Clean Install Win 7 As Upgrade

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How To: Use Your Windows 7 Upgrade

Disk On a Fresh PC
Posted 10/27/09 at 10:30:00 AM by Justin Kerr
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Installing to a Fresh Drive
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Step 1 - Access & Edit the Registry
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A true geek has never been intimidated by the registry, but lets face it, it's a
mess in there. To access the registry you will first need to open up the start
menu and type "regedit" into the search field, followed by enter. To find the
proverbial needle in this haystack, you will need to navigate through the tabs
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Tacky" to the List of Your
Netbook's Problems
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listed on the left in the following order:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/ . If you don't like doing it the
REVIEW
Windows 7 Reviewed! XP vs
Vista vs Win7
hard way just click Edit then Find and type MediaBootInstall into the search field, and press enter.
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Once found, double click MediaBootInstall and change the "1" to a "0". Once you have finished this, simply click Ok
and close out the Registry Editor.
Step 2 - Re-Arm The Activation
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Benchmarked
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Windows 7 Upgrade Guide
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Cosplay Photos
Before we try to activate our copy of Windows, we need to reset or "Re-Arm" the activation sequence. To do this,
simply open up the start menu and type cmd but instead of just pressing enter, you need to press "Ctrl" + "Shift" +
"Enter" to run it as an administrator. You can also accomplish this by clicking the start menu, typing cmd into the
search box, then right clicking the command prompt application and selecting Run as administrator.
Once the command prompt appears type slmgr /rearm and press enter. Next simply type Exit and hit enter again,
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/howtos/how_use_your_windows_7_upgra... 01.12.2009
Page 2 of 8
after which it will ask you to restart your machine.

Its worth mentioning that this tip will allow you to reset the 30-day activation period for new installs. On Vista it worked
3 times before refusing to add any more time, but the RTM of Windows 7 hasnt been out long enough for us to re-test
the feature. I expect it would be much the same and it allows you to make sure your system is 100% stable before
using up an activation.
Step 3 - Activate Windows
mygamesfile com/quake4game
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The final step is to simply bring up the start menu, type "Activate Windows", then follow the prompts to success. This
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is a known working solution to perform a fresh install using upgrade media, but let me warn you now, it may eventually
get patched out. With this in mind, its probably best to make sure activating is the first thing you do before you hit up
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the Maximum PC Newsletter
Windows Update if you're trying this on SP1 or SP2.
Conclusion
Submit
Its unfortunate that Microsoft didnt choose to enforce the honor system method when it comes to upgrading, but I
suppose you cant begrudge them their attempts to stem piracy. As for why Microsoft was so tight lipped about the
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k
l
m
n
HTML
j Text
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exact upgrade requirements, well probably never know, but it was likely just an attempt to avoid further controversy.
All things considered however, its rather underhanded to allow users to install without a product key, fine tune their
This Month's Issue
systems, then not allow them to activate, with no phone number to call and petition your case. This happened to me
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simply because the installer failed the first time, and was then faced with a fresh disk when it came time for round 2.
How to Get FREE Programs,

Services, Software & More
How do you think the upgrade process was handled? Let us know in the comments below.
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HOW TO
Additional Resources
Build a 3D Camera
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DIY Arcade PC
If youre looking for help on how to install Windows 7 as a Dual boot, check our step by step tutorial.
WHITE PAPER
And if you didnt find the answer to your upgrade question here, thats probably because it was covered in our past
guide.
first
previous 1
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COMMENTS:35
TAGS: MICROSOFT, OPERATING SYSTEMS, WINDOWS 7, HOW-TOS, WINDOWS 7 WEEK, INSTALL, UPGRADE DISC
COMMENTS Login or register to post comments
How about XP?

Submitted by da_samman on Tue, 11/24/2009 - 1:00pm
What about us XP lovers? Is there a similar procedure for XP Professional?

Sincerely yours, from Fort Lewis, WA
SGT Samuel E. McClard II
Life's a journey, enjoy the ride!!
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upgrade from vista home premium to win 7 home premium?

Submitted by shokwaav on Mon, 11/23/2009 - 10:47am
can i use my upgrade disk to do a clean install like this? I want to move my vista installation to 'windows.old'
Page 3 of 8
THANK YOU! This was greatly

Submitted by SteveSBE on Sat, 11/14/2009 - 5:01am
THANK YOU! This was greatly apprceciated. You lowered my blood pressure 10s (if not 100s) of points.
Microsoft deserves their money and protection but I deserve the time back I spent on this issue...unnecessarily.
I FULLY agree that its rather underhanded to allow users to install without a product key, fine tune their systems,
then not allow them to activate, with no phone number to call. This also happened to me and I spent my valuable
time doing what Microsoft said was a simple short excercise.WHY CAN'T THEY PUT THIS FACT IN BIG BIG
LETTERS so you see it before spending 3-4 hours upgrading only to find you "need" to start again.
I will seriously consider Macintosh the next time. I spend far far far far few hours "maintaining" my Mac than I do
my PC. I was hoping for better in Windows 7 but it looks like the same old story.
Thanks again.
Steve
So this is Win7
Submitted by FascistNation on Mon, 11/09/2009 - 4:40pm
I think I will wait for SP2. ;-)
Freedom's the Answer.

What's the Question?
Doesn't if figure...
Submitted by cubesteak on Sun, 11/08/2009 - 1:09am
Doesn't if figure that MS would take something as good as Win7 and FRACK IT UP with stupidity like this. I swear
they GOAD people into pirating their stuff with this kind of crap.
Oh, and CrashTECH - Get off your high horse and realize that the people who want to pirate Win7 wouldn't be
complaining in this board about ACTIVATING it. DUH. No - people are pissed that MS penalizes the PAYING
customer by adding in this bass-ackwards install step making things take twice as long.
I buy my software - I have more licensed copies of several versions of Windows laying around than I know what
to do with. I was hoping to use Win7 for many years to come, but I don't want to sign up for double installing OS's
simply because MS puts a lame ass attempt at stemming piracy. Yeah, like this will help deter the pirates.
PLEASE. The only thing it does is piss off the honest people and make them want to BE pirates. I'd imagine
several people will end up buying a legal copy and then using a pirated installer simply because its easier. They
might as well name this Windows 7 CS by Adobe..
I don't know why I expect more from MS, I really should know better by now.
I couldn't do a clean
Submitted by mkarias1 on Sat, 11/07/2009 - 1:51pm
I couldn't do a clean install my Upgrade W7 disc on a new HD. It did work with the registry hack. (I had XP but it
was on another HD.)
Windows 7 Upgrade
Submitted by Riskjudge911 on Thu, 11/05/2009 - 11:13am
I have the retail version but my friend got the Upgrade Home Premium. He wiped his hard drive, then installed
Windows 7 Upgrade Home Premium..then after installation was done he rebooted and re-installed Windows 7
over the previous installation that he just installed. This fooled the system into thinking it had a previous OS. Then
he activated it and boom no problems at all. So if you don't want to rename anything or mess with the registry this
method works too. (Although takes a bit more time).
Windows.old
Submitted by Dies on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 11:08pm
Totally works
Formated my raptor drive then dropped in the Upgrade CD i recieved today and done the install procedure. Got
into windows first thing i did was make a windows.old folder and then went onto activation and it worked.
Ive got legit keys for XP anywhos so doesnt really matter to me but one less step is nice.
Page 4 of 8
You guys are late

Submitted by mkarias1 on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 3:42pm
Another site initially posted part of this back on the 22nd. Last update was 25th.
http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/clean_install_upgrade_media.asp
there's a pretty simple way

Submitted by arkweld on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 2:54pm
there's a pretty simple way to upgrade software that many other software retailers use but MS didn't. Just don't
supply new registration numbers with upgrade packs and get the user to enter the existing serial number for their
previous OS.
MS could even have used the disk check method during install and that would have saved time.
Clean Install Using Upgrade

Submitted by sammyd253 on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 2:25pm
Someone probably already posted this, but...

I purchased a retail copy of Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade from Best Buy. I threw the 64-bit copy in my
dvd-rom, booted my PC from that drive, formatted my drive and chose to install there. Once setup prompted me
for my product key, I didn't enter it. Setup finishes and you'll eventually boot into your freshly installed OS. Install
your drivers, and install ALL Windows Updates. Run Windows Updates and reboot until you can't get new
updates. Then activate your copy of Windows using your product key. It should go through no problem. If it
doesn't, then you have to move onto the registry hack method.
Either way, you can avoid having to install a previous version of the OS first.
Hope this helps! And if someone already posted this, my bad.
Fresh Install with Legit Upgrade

Submitted by HokieTechie on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 1:20pm
This "you have a copy of XP, so you are fine" argument only works for your first Windows 7 install.
In the course of my legitimate ownership of a Windows XP Upgrade (from a legal copy of Windows 98), I have
done a fresh reinstall because of a hard drive failure, a fresh reinstall because of a motherboard upgrade, and a
fresh reinstall just because I built up to much runtime crap over the course of several years of normal use. Each
of these actions is perfectly legit under the non-OEM license.
Microsoft's new "you must install and activate and install XP first" would have added a large amount of pointless
effort to each of these steps. And, one day, if I upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows whatever, does Microsoft
expect me to install 3 operating systems?
Someone in Redmond just isn't thinking ahead about all the ways that their product is (legally) used.
crashtech... wtf?
Submitted by DoctorX on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 1:14pm
Why are you harping on the upgrade having to have a valid OS? Almost everyone here does. But most like me
do not want any garbage from the old install on the new install. Clean install is still the best way.
Have a little consideration dude!
on my main machine I had the

Submitted by badfrog on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 11:48am
on my main machine I had the RTM build installed, and was able to use the upgrade version to install without
issue. and that wasn't not a validated/activated prior install.
if needed, I could have reinstalled XP and activated it, but I am glad I didn't have to sit through two OS installs.
New SSD & Win7 fresh install

Submitted by sotoa on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 10:40am
Win7 Pro is sitting in the unopened box until my SSD 160GB Intel arrives. This baby is getting a FRESH install.
Was waiting for prices to drop, TRIM to be available and Intel to add the TRIM firmware.
So why should I install Vista, activate, then install Win7? I want as little garbage on my SSD as possible. The
MOST hoops they should do is ask for the old DVD as verification or something. Why be treated like a criminal?
Page 5 of 8
I'm going to try these tricks first.

avatar
If you don't have a valid

Submitted by CrashTECH on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 8:56am
If you don't have a valid license for a prior OS, it serves you right for trying to get it cheap by cheating and getting
an upgrade license. It is called an upgrade because you are UPGRADING from prior version. You don't have a
prior version you say? Oh, tough luck, go buy the retail version and stop whining because MS punished you for
not abiding by the terms of the EULA.
Upgrades
Submitted by Techrocket9 on Fri, 10/30/2009 - 6:49am
I don't know about anyone else, but I am only going to use this hack when I have a purchased version of
Windows and don't want to reinstall it.
_____________________________________________________
An army of pacifists can be defeated by one man with the will to fight.
There shouldn't be uprgade

Submitted by COMMANDER_COOK on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 9:27am
There shouldn't be uprgade versions, just cheaper fulls.

Man, wtf, it's a pain that

Submitted by jcollins on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 7:26am
Man, wtf, it's a pain that they fail it AFTER you've possibly done your hours of install and wasted your time.
avatar
If you had installed it

If you had installed it properly and had a prior version of windows, then you wouldn't have gotten a slap on
the wrist and wasted your time.
Clean/Custom installs for XP upgrades do not require a format.

Hrm, guess I got lucky. I

Submitted by Pyrophorics on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 7:03am
Hrm, guess I got lucky. I just installed Windows 7 on three computers this weekend with the home premium family
pack upgrade and on two of the computers I deleted the partitions and formatted then proceeded to install. I
activated all my copies yesterday with one day left to do so.
Frak You, Microsoft

Submitted by HokieTechie on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 6:49am
Personally, I canceled my pre-order of Office 7 Progessional Upgrade

when I read about this "cannot do a clean install" nonsense, and I will
continue to run XP into the indefinite future. Microsoft really screwed
the paying customer on this one.
I am glad to see that the hack
is easy to explain and to execute. I hope Microsoft has the good sense
to see their mistake and not to try to nerf this in a WGA update or in
Windows 7 SP 1.
avatar
You have a prior version,

You have a prior version, you are fine. MS didn't screw anybody. You have a prior version installed you XP
would have become Windows.Old and you would have been just fine.
Page 6 of 8
I don't think they are retarded

Submitted by Wonko33 on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 6:43am
I think they just don't mind that people do it. I mean you paid for the product, and really who doesn't have win
vista or XP right now? (You could say Mac people but I am talking about people with computers).
And even if someone doesn't have a previous version of windows, well that's a new "convert" so who cares. It's
not like we didn't pay for Win 7 when we do this.
It really is win-win to let us do that, they just have a different official policy.
I would've posted that myself....

Submitted by keithfreitag on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 5:36am
I would've posted that myself but I figured I might get in trouble from Microsoft. Those are the steps they walked
me through when I custom upgraded (clean install) over XP to 7 Home Prem Family Pack. I just explained that
MS says for XP users to do a custom install to a clean drive and then restore all programs and files. So when it
didn't work, MS is responsible for the fix. Had I know it was OK to post those steps, I would've done it last week
and saved some headaches.
Steve Jobs is the Devil and Windows 7 wasn't his idea!
Keith
worked for me
Submitted by allantang on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 2:14am
I was running Win7 RC1 and did a full clean install with the upgrade dvd, doing the double install.
I first booted from the dvd and formated the drive through the installer, then installed, all using the custom
installer. I did not enter they key during the install, it will of course say that it is an upgrade key...
Once the install was finished and windows is loaded, I opened the dvd from windows, ran the installer again, and
did the upgrade install option.
Once everything was finished I entered my key and windows was activated, no problem. I have done this with pro
and home premium.
Now that I think of it though I did not use the actual upgrade dvd. I used the technet dvds downloaded from
microsoft... but still worked with my upgrade key doing this process.
Not me...
Submitted by K0BALT on Mon, 10/26/2009 - 11:14pm
I did my Windows 7 Ultimate install right over Vista so I can use my Vista key for another build... btw, it was the
system builders version of Vista, not a Dell retail.
or better yet!
Submitted by jimmynemo2 on Mon, 10/26/2009 - 8:24pm
so I'd read these same tips on other sites, but when i tried them on a particular PC, they didnt work. So on a long
shot I tried something that I've now repeated and verified on 4 PC's since:
Just install a clean install, Dont enter any Key when asked. Then, once you are read y to activate, create a folder
called Windows.old on the root of your C: drive, then activate with your key just like normal. I know, it sounds too
simple, and that it's too big a loophole for them to have missed, but it's worked for me 4 times now and my
machines are on a retail upgrade disc and key.
Hope this helps someone.

I like simplicity...
Submitted by Larry Lee on Sat, 10/31/2009 - 8:26am
So, the way I see it, you simply format your hard drive for a clean install, (after backing up your important
data, of course) then you skip the initial registration during the install and create an empty folder in the root of
the C: drive named windows.old and THEN you register Windows 7 and apply the updates.
That's simple enough!
Page 7 of 8
Submitted by jcollins on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 7:28am
Very interesting. Sounds like what they used to do to validate you had a previous version. So they didn't
change that like they thought they did? Very useful to know Jimmy.
nope
Submitted by jimmynemo2 on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 8:30am
No I guess they didnt, becuase the folder was completely empty, so there was no previous key to be
verified. I dont think Im just missing anything becuase the first machine I did this on didnt have any
windows OS on it at all, it went from ubuntu to ubuntu / win7, so yeah, absolutely no verification of keys,
just verification of the windows.old folder.
That's hilarious. Microsoft

Submitted by Vegan on Mon, 10/26/2009 - 10:08pm
That's hilarious. Microsoft should be ashamed at that one.

I thought it actually made

Submitted by COMMANDER_COOK on Mon, 10/26/2009 - 9:16pm
I thought it actually made note of the old product key and verified it.
But your method seems to exploit a similar vunerability by making it look like there was a previous windows.
But it looks like it doesn't check to see if the old version was activated, though.
that is too simple

Submitted by ubuntucuber on Mon, 10/26/2009 - 8:49pm
WOW all is i can say, i think you beat the magazine in simplicity!!!!!
~UbuntuCuber
Worked for me.

Submitted by sanravel on Mon, 10/26/2009 - 9:47pm
I added a new hardrive to my box with Vista, did a clean install, created the Windows.old file and
registered fine. I copied all of my files and am good to go. I made a backup of the new install and I'm
keeping a backup of the Vista install just in case I need a file.
Thanks
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How To: Use Your Windows 7 Upgrade

Installing to a Fresh Drive

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Step 1 - Access & Edit the Registry

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listed on the left in the following order:

Step 2 - Re-Arm The Activation

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Windows 7 Upgrade Guide

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COMMENTS Login or register to post comments

How about XP?

What about us XP lovers? Is there a similar procedure for XP Professional?

upgrade from vista home premium to win 7 home premium?

Login or register to post comments

THANK YOU! This was greatly

I think I will wait for SP2. ;-)

Freedom's the Answer.

You guys are late

there's a pretty simple way

Clean Install Using Upgrade

Someone probably already posted this, but...

Fresh Install with Legit Upgrade

Login or register to post comments

on my main machine I had the

New SSD & Win7 fresh install

I'm going to try these tricks first.

If you don't have a valid

There shouldn't be uprgade

There shouldn't be uprgade versions, just cheaper fulls.

Man, wtf, it's a pain that

If you had installed it

Clean/Custom installs for XP upgrades do not require a format.

Hrm, guess I got lucky. I

Frak You, Microsoft

Personally, I canceled my pre-order of Office 7 Progessional Upgrade

Login or register to post comments

You have a prior version,

Login or register to post comments

I don't think they are retarded

I would've posted that myself....

Hope this helps someone.