How To Downgrade Windows 7 Ultimate to Professional
Recently, I had to build a workstation for myself that is based on Windows, and will be able to replace my laptop for some home office tasks. and i had a Windows 7 Ultimate trial that i was playing with for a few days, and already installed lots of the required software, and figured i will then just need a license for it and continue to work…
The day has come, and the trial period expired, when i discovered that the only license i actually have is for a Professional edition. so i though, the best way will be to downgrade the system, should be easy right ?
The Windows installation mechanism works only in one direction, from lower to higher , so you can upgrade from Home to Professional , and from Professional to Ultimate for example, but not the other way around.
If you try to use the Upgrade tool, it will halt on this limitation , and will pop up a message like “Windows 7 Ultimate cannot be upgraded to Windows 7 Professional” and asks you to run a fresh install …
Well, there is a solution that involves some Windows Registry editing, which can nail this sucker down.
Step-By-Step:
- using the Start menu, type “regedit” and go to \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion
- you will get the following registry values that you need to alter
- change the values of
- value of “EditionID” from “Ultimate” to “Professional”
- value of “ProductName” from “Windows 7 Ultimate” to “Windows 7 Professional”
- The Windows 7 Upgrade utility will be now fooled , and you can upgrade with no real issue.
