Upgrading from Windows 7 Home Premium to Professional

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DHFF

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Sep 18, 2012
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Greetings,

I just did a clean install of Win 7 Home and everything went smoothly but I have 32 gigs installed and it shows 32 but says only 16 are available. I am told this is directly because of a limitation in Win 7 home. so I have two questions:

1) is their anyway to modify Win 7 home so I can access all 32 gigs?
2) if I use an anytime upgrade to Win 7 pro will there be any issues? I have read that upgrades sometimes have unpredictable results, will that be likely even though I have a clean install? so far the only software loaded is a handful of drivers for the hardware.

your advice is most welcomed,

Don
 
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I really wish this limitation was actually announced by Microsoft. I have been doing research on upgrading for weeks and this never came up. had I known I would not have bought so much RAM.

anyone interested in purchasing 16 gigs of slightly used Kingston Hyper X Blue 1600mhz? 😉

Don
 
You can use *any* valid windows key in the anytime upgrade process AFAIK, so if you can find a decent offer or student deal on professional then that would work, also with win8 around the corner, you may find some retail boxes going cheap.
 
As best I know, the only bad thing about using the "upgrade anytime" option is that Microsoft might charge more than what you would spend on a full OS disk from Newegg. Check the price difference before you make a decision.

I've seen a lot of people buying large amounts of ram lately because ram is so cheap, but unless there is a specific need for it there is no reason to buy it. It some cases it can even slow the computer down, besides using more electricity. The only reason I have bought Win7 Pro is because I have a couple dual socket computers. Otherwise i stick with Win7 Premium.
 
I've seen a lot of people buying large amounts of ram lately because ram is so cheap, but unless there is a specific need for it there is no reason to buy it. It some cases it can even slow the computer down, besides using more electricity. The only reason I have bought Win7 Pro is because I have a couple dual socket computers. Otherwise i stick with Win7 Premium.

I know and I am guilty as charged. I probably will never need more then 16 gigs as most of what I do is photo and graphic design work but they had a sale on the 32 gig kit so I figured what the heck. right now its a matter of principle. I hate having something I cant use. I just wish on Microsoft's website this limitation was listed when they show the chart comparing home to pro to ultimate. would have saved me about $70. now I have 16 gigs I can currently do nothing with unless I upgrade.

does anyone know how much the Anytime upgrade from Premium to Pro is?

Don
 


I found this:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_install/windows-upgrade-anytime-pricing-question-why-so/5a05e526-eb32-487f-b299-9eb8b2cc0917

So the cost to use the Anytime Upgrade appears to be $130. I've often seen sales at Newegg of Win7 Pro for less money. Further advantages to buying a disk from Newegg is that you effectively have two licenses in case you every want to build another computer and you have a physical disk in case you ever need to reload the OS for any reason.
 
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Thanks to both Sailer and Area51, it bothers me that had I known last week I could have just spend $40 more and not had problems. now I have to come out of pocket at least $90 more just to get full use of my system. realistically I dont know that I want to do that. I already spent more then I wanted on this build. I might just pull the extra RAM and run it at 16 gigs.

Thanks again for all the help.

Don
 
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