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I'm getting close to buying a new laptop with Win 7 installed. My question is, if I get Win 7 Home premium 64bit, is it easy to upgrade to Professional 64bit?
The reason I'm asking is that it's easy to find Home Premium 64 preinstalled on a store available laptop while Professional or Ultimate are apparently both fairly rare in the config I want.
I'm under the impression that all it takes is paying some money to MS and getting a code that "unlocks" the features of the upgrade?
TIA
Google: Windows 7 Anytime Upgrade
Windows Anytime Upgrade
No disks, no delays. And no leaving the house: With Windows Anytime Upgrade, you can upgrade to a more advanced edition of Windows 7—say from Home Premium to Ultimate—in as little as 10 minutes. That way, you get to take advantage of extra features while keeping your current programs, files, and settings intact.
In the past, upgrading Windows could be a bit of a hassle. In Windows 7, the software you need comes preinstalled. All you have to do is purchase an upgrade key from Microsoft or another authorized retailer to unlock those shiny new features.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...nytime-upgrade
I think you would only be able to upgrade to Ultimate from Home Premium, not Professional. At least, that's how it was with Vista. Gotta find that upgrade chart link. I could only find the Vista to 7 for now.
http://mossblog.allthingsd.com/files...rade-chart.png
Custom (Blue) = Clean install
In Place Upgrade (Green) = Upgrade install
Thanks guys, that seems like a brilliant marketing move. The manufacturers can offer just the inexpensive option while the user can quickly upgrade to anything they want without media or download.
And MS prints just one DVD to cover all the bases.