Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind

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:

1. using the Start menu, type “regedit” and go to \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion
2. you will get the following registry values that you need to alter
3. change the values of
1. value of “EditionID” from “Ultimate” to “Professional”
2. value of “ProductName” from “Windows 7 Ultimate” to “Windows 7 Professional”
4. The Windows 7 Upgrade utility will be now fooled , and you can upgrade with no real issue.

Labels: issues, software, solution

Posted by barry on Wednesday, May 12, 2010 at 11:32 AM | Link