Short of calling Microsoft (probably what I'll have to do) and convincing them that nothing underhanded is going on, is there any way to swap the Win 7 Pro key I activated on my laptop and the Win 7 Ultimate key I activated on my desktop? Basically, I want to deactivate both and then use them on the opposite machine. I know the key is tied to a hardware signature, so, I can't just change the key, but, I want each key associated with the machine other than the one on which it is now activated. I want Ultimate on the laptop. Both keys were purchased.
if they are retail keys you should be able to swap the keys. The problem you will have will be that the computer that goes from Ultimate to Pro will need to be reinstalled as a clean install. The Pro to Ultimate machine you can just open up the windows anytime upgrade and insert the ultimate key, ten minutes and a reboot later and you will have ultimate. As long as the keys have only been used the one time AND they are retail keys you should have no problem reactivating them. BTW, there is virtually no difference between Ultimate and pro, bitlocker and a few "ultimate extras" are the main differences. Unless there is something you absolutely have to have from ultimate I would suggest just leaving the activations the way they are.
Actually, the reason I want to go to Ultimate is for the ability to switch languages. I speak two and am learning two more. Only Ultimate lets you switch languages and I thought that Windows in the language I am learning is a good study/reinforcement tool. I want it on my laptop as that would be with me as I travel.