Windows 7 Upgrade: The Normal and The Weird…
If you are thinking about upgrading to Windows 7, I’ve advocated in the past that you go with a clean install.
A clean install is when you clear your hard drive of all your stuff, including all your programs, operating system files, and everything else on your computer. Obviously, you need to back up all your personal files such as documents, photos, and music to DVDs, an external hard drive, or an online backup service.
The normal
After backing up all your information, you should restart your computer with the Windows installation disc in the drive. You may need to enter the boot menu if you end up back in your operating system. Just pay attention at start up and you should be able to get the installation disc going.
Once you are in, you will click install and after a few click through screens, you will arrive at a screen that looks like this:
This will be followed by a couple of screens where you choose where to install Windows 7. After that, the installation is hands-free and consists of copying files, installing them, and configuring the set up. You might see your computer restart a couple of times and might be required to take the Windows 7 installation disc out of the drive.
Once all the automatic things happen, you will be presented with a couple of screens where you enter your user name and, optionally, a password. The next step is where the weirdness begins.
The weird
When I was doing my installation, I entered the product key provided with my install disc but it kept telling me my product key was invalid. No other information was given. After doing some research, I found that I could go ahead and leave the key blank and enter it later.
After completing the last few steps and getting Windows 7 up and going. I went to activate Windows and ran into the same thing again: my product key was invalid. However, this time I got a little more information. It informed me that the installation disc provided was valid for an upgrade only, not a new install. Well, I had previously had Windows Vista (32-bit) provided with my computer when I bought it. I wanted to install Windows 7 (64-bit) and there is no direct path to upgrade so my only choice was to clean install.
This didn’t make any sense so I called Microsoft tech support and here is what they did to fix it for me.
Let me point out before I continue: This little tip is only to be used if you have either Windows Vista or XP already installed and are upgrading, via a clean install, to Windows 7.
That being said, you might try typing in the product key because it worked on one install I did. However, it didn’t work for any of mine.
Also note that this involves messing with the registry. If you follow these instructions, nothing bad will happen. However, if you modify any other settings in the registry, you might end up making your computer unresponsive, unstable, and just generally unhappy. You can back up your registry before starting so you can have a safety net.
The steps to fixing the problem:
- Open the Start Menu and in the search box, type “regedit” with no quotes around it.
- Once the registry editor screen is up, you need to navigate through the hierarchy. The path you are going to select is Computer → HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE → SOFTWARE → Microsoft → Windows → CurrentVersion → Setup → OOBE.
- Once in the OOBE folder, you should see a couple of entries. Double click on the entry entitled “MediaBootInstall”. Change the value data from the default of 1 (one) to the new value of 0 (zero). After you are done, it should look something like this:
- You can now close the registry.
- Open the Start Menu once again and this time click “All Programs”, find the Accessories folder, and there should be an item called Command Prompt. You need to RIGHT click to bring up a menu. One of the options should have a little shield next to it and say Run as Administrator. Click it.
- At the command prompt, you are going to type “cscript.exe slmgr.vbs -rearm”. Once again, no quotes around it.
- Now you need to restart your computer.
- Once restarted, you can go into the Start Menu, Control Panel, and click on System. On the main page near the bottom, you should see a dialog that mentions activating your copy of Windows. You will be asked for your product key. Once entered, your copy of Windows should be fully functional and a logo should pop up informing you are running a copy of genuine Windows.
Note, these instructions will NOT work if you install a copy of Windows with one license on multiple computers. I purchased the family 3-pack so I am able to install on three computers.
Additionally, these instructions are NOT intended to allow the installation of Windows on a computer with another operating system (like Linux or Mac OS) or a new computer that was built or shipped with no operating system.
These instructions are simply to deal with the fact that Windows cannot tell you are upgrading from a prior version of Windows to Windows 7.
Feel free to leave comments if you have had similar problems with your installation of Windows or if you are having other problems you think might be related.
If you are having these problems but don’t think you can handle it on your own, feel free to contact The Digitante.
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