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I've got Windows 7, but let's say I want to temporarily pretend that I've got Windows 7 Service Pack 1 or maybe Windows 8 installed, such that a program thinks it's running on a different operating system version? I figure there have got to be some registry settings or something of that nature which controls what is reported.

I'm aware that this is generally unwise, but I have curiosity.

Edit: I know one such location the identifying information is stored is in the registry's HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion.CurrentVersion, which contains Windows Major.Minor version numbers, but I'm wondering what other self-identifying values Windows stores and where it keeps them.

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    Install VMware Player and install Windows 7 / 7 SP1 / 8.... I would not tweak the registry and mess up
    – Prasanna
    Mar 22, 2015 at 18:54
  • That would be akin to actually running a newer version of Windows. I want to have a version of Windows claim to be something it's not. Mar 22, 2015 at 19:10
  • I am afraid you cannot just trick a system into pretending to be another system. But if you want multiple systems, you can either double boot those or run them in virtual (which is easier). Note that you need a valid product key for each seperate installation.
    – whs
    Mar 22, 2015 at 19:47
  • You do realize the the primary difference between versions is not the name, it's that they are substantively different? A program doesn't care about the name. It needs services from the OS and expects to find various things in prescribed places. Regardless of a version ID you might hack into place, software won't run if it isn't in the environment it needs.
    – fixer1234
    Mar 23, 2015 at 1:57
  • I do realize that software will fail in all sorts of interesting ways if it's in an unsupported environment (but thinks it's not). That's part of what I'd like to investigate. Mar 23, 2015 at 16:27

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