Quick question - Can I reinstall Win7 Home Premium using a Professional DVD?

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Concentric

[H]ard|Gawd
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Oct 15, 2007
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My friend has a new laptop with Win 7 Home Premium and the usual array of bloatware.
Can I use my Win 7 Pro DVD to install Win 7 a-fresh and then put in his Home Premium license key? I seem to remember hearing that all install DVDs are the same, with the key determining which features are available?
 
No. In Vista you could have done that, but in Win7 ei.cfg locks each disc to a SKU. If it was the opposite order (HP disc and Pro key) you could install with no serial and use Anytime Upgrade, but you can't go down a SKU with Anytime Upgrade, so that won't work.
 
Yes you can. Follow the instructions for installing from a USB flash drive (or download any one of several apps that do it for you). Once that process is done, delete the ei.cfg file from the flash drive. Boot from the flash drive, and you'll have a choice of which version to install. I don't use the discs at all, to be honest because the flash drive method is much faster.
 
Interesting. I wonder if you're both right and it's just possible to, as you say, work around it.
Now I need a large USB stick to try it out :S
 
I am using the USB method, it pops up with a menu which allows you to choose what to install, and the install has been faster than using a DVD on the systems I have installed Win 7 on.
 
Concentric said:
Interesting. I wonder if you're both right and it's just possible to, as you say, work around it.
Now I need a large USB stick to try it out :S
Click to expand...

Yup, they are both right. If you use the factory disc, no dice you get only what it says on the disc. All of the files are there though, so if you make a copy of the disc without the ei.cfg file or use the usb install method then you can install whichever version you have a license for. The ei.cfg file is just a short text file that auto selects the version labeled on the disc.
 
I did it a few times following a guide, but then I came across the software I linked. No need to use a guide anymore.
 
Concentric said:
Interesting. I wonder if you're both right and it's just possible to, as you say, work around it.
Now I need a large USB stick to try it out :S
Click to expand...

Deacon's right, if you don't have a large enough USB drive you can just create a new disc w/o the ei.cfg file, same principle, just need to edit the ISO after you extract it, and then make sure it's still bootable when you burn it to a new disc... But yeah, the flash drive is simpler. 'Specially if you use something like WinToFlash (or the tool linked above) which completely automates the process of copying the files from the disc and making the flash drive bootable, takes all of two clicks for the whole process (three clicks after you delete ei.cfg). :p
 
Just wanted to pop in and say thanks for the info. I did last night exactly what the OP wanted to do, thanks to the advice in this post.
 
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