I have a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit which came with the computer (so its an OEM edition I guess?). I want to upgrade to Professional using the discounted student upgrade media.
However every where I look it only talks about upgrading from XP or Vista, and for upgrading between editions it says to use the Windows Anytime Upgrade (which seems massively overpriced to me, where does Microsoft figures there is £120 worth of differences between home and pro?).
Will the student upgrade media work for upgrading to Professional (I don't mind if it takes a reformat to do it, as long as the media will actually work)?
Best Answer
I used the instructions posted at this article to convert a Windows 7 x86 Professional Edition iso image to Windows 7 x64 Professional. Its a simple process of editing one file (ei.cfg) through a script which makes the image an "universal disc" that will prompt the user to select an edition during setup, which can also be reversed to go back to the previous iso state if needed. This method edits the iso image of the operating system, so you'd have to reinstall Windows back onto your machine. Your current cd-key will not work when upgrading from Home to Professional edition, you'd have to purchase a new cd-key from Microsoft if you're not willing to use a cracked serial. I'm not sure if the student upgrade media will work for upgrading to Professional, but I have no hopes due to Microsoft extreme anti-consumer policies.
http://code.kliu.org/misc/winisoutils/