Upgrade OEM Windows 7 Pro to Windows 7 Enterprise

Our hardware vendor has sold us a laptop that comes with Windows 7 Pro OEM. Since we want Windows 7 Enterprise (for features like DirectAccess and BitLocker), the vendor has supplied us with a Software Assurance only license to upgrade OEM Win 7 Pro to Win 7 Ent.

Do I need to install Windows 7 Enterprise Volume License media and re-install Windows, or is there a process to turn this existing Windows 7 Pro install into an "Enterprise" ?

ChrisGNZ

Posted 2009-11-12T02:24:10.727

Reputation: 195

1Why on earth was question changed 2 years, only to have the tag updated, it serves no purpose. – Ramhound – 2011-12-19T19:22:27.230

Answers

You will need to do a fresh install (or possibly an upgrade if you wish).

Enterprise is not an edition that is commonly available in shops to the general public and is not covered by anytime upgrade (where you can upgrade editions easily).

William Hilsum

Posted 2009-11-12T02:24:10.727

Reputation: 111 572

1Took the plunge and downloaded the Win 7 Software Assurance Upgrade ISO and burned it to a DVD. I then put it into the Win 7 Pro laptop (while Win 7 Pro was running) and and ran the upgrade setup - the upgrade told me it was not possible to upgrade this version of windows, so instead it copied the existing install to windows.old and did a clean fresh install. Fortunately HP provided a Windows 7 drivers+applications cd so I was able to reinstall the HP drivers after the new install was completed. – ChrisGNZ – 2009-11-13T09:17:27.087

Upgrading windows 7 between Editions (e.g. "Business" to "Enterprise")

Open up the Registry Editor (Start > Run > regedit) Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version as seen in the screenshot below 2.
Replace the word “Business” with “Enterprise” in ProductName and EditionID. You’re done modifying the installed copy of Windows 7.
Start the Windows 7 Enterprise installer from disc within Windows and reinstall windows doing a in-place upgrade.

Robert Mori

Posted 2009-11-12T02:24:10.727

Reputation: 49

Tried and tested. Works fine. Cheers. – steve – 2011-06-28T09:01:57.077

There are various 'Chart's which indicate what's possible. Microsoft's Chart maybe the best

If in doubt I would phone Microsoft Support.

One other thought there is a Windows Anytime Upgrade, but that would like involve extra cost.

Guy Thomas

Posted 2009-11-12T02:24:10.727

Reputation: 3 160

That chart is for Vista Upgrades, not Win7 upgrades. – Dan is Fiddling by Firelight – 2009-11-12T20:42:16.060

from my very limited understanding, it appears that Microsoft will only sell the Enterprise version as a Software Assurance upgrade. So it looks like "Windows Anytime Upgrade" is not applicable...? – ChrisGNZ – 2009-11-13T09:18:58.770