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Clean Install Windows 7 with Upgrade Media: The Answer

Oct. 23, 2009 Paul Thurrott | Paul Thurrott's Supersite for Windows

I was so hoping to have better news to share, but with all the conflicting reports and my own troubles testing this while on the road, it's been a messy 24 hours. However, after staying up late last night and working through a few different scenarios, I think I do have a (fairly) simple way to clean install Windows 7 with Upgrade media. That is, it should be easier than the old "install it twice" hack that I previously documented for Vista (though that should still work as well).

Put simply, the goal here is to clean install Windows 7 on a virgin, unused PC. You can boot and run Setup with the Upgrade media for Windows 7, but when you go to activate, it won't work.

Thanks to Kevin Fisher and a bit of testing, I have a simple workaround that does work.

After performing the clean install, ensure that there are no Windows Updates pending that would require a system reboot. (You'll see an orange shield icon next to Shutdown in the Start Menu if this is the case).

Then, open regedit.exe with Start Menu Search and navigate to:

HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/

Change MediaBootInstall from "1" to "0".

Open the Start Menu again and type cmd to display a shortcut to the Command Line utility. Right-click this shortcut and choose "Run as administrator." Handle the UAC prompt.

In the command line window, type: slmgr /rearm

Then tap ENTER, close the command line window and reboot. When Windows 7 reboots, run the Activate Windows utility, type in your product key and activate windows.

Voila!

A couple of notes here.

Others have reported that simply installing Windows 7 using Upgrade Media and then activating just works. It certainly doesn't hurt to try this, but my guess is that there was a version of Windows on the hard drive that Setup detected, thus making the install and activation work properly.

I have not tested this yet, but I assume if you launch Setup from within your previous version of Windows, choose Custom, reboot, and then wipe out the previous Windows version during Setup, that that will work as well.

And I'm just about positive that the old "install twice" hack from Vista will work too.

I will test all of this thoroughly when I get home. But for now I wanted to cut through the baloney and cut and paste jobs out there and give you something that really does work.

Again, thanks very much to Kevin for this information.

Discuss this Article 110

panache1023
on Oct 23, 2009
"I have not tested this yet, but I assume if you launch Setup from within your previous version of Windows, choose Custom, reboot, and then wipe out the previous Windows version during Setup, that that will work as well." Isn't that the whole point of upgrade media? Maybe I am misreading the statement, but that damn well better work! Also, you think doing what you just described is "simple"? Maybe doing the install twice thing takes more time, but in my mind, what you just described is nowhere near as simple as installing twice.
scotters783
on Oct 23, 2009
Actually, it seems a lot simpler to me, then having to wait another hour while you ugrade 7 over itself. I'll be testing this morning, first to see if it simply still detects my OS and activates my key first, after booting and reformatting the drive. If not, I'll try this new method.
rr0de74@live.com
on Oct 23, 2009
I see a new Apple ad for this "simple" process.
ylefebvre
on Oct 23, 2009
I was running the Windows 7 RC so I knew that I had to do a clean install. I dropped the OS partition along with the Vista Recovery partition that had been shipped with my Dell system, then created a new partition and installed Windows 7 64-bit from the DVD Upgrade media and activated it. The activation went through in a few seconds and did not give me any trouble.
spivonious
on Oct 23, 2009
This is ridiculous. It's upgrade media. It's not meant to be installed on a "virgin" PC. You get the same result by starting setup from your old OS and choosing a clean install, and then format from within setup.
WH Tech
on Oct 23, 2009
Now THIS work around I LIKE!
de Silentio
on Oct 23, 2009
" It's not meant to be installed on a "virgin" PC." Sometimes mistakes happen and partitions get deleted. Since OEM's don't ship restore media anymore, if the default restore partition gets deleted and there is no way to get the old version of Windows back on the computer and activated, a process like this is needed.
joe-dokes
on Oct 23, 2009
And yet, Microsofties wonder why their sales are down. MS is so f-ing worried about a few pirates who will never pay for their software and have found hacks around every attempt to prevent piracy that they are willing to piss off their actual paying customers. And yet, they continue to wonder and make excuses while Apple's profits are at an all time high, and their valuation will surpass MS within two years. Regards Joe Dokes
danieldecker
on Oct 23, 2009
@de Silentio "Since OEM's don't ship restore media anymore..." Except Apple. They're an OEM (in the true sense of the acronym) and they ship restore media (DVDs) with every Mac they sell. Even the ones without optical drives. For those they have an ingenious way to host the media on a separate machine (with an optical drive) and netboot/install/reinstall the OS. No workarounds, no registry hacks, and no serials/activation headaches.
bdegrande
on Oct 23, 2009
I stopped using Linux because I got tired of this sort of ugly kludge. 7 is an excellent OS and Microsoft is blowing it big time with an overly restrictive activation process. Any XP or Vista user SHOULD be able to install an upgrade without command line or registry hacks In particular, Microsoft's top priority should be to get the tens of millions of netbook owners to upgrade to 7. This is absolutely critical, and Ballmer's arrogance on the subject is mind-boggling.
danieldecker
on Oct 23, 2009
"Ballmer's arrogance on the subject is mind-boggling." Replace "arrogance" with "ignorance" and "the" with "any".
de Silentio
on Oct 23, 2009
@Danieldecker: "Except Apple. They're an OEM (in the true sense of the acronym) and they ship restore media (DVDs) with every Mac they sell. Even the ones without optical drives." Last time I checked Apple didn't ship restore discs for Windows.
Waethorn
on Oct 23, 2009
" This is absolutely critical, and Ballmer's arrogance on the subject is mind-boggling." What arrogance? All the OEM's that were shipping Windows XP are now shipping at least Windows 7 Starter on the exact same models, and Starter is fine on the limited Intel 945 chipsets. Aero is barely usable on the GMA 950. Anybody looking for a netbook NOW should hold off until ION-equipped systems are widely available. They ship with Home Premium, and Adobe Flash still isn't GPU-accelerated, making a netbooks primary use of internet media consumption an unfortunately bad experience right now. When Flash ships in November with the GPU acceleration, ION users are going to be laughing. Windows Media Player, the Zune software, and even Quicktime are hugely more responsive playing 720p video than Flash because of their better support of 2D acceleration (likely DirectDraw). Also, with the ION, users will actually have a [admitted limited, but still existant] method of media production through the use of CUDA enabled software. Programs like TMPGEnc, Badaboom, and VReveal allow users to transcode and clean up video for use on portable devices and in other formats with help from their ION GPU. With a limited Atom netbook processor and only an Intel GMA 950, that's just not a feasible usage scenario.
danieldecker
on Oct 23, 2009
@de Silentio You did draw a gross generalization in regards to OEMs and restore media. Just pointing out your factual inaccuracies. Perhaps next time you should qualify your statements more clearly? Along the lines of "Microsoft's OEM partners..."
GoodThings2Life
on Oct 23, 2009
@spivonious... You've obviously never attempted to recover a hard drive failure for people.
sjaak327
on Oct 23, 2009
"Since OEM's don't ship restore media anymore," Dell (another OEM) has never actually shipped ME a pc with restore media or partitions. They typically ship an original OEM version of whatever OS and a resource cd with the drivers and other utilites.
yoshipod
on Oct 23, 2009
So does this qualify as the first Windows 7 Debacle?
redunion1940
on Oct 23, 2009
I think we do have to understand the people who are upgrading are ones who have the know-how to do it, or are letting someone else with the know-how to do it. Most people with XP will just buy a new computer with Win 7 on it, while I'm trying to help my grandma upgrade her Vista machine she got back in the spring. As for activation software, Micrsofts really isn't that bad, use a code to install then later verify over the internet, key word it can be later. Some PC games require one to have an active internet connection to just install it, play it and so forth, with MS all you have to do is activate it once and then you can dissconnect it from the internet and it still works fine. Pauls method is good for the hard drive failure problem, as once again this type of stuff is for people who should know what they are doing.
Delmont
on Oct 23, 2009
OK, I started out with WIn7 RC1 on my laptop. I bought the Win7 Business UPGRADE. I 110% wanted to do the format hd and start fresh. But from reading all the posts lastnight, I just did Wae's advice and did the windows.old thing. It worked, I copied my data back over to the new user profile and deleted the 7gig windows.old file. But now my laptop did have a 100mb partition on it too....so if that was the recovery partition from Dell, I could have swore when I loaded WIn7 RC1 on the pc, I deleted that partition too... Anyways, I'm up and running....I'm just curious as to this process just how "clean" of an install I really have.
Delmont
on Oct 23, 2009
OK, I started out with WIn7 RC1 on my laptop. I bought the Win7 Business UPGRADE. I 110% wanted to do the format hd and start fresh. But from reading all the posts lastnight, I just did Wae's advice and did the windows.old thing. It worked, I copied my data back over to the new user profile and deleted the 7gig windows.old file. But now my laptop did have a 100mb partition on it too....so if that was the recovery partition from Dell, I could have swore when I loaded WIn7 RC1 on the pc, I deleted that partition too... Anyways, I'm up and running....I'm just curious as to this process just how "clean" of an install I really have.
Delmont
on Oct 23, 2009
Sorry for the double post, the page bombed out on me.
scotters783
on Oct 23, 2009
I just installed Home Premium Upgrade from the RC. I booted to disc, formatted the drive and deleted everything off of it, including the RC installation. I then continued the clean install. I did skip the activation during setup, (not that it probably matters), but as soon as Home Premium was loaded for the first time, I went to activate it from within Windows with an Upgrade Key and it worked just fine. I did NOT have to run setup again from within the new installation. So, setup now does in fact somehow check to see if you have a previous OS installed even when you boot from disc and completly format your disc prior to installing. This is very nice, as it saves the extra step of upgrading twice. However, It seems as Paul says this will not work if you are installing onto a hard drive that NEVER had Windows on it. In my case it did.
james3mg
on Oct 23, 2009
"I have not tested this yet, but I assume if you launch Setup from within your previous version of Windows, choose Custom, reboot, and then wipe out the previous Windows version during Setup, that that will work as well." Paul, assuming by "wipe out" you mean format or delete the partition with the previous windows version on it...this doesn't work. Setup, when launched from a previous version of windows, copies temporary files onto that system partition that it needs to use when it reboots, so it doesn't let you delete/format that partition (the option for "Advanced options" doesn't even show up in the "select partition" dialog unless you've booted from the DVD). Moreover, the "select partition" dialog appears during the phase of setup when you're still booted into your previous version of windows, so you sure can't delete/format the partition that's currently running, lol.
chipwinter
on Oct 23, 2009
I'm not updating anytime soon, but I'm curious if the glitches noted in the last day would be common for the general population? Or are those of us who visit this site considered to be early adopters? I wonder how many users will, as Microsoft suggests, just buy a new PC? Any thoughts?
roteague
on Oct 23, 2009
@chipwinter Probably not. The average person will probably just do the upgrade. I tend to do the wipe thing simply because I'm a software developer, and I tend to have a lot of programs and utilities that I no longer use, and it's easier to just wipe the whole thing and start all over.
kolby386
on Oct 23, 2009
Why are there so many Apple fan boys on the SuperSite for WINDOWS?
redunion1940
on Oct 23, 2009
It isn't a recovery partition it is something that Windows 7 Pro does I guess as I have the 100 MB partition to, it might be a type of swap file
palavering
on Oct 23, 2009
For the writer who referred to OEM as an acronym: It is not an acronym; it is an abbreviation. You pronounce acronyms like you pronounce a word. You spell out an abbreviation. NASA is an acronym. MLB is an abbreviation.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Oct 23, 2009
"MS is so f-ing worried about a few pirates... " A few? Bootleg copies of Windows are a much larger installed base on the desktop than Mac OS X and Linux combined. So, realistically, Microsoft should be more concerned about piracy than they are about Mac and Linux. And, from my experience, they are.
de Silentio
on Oct 23, 2009
@Danieldecker: "You did draw a gross generalization in regards to OEMs and restore media. Just pointing out your factual inaccuracies" Well, since it was clear that I was responding to the topic about "virgin PC's" (as indicated in the quotation), I figured the qualification would be assumed. Unless you think that Mac's are PC's, which would render the Mac commercial's factually innacurate (as they would falsely be labeling Microsoft based computers as "PC's") In fact, it's my guess that you knew what I was talking about, but wanted to spew some "Apple is better than Microsoft because.." propaganda.
lotsamystuff
on Oct 23, 2009
"Why are there so many Apple fan boys on the SuperSite for WINDOWS?" Because Paul has an obsession with Apple that stretches beyond the rather narrow focus that the site's title would suggest. He baits, folks respond. "Sometimes mistakes happen and partitions get deleted. Since OEM's don't ship restore media anymore, if the default restore partition gets deleted and there is no way to get the old version of Windows back on the computer and activated, a process like this is needed." Agreed, di Sillento, 100%. Now, please tell that to "Waethorn", who spewed, "If your system doesn't come with discs for reinstalling the existing Windows installation, you should NOT delete the recovery partition whatsoever." Attitudes like that leave no room for the very real possibility of a catastrophic hard drive failure (which I guess never happens in WaeWorld).
calarez
on Oct 23, 2009
Paul, maybe just the rearm did the trick. I was using windows 7 professional for two moth I did a clean install and last week I did a rearm beacause my 30 days had passed. yesterday I use my windows 7 professional upgrade key in this rearmed installation and I got validated without problem or without changing the registry.
derekpress
on Oct 23, 2009
What a confusing mess. I have three machines running RC including one netbook and not looking forward to this. Should I do the upgrade from inside RC and then format the drive during the "upgrade" installation process? Or should I just boot to the disc, format the drive, and attempt Paul's method? I'd rather start with a clean drive than go through any actual upgrade process. I also have two OEM copies of Vista HP and one OEM of XP if I need it. All I can say is thank god for WHS backups so I can always restore back to RC quickly if necessary.
whiplash55
on Oct 23, 2009
My upgrade media looks like it will get here today, I appreciate the info great posts.
gadfly10
on Oct 23, 2009
And the new Apple ad ("Broken Promises") is now spot on! Like shooting fish in a barrel.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Oct 23, 2009
palavering "You pronounce acronyms like you pronounce a word." Thank you. Of course, the question of whether something is an abbreviation or an acronym isn't quite that clear cut. There are some abbreviations that are pronounced by some groups and not others. For example DASD (Direct Access Storage Device) which is an old IBMism for a hard drive is pronounced as Daz-Dee inside IBM but treated as an abbreviation almost everywhere else as is the IBMism SNA, pronounced Snah inside and Ess En Ay everywhere else. There's also the question of whether something is an acronym if the word is made of more than just the first letter such as the classic example of RAdio Detection And Ranging which should properly be abbreviated RDAR or RDR and not the pronouncable acronym RADAR. We now return to the only very slightly less pedantic world of install corner case procedures.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Oct 23, 2009
Way OT OK. One more brief aside and warning to people trying to be clever about making their product/company/technology names a pronouncable acronym. The Small Computer System Interface group (SCSI) expected people to pronounce their interface as "Sexy". When it turned out virtually everyone pronounced it "Scuzzy" they actually went out and did an ad campaign trying to get people to call it the "sexy interface" Sorry, couldn't resist that aside into history.
james3mg
on Oct 23, 2009
@derekpress: I'd recommend launching setup from within RC and choose a "Custom Install". It will move your old data into windows.old, and give you an otherwise clean install. You can delete windows.old with no problem. Since you've already got an OS loaded, this is the supported method, and I'd stick with it. ...my $.02
beaker
on Oct 23, 2009
Why does MS make it hard on the legitimate users? Why so many hoops to jump through to get their OS to install? I don't get it. I witnessed several people running 7 at a coffee shop in NYC yesterday. Not one of them said they paid for it (found a "key" online). I bet that was easier than all of this mess to install the upgrade version on a new machine.
tayme
on Oct 23, 2009
@mikegalos - "For example DASD (Direct Access Storage Device) which is an old IBMism for a hard drive is pronounced as Daz-Dee inside IBM but treated as an abbreviation almost everywhere else" Sorry...you are completely wrong, again. Daz-Dee is used quite a bit in the storage industry...not just inside IBM as you state. I know people at HDS, Brocade, Cisco, EMC, and other industry biggies, along with peers in various shops around the country that all use the acronym. You really shouldn't post about things as if you know what you are saying when you clearly know very little about it. It makes you look arrogant. Oh, yeah.... --tayme
Waethorn
on Oct 23, 2009
"If you don't have CD's you can call the OEM and get the CD's sent to you, sometimes free sometimes not, but you can get them." "Agreed, di Sillento, 100%. Now, please tell that to "Waethorn", who spewed, "If your system doesn't come with discs for reinstalling the existing Windows installation, you should NOT delete the recovery partition whatsoever." "Attitudes like that leave no room for the very real possibility of a catastrophic hard drive failure (which I guess never happens in WaeWorld)." On an old machine that is out of support, sometimes it isn't possible to order replacement discs. HP and Dell usually discontinue the option to order recovery discs 3-4 years after that model is released. Thankfully, an HP PR rep recommended a website called www.restoredisks.com for a client of mine that had that exact same problem, and they carry a wide assortment of brands and models. I only mention that because it's a PITA to have to order them from the OEM, even if you still can. As much as a PITA as you, losta. @Delmont, all: The 100MB partition is the hidden bootloader system partition that I mentioned before. When you do a clean install, Windows 7 Setup will create that. OEM's will sometimes have their own hidden partitions too. Windows 7 Setup won't create that partition unless there is room on the drive that isn't allocated to another partition (ie. a blank drive, or unallocated space after any OEM partitions). If you already have the drive formatted, it will just put the bootloader on the first primary partition like Windows Vista and XP does.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Oct 23, 2009
beaker "I witnessed several people running 7 at a coffee shop in NYC yesterday. Not one of them said they paid for it (found a "key" online). " And as a "legitimate user" did you complain to them about their theft making life harder for you? If not, you're doing the same thing as a homeowner complaining about the cost of locks while chatting with the thieves who burgle his neighborhood.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Oct 23, 2009
tayme Interesting that an IBM mainframe phrase like DASD has caught on in some circles. It was disappearing even from IBM by the late 1980s as tape drives were disappearing from all but niche use.
rr0de74@live.com
on Oct 23, 2009
This I saw on another forum and that was interesting.....it speaks to the fact that MS is so big they are just not coordinated any more, and you would think they would have it nailed when it came to this launch. "Yesterday when I went to the Windows 7 web-site they had tweets on the page from people saying negative things about Windows 7 and the main featured quote on the page was a review saying Windows 7 was not horrible to use like other versions of windows, and the graphic looked like an ad for sim city. I see they finally updated that site today. The site was jumbled and confusing. Today I went to try to buy the student version of Windows 7 for my mac. The site sends you to win741.com run by a company called digital river. They let you download Windows 7 after entering your school e-mail address. The site--on the public day of release--still says you can pre-order Windows 7 and it's expected to be available October 21 (it said that today Oct 22). Microsoft is not even communicating the fact that this OS is available and they don't seem too interested in making it easy to buy. Not only that, before you buy you are asked whether you want Windows 7 32 bit or 64 bit. There's a link you click if you don't know which one you want. It takes you to a page that talks about 32 bit vs 64 bit versions of Windows Vista! It amazes me that a company as huge as Microsoft can't sell its flagship product in an online store it runs that is semi-coherent."
rr0de74@live.com
on Oct 23, 2009
The term DASD was in some of my old Netware manuals I found and threw away recently. Anyone that has been a System Administrator for a while knows what the term means. Disk/s physically attached to the server, opposed to disk on a NAS/SAN.
tayme
on Oct 23, 2009
@mikegalos - "...tape drives were disappearing from all but niche use." Wrong again. Tape drives, both physical and virtual are still widely used today. Maybe you were referring to the use as primary storage medium and not back-up or retention media. But, yes...DASD as an acronym was originated by IBM mainframers, but is still widely used today...even by its competitors in the storage business. It is incorrectly used in most cases, because it is not often that it is direct attached anymore...but rather via a fibre channel or ficon switches, and even iSCSI. --tayme
mikegalos@msn.com
on Oct 23, 2009
To quote the IBM Jargon Dictionary (10th Edition) bluespeak n. The language and jargon used by IBMers, especially when the jargon is different from that used by those employed by other companies. For example, DASD or file (others use disk). DASD (dazz-dee) v. To place on a computer disk (Direct Access Storage Device), as in: “Please DASD that report when you’ve written it”. DASD storage implies storage on a disk connected to a large mainframe computer, rather than on the hard or soft disks in a Personal Computer. It also implies magnetic storage; an optical disk would not be described as DASD.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Oct 23, 2009
tayme longterm, secondary backup storage devices ARE a niche use (hence my qualifier rather than saying tape has disappeared)
Waethorn
on Oct 23, 2009
@rrode: Win741 is a revamp of the "Ultimate Steal" website. In Canada, it is still known as www.theultimatesteal.ca , where students can get a cheap copy of Office Ultimate for $64CDN, but also Windows 7 Professional Upgrade (formerly Windows Vista Home Premium) for $40CDN, and the Office Language Pack for $12CDN.
tayme
on Oct 23, 2009
@mikegalos - Interesting info...thanks for sharing, seriously. I don't remember seeing DASD used as a verb before. It is generally used as a noun these days. --tayme

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