 7 "upgrades" need a clean install anyway, so you may find that you can do that from the upgrade disk.

SandLake

Thanks for that

I seem to remember when I was upgrading from Vista to Win7, I tried installing with the upgrade disk and at quite an early stage had to enter my product key and then it wouldn't go any further as this was an upgrade version!

Hammyman

You don't need to enter a CD key at all to install Vista and then to do an upgrade to Win7.

SandLake

That doesn't seem right!

spud17

Have a look here.

http://windowssecrets.com/2009/11/12/02-Clean-install-Windows-7-from-the-upgrade-disc

JasX

There is no difference between 'upgrade' and 'full' versions of windows 7 that cannot be worked around within about 20secs, and 2 commands.

http://www.winsupersite.com/article/windows-7/clean-install-windows-7-with-upgrade-media.aspx


Do NOT swap keys between PCs, especially if OEM editions are involved as you'll really screw up which hardware profile fingerprints are associated with which key in Microsoft's activation DB (ie have a fair bit of hassle on the phone to them attempting to explain when both stop activating).