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I have purchased a laptop that has Windows 7 Home Premium OEM.

I have also purchased a Windows 7 Professional Installation CD.

Can I just put this CD into the drive and load Professional over the Home Premium that is currently on the laptop?

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  • Is the 'Professional Installation CD' a retail copy or another OEM version?
    – HaydnWVN
    Jan 16, 2012 at 16:44

4 Answers 4

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If you mean upgrade (so you won't lose any data): Yes, you can. Just pop in the disc, and the installer will have an option "Upgrade".

(This is the so called "Anytime Upgrade".)

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    Always best to have a good backup as well. Better safe than sorry
    – Dave M
    Jan 16, 2012 at 17:08
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Absolutely. Just wipe the disk and start over, no reason to keep any of the garbage that came on the system either. A fresh load of vanilla Windows 7 Pro out of the box will run circles around an installation from a manufacturer laden with a zillion software installations you'll rarely use.

If you mean can you upgrade to it. Probably (though with "Windows Anytime upgrades" out there, i'm not entirely certain if an upgrade from Home Premium OEM to a full on Retail Pro Install will work, but most likely the upgrade option will be there when you insert the disc), but I still don't recommend it. MUCH better to install fresh and only install any drivers or utilities you will NEED or WANT.

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  • That's also true. Both are possible.
    – Apache
    Jan 16, 2012 at 16:03
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    To be charitable, not EVERY OEM loads their machines up with a "zillion software installations you'll rarely use".
    – Shinrai
    Jan 16, 2012 at 16:14
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    @Shinrai Most do.
    – kinokijuf
    Jan 16, 2012 at 16:50
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    @kinokijuf - I can't disagree with 'most'. :)
    – Shinrai
    Jan 16, 2012 at 18:27
  • I would like to point out that when doing a fresh install on a laptop, there is the occasional time when the hardware uses non-standard drivers - which is to say, Windows doesn't automatically install them (probably happens for desktops too, just not in my experience). I recommend you ensure you know where the manufacturer's drivers are (usually their website) and have a way to download them and transfer them if things go awry. If it's a really new laptop model though, you're most likely fine.
    – Roadrunner-EX
    Jan 16, 2012 at 21:12
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Windows 7 installation CDs should have an "upgrade" option. But I'd recommended backing up your data and installing the Windows 7 Professional edition over your existing Home Premium partition.

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Sure. If you have crapware on it and don't want it, just do a fresh install. Otherwise, upgrade, but be sure to backup your data, just to be safe.

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