Upgrading a Windows 7 Home Premium installation to Professional or Ultimate
Don Bradbury takes you through the procedure
As we pointed out in an earlier review, most moderately-priced OEM PCs will come with Windows 7 Home Premium installed, probably in the 64-bit version unless you specify otherwise. If you want to upgrade this to a Windows 7 installation with a better specification - Professional or Ultimate - then all you need for a quick upgrade is to acquire the product key. The DVD comes with a product key for the higher spec version of the OS, in the correct bit version, and within a matter of a few minutes and a couple of auto-reboots of the system, the job will be complete.
Using this process there'll be no need for a 'clean install', ie one involving a reformat of the drive and a complete restoration of your system, applications, and personal files. It's the easy way to better performance (in terms of facility), and there are no potential compromises involved as there would be with an over-write upgrade from a previous Operating System such Vista.
First, use Microsoft's Windows Update to get your system ready for the upgrade with the latest software, then create a reliable system image backup, and verify that it can be read back, just in case something goes wrong. For this we used our preferred Acronis True Image, but any one of several modern, compatible backup programs may serve equally well. Create a System Restore point as well, and then you may wish to clean up your system a bit before proceeding.
A quick scan with Piriform's CCleaner would do nicely for this latter job, letting it remove all redundant Registry entries, for example, and also any junk files. You might also decide which, if any, of your applications you want to uninstall before proceeding.
Running Microsoft's Windows Anytime Upgrade - using any one of the several ways of doing that, including its presence on the DVD - simply lets you tell the Operating System that you have a new registration key to enter and the system takes care of the rest. Start it going and leave it to complete the task of unlocking all the features that are in the higher grade OS, because all of the features within even the highest grade of the OS are already installed in Home Premium, they just need to be unlocked with the higher grade key.
The new key tells the system all it needs to know to get on with the job. As we say, around six minutes, plus a couple of automatic reboots of the system, are all that's required. Then instead of 'Home Premium' being the boot-time label you'll see, 'Professional' or 'Ultimate' will replace it and you'll be ready for off to investigate the additional features.
Make sure that you don't have any user files open when you start the upgrade, of course, and make sure the upgrade isn't interrupted while it's running, and all should be well and you'll be ready to avail yourself of the new facilities of the higher grade Operating System.
These usefully include the ability to run older software in XP Compatibility Mode. It's useful if you have legacy programs that will not run directly under Windows 7. The availability of Bitlocker in the Ultimate version may also have some appeal, giving added security to your files. Networking features are also enhanced, and decent Backup and Restore features are, at last, brought to the OS itself, as opposed to having to use commercial programs, though many will still prefer to leave speciality tasks such as backup and restore to those with more experience.
In conclusion
Upgrading your Windows 7 installation makes sense if you can use the extra features. Some will not, of course, but those who do will be pleased to see how simple the upgrade process really is. Recommended.
