I just purchased a new Dell laptop with W7 Home Premium pre-installed. What would be required to do a clean install of Ultimate? Just the .iso and a key, or would some BIOS mods be needed as well?
Why would u biosmod if your laptop already came with 7 (which needs slic 2.1 in bios to activate).. just do a "anytime upgrade" using dell ultimate oemslp key.
Depends on what you would be most comfortable with. You could use a loader if you prefer a software solution or mod the BIOS (if necessary) for a more permanent solution. At any rate, the three things you need are a OEM:SLP Key, a SLIC Table and a matching Certificate. The SLIC Table can be either added to the BIOS or emulated. What install medium you use is pretty much irrelevant as any of them (except of course Enterprise) can be turned into an all-editions medium by removing ei.cfg from the sources folder.
control panel -> "anytime upgrade" plunk in an OEM SLP key (any vendor's will do), grab a cup of coffee while you wait, and you're done
his laptop came with windows 7 and therefore it has slic 2.1 and certificate already, only needed thing here is the oemslp key
Yes, i agree that AnytimeUpgrade would probably be the quickest way in this case. Unless of course a fresh install is explicitely desired for whatever reason...like too much bloatware installed with the pre-installed edition.
True true Only i think the OEM software isnt bloatware at all, maybe all the other trialcrap is but its easily uninstalled..
Only saying you could have added the information that the keys aren't brand specific. He might think it has to be a key according to the brand and that's not true.
Thanks for everyone's input. I just went with the anytime upgrade and worked like a charm. Do appreciate the information.
Yeah, for some reason i still cant fathom Microsoft made this very easy to do. Practically anyone with a leaked SLP Key can upgrade their system that way, and its not like it wasnt to be expected that they are being leaked again. Oh well, just enjoy your new system...
I wonder myself why or if MS actually does these things on purpose or accidental. I mean the hole in the registry that leaves the door open to rearm with IR4 is huge and with SP1 they just gave windows 7 users 5 rearms instead of the 3 people get with 7 install. So I'm uncertain what their game is but it's working for us 7 users that's for sure...lol
They cant be that dumb so it has got to be intention. But then again, considering how many awefully stupid things they do, (things as in unbelievable blunders), maybe im just giving them too much credit...he...
lol...I think they did it one purpose. I mean really how hard can it be to find a loader in the hidden partition, etc... And why would they increase rearms to 5 with SP1 Either they are setting us up for a fall or they are in consideration to the poor people who can't afford 7 or they like you suggested are just lame and out of it...lol I dunno
The additional rearms are probably to make working with the microsoft imaging tools easier. If you're working with a live reference image, every time you run sysprep -generalize you have to burn one unless you muck around in the registry first, so you have a limited number of times before you have to totally rebuild your image from scratch.