Question regarding Windows 7 Images

[ComputerBox34]

I need to load Windows 7 Home Premium x64 on a machine but I only have images for Win 7 Pro x64 and Win 7 Ultimate x64.

If I were to load the Win 7 Ultimate in there but used the key for Home Premium, would the installer be smart enough to just load Home Premium without the Ultimate features?

If not, is there any legit source to get images from? Needs to be a vanilla copy.

 

[Bahamut]

Halfway into the first post in this thread you'll find direct download links for the Windows 7 installation ISOs from Microsoft - they are hosted by a company called Digital River which is the "official" supplier for the Anytime Upgrade program since that's typically done by doing just that: downloading the installation files/ISOs and using them.

http://forums.mydigitallife.info/th...nks-English-Spanish-German-French-X86-amp-X64

I also made another post recently with the proper SHA1 checksums to verify these ISOs as untouched aka "vanilla" ones so I'll repost those checksums here:

; x86-32
5dc1457bc4b3d94097f499b15dfdb3c21dadcdf5 en_windows_7_starter_x86_dvd_x15-68956.iso
101574faa17fdb430bb027271ef0a58f0e18ad47 en_windows_7_home_basic_x86_dvd_x15-65654.iso
cc9d8220b2179e784d85bf1ea98d2ee2190d534f en_windows_7_home_premium_x86_dvd_x15-65732.iso
697fa06554502fb21d30275273b25747299c020d en_windows_7_professional_x86_dvd_x15-65804.iso
5395dc4b38f7bdb1e005ff414deedfdb16dbf610 en_windows_7_ultimate_x86_dvd_x15-65921.iso

; x86-64
336779ea6b65f63e11a609b4d021439c47ab315b en_windows_7_home_premium_x64_dvd_x15-65733.iso
50127304441a793ee51b3f501289f6599a559e9f en_windows_7_professional_x64_dvd_x15-65805.iso
326327cc2ff9f05379f5058c41be6bc5e004baa7 en_windows_7_ultimate_x64_dvd_x15-65922.iso

That should be all you require. Just make SURE you download the correct ISO, aka English, whatever, and you do have an actual legit Product Key for the given edition. If you need something to use to verify the SHA1 checksums, you can use HashTab, it's the coolest thing ever!

 

[MrGuvernment]

you can edit a .ini file to make any version of win7 show ALL versions on install, not just the one you bought

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/...ll-from-single-edition-dvd-disc-media-or-iso/

How to Select Any Edition or Version (SKU) of Windows 7 to Install From Single Edition DVD Disc Media or ISO


It’s possible the Windows 7 ISO or DVD disc media that end-user possessed may be restricted to install a single edition or version of Windows 7 only. For example, a Windows 7 Professional media may not prompt option to select which edition of Windows 7 to install, and instead will install Windows 7 Professional edition. Likewise for Windows 7 Ultimate DVD ISO image or disc which may not have edition selection screen.

However, all DVD of Windows 7 does contains and able to install all and any version of Windows 7, from Windows 7 Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional to Ultimate edition. Actually, the ability to select the version or edition of Windows 7 during setup installation, or which edition that the setup will automatically install, lies with a small configuration file named ei.cfg on the Windows 7 DVD, disc media or ISO image.



The content of the ei.cfg file, inside the “sources” folder of the DVD looks like below:

[EditionID]
Ultimate
[Channel]
Retail
[VL]
0

When ei.cfg does not exist, Windows 7 setup process will display a screen during Install Windows wizard to ask user to select the operating system (edition) to install. The selection of OS includes Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Home Basic, Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate. Thus, in order to be able to install any editions or install another different edition of Windows 7 without having to download ISO image or order a new DVD of Windows 7 with all SKUs enabled (allSKU version), use the following hack to delete or modify ei.cfg file.

Download and install an disc image utility such as PowerISO or UltraISO to open the ISO image of Windows 7 DVD. If you own a physical DVD disc media, the similar tool allows you to rip the DVD to ISO or other image format too.
Another alternative for user with Windows 7 DVD ISO image downloaded via torrent or from Internet is to extract all contents of the ISO image by using extraction tool such as WinRAR or 7-zip, or mount the ISO and copy contents to a folder.

Browse to /sources/ folder.
Locate ei.cfg file.
Depending on preference, it’s possible to modify/edit or simply delete ei.cfg file, as explained below.
Choice 1: Delete ei.cfg

When ei.cfg is deleted, Windows 7 setup wizard will give user an option to select and choose which version (SKU) of operating system user wants to install during installation.



Choice 2: Edit and Modify ei.cfg

By modifying the EditionID section of ei.cfg by replacing Ultimate (or other edition specified there) with another edition, user can preset another edition SKU of Windows 7 that user want setup to install automatically. The Edition ID available for installation are as follow:

Ultimate
Professional
HomePremium
HomeBasic
Starter
Save the ei.cfg after editing.

For user who wants to in-place upgrade to Windows 7, it’s possible to run setup.exe from extracted DVD contents now. The modified ISO can also be burned to a DVD disc or saved to a new ISO image.
Tip: Editing of ei.cfg can now be automated by Windows 7 ISO Image Edition Switcher, and deletion of ei.cfg with ei.cfg Removal Utility.

"Digital River" - why would MS need someone else to distribute their OS via upgrades? or does MS own Digital River, but again why use another name then microsoft? Proof of them being their official distributer?

 

[Bahamut]

"Digital River" - why would MS need someone else to distribute their OS via upgrades? or does MS own Digital River, but again why use another name then microsoft? Proof of them being their official distributer?

http://corporate.digitalriver.com/store/digriv/ContentTheme/pbPage.Homepage/sectionName.home

Because Microsoft doesn't have to foot the bill for maintaining server farms and bandwidth, that's why. It's called outsourcing and even Microsoft does it from time to time. This is a rather old (3 years ago) press release but it's basically the info:

http://news.office-watch.com/t/n.aspx?articleid=70&zoneid=10

 

[munkle]

"Digital River" - why would MS need someone else to distribute their OS via upgrades? or does MS own Digital River, but again why use another name then microsoft? Proof of them being their official distributer?

http://www.microsoft.com/student/office/en-us/default.aspx

Click that, then click buy now. Digitalriver! If microsoft links it themselves I'm pretty sure it is legit.