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Possible Duplicate:
Windows 7 Professional to Windows 7 Home Premium?

I want to change my OS from Windows 7 Ultimate edition to Windows 7 Professional edition without formatting. How can it be done?

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windows 7 ultimate editon i am using is pirated one and the preofessional one i have is licensed copy. – legendlovermaddy Sep 7 '11 at 18:50
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This would be a downgrade, not an upgrade. Good for your for going legit, though. – Joel Coehoorn Sep 7 '11 at 19:02
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In the specific case of going legit, though, I would highly recommend a new install. The crack/activator/whatever used by your bootleg Ultimate version may remain in place (depending on how it worked), and that might cause Windows Genuine Advantage to give you a hassle in the future even though you're now legitimately licensed. It depends on how it was bootlegged - if you were just rearming the grace period, you're fine (that's a legitimate Windows function that Microsoft doesn't consider suspicious), but if it replaced or modified any Windows components you could be in for future trouble. – jcrawfordor Sep 7 '11 at 19:31
@nusic2myear.... wher can i find the files and settings transfer wizard... – legendlovermaddy Sep 8 '11 at 20:03
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closed as exact duplicate by sblair, ChrisF, Diogo, slhck, Gareth Sep 8 '11 at 2:27

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2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

I echo the reformat and reinstall for all the reasons others have noted. I'd only add that you can backup pretty much all your settings and data using the File and Settings Transfer Wizard (I don't think it was renamed in 7). This makes such a transfer incredibly painless.

Just create the archive of all the files and settings before you wipe.

Then wipe.

Then reinstall your apps.

Then run the wizard again to put everything back in place. It catches most application settings as well and so there's very little reconfiguration you need to do.

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up vote 1 down vote

I'd personally backup and format for the installation of Win 7 Professional.

If you want to preserve applications that are installed as well as settings etc - there are some registry keys you can modify to make your system look like a lower version so you can "upgrade" to Professional. I helped a neighbor do this before when a "Tech Friend" installed a bootlegged copy of Win 7 Ultimate.

I used this guide to see what registry keys needed to be modified:

UNAWAVE - Downgrade Ultimate to Professional

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