Upgrade Enterprise/SP1 - Ultimate/SP1

[sidney1st]

then if you move to the private sector you should not be allowed to 'upgrade' that machine in the first place. Enterprise class machines ***should*** be formatted every time when being removed from the enterprise environment. I don't see M$ as having *any* obligation to providing an easy manner of 'upgrading' from an enterprise version

Not really, do not forget that Enterprise is the exact equivalent to Ultimate except for the Windows media things and the parental control, i think?
Then Upgrading to Ultimate with an ultimate license would not break any rules, except maybe the Company rules (owner of the licenses)
BTW, did you know that M$oft gives you a free ultimate license if you purchase 100 Enterprise licenses and 5 for 500

Anyway, i am thinking of a possible hack for the present case (i have to borough a laptop running enterprise to check)

 

[Boudewijn]

Hello,
After a good night sleep, I tried again this morning to upgrade my Enterprise/SP1 to Ultimate/SP1 (see all my previous posts)

After some creative thinking and manipulation during the process (swapping DVDs at the appropriate moments, amongst other things and a repair), I managed to do it!!

Looking at the screen, there are five stages (Copying, Gathering, Expanding, Installing and Completing). The first two stages are vital and you have to make sure that Windows copies and gathers the correct files. The last three stages are, imho, non-version specific.

At the moment I am retracing my steps, after which I will repeat the whole procedure, just to be sure that this is not a 'one-off' lucky moment.

As soon as I've got the whole process worked out and I am sure that the procedure can be repeated, I will post further info.

I feel confident about this, but I don't want to jump to premature conclusions.

Regards,
Boudewijn

 

[dmex]

Hello,
After a good night sleep, I tried again this morning to upgrade my Enterprise/SP1 to Ultimate/SP1 (see all my previous posts)

After some creative thinking and manipulation during the process (swapping DVDs at the appropriate moments, amongst other things and a repair), I managed to do it!!

Looking at the screen, there are five stages (Copying, Gathering, Expanding, Installing and Completing). The first two stages are vital and you have to make sure that Windows copies and gathers the correct files. The last three stages are, imho, non-version specific.

At the moment I am retracing my steps, after which I will repeat the whole procedure, just to be sure that this is not a 'one-off' lucky moment.

As soon as I've got the whole process worked out and I am sure that the procedure can be repeated, I will post further info.

I feel confident about this, but I don't want to jump to premature conclusions.

Regards,
Boudewijn

Reproducible?

 

[Boudewijn]

Hello dmex,

Yes, reproducible. I have repeated the procedure twice now.
But, and this is a big but, it worked on my computer and i have no way of knowing for certain that it will work across the board.

So, I am quite willing to describe the steps I took, but I will not take any responsibilty for anything anybody does with his/her computer.

The steps I took; 1 -15

How to upgrade from Vista Enterprise/SP1 to Vista Ultimate/SP1​

Starting position:Vista Enterprise/SP1; version 6.0.6001.18000; SP1 integrated install​

Available for upgrade: Vlited slipstreamed SP1 Vista Ultimate, version 6.0.6001.17028​

All the files/DVDs are genuine and originate from M$​

Objective: to upgrade the Enterprise version, whilst retaining all the installed programs and data, i.e. to avoid a clean install​

Precautions. These may or may not be necessary​

1. Make an image of your computer with e.g. Acronis.​

2. Disconnect from the Internet.​

3. Exit all running programs.​

4. If you have overclocked, put it back on stock speed.​

Procedure:​

1. Start up your computer, sign in as true Administrator.​

2. Open regedit and change two registry keys:​

3. Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurentVersion​

4. Change the key: ProductName from​

“Windows Vista ™ Enterprise” to “Windows Vista ™ Business”​

5. Change the key: EditionID from “Enterprise” to “Business”​

6. Do not restart your machine.​

7. Insert the Enterprise/SP1 DVD.​

8. The first choice is whether you want to go online for the latest updates, etc.​

9. Before answering, swap your Enterprise/SP1 DVD with your Vlited SP1 slipstreamend Ultimate DVD.​

10. Select No. You can always update later.​

11. The next ‘step’ is where you are being asked to enter your Ultimate product key.​

12. Enter your Ultimate key, but disable the automatic activation option.​

(Remove the check mark).#​

13. The next step is to accept the T&C.​

14. You should now have arrived at the ‘Upgrade / Custom’ option. Select the ‘Upgrade’option.​

15. The next screen will list the five stages of the upgrade process:​

a) Copying; b) Gathering; c) Expanding; d) Installing; e) Completing​

The first two stages are the important ones. It’s here where Vista copies and gathers the files it needs (i.e. the ‘Ultimate files’). Your Ultimate disk is still in the drive, so that’s fine. Let Vista run and copy and gather.​

16. Stage a) and b) should progress without any problem. At a certain moment during stage c) (with my computer at 18%), your computer will do a restart.​

17. Let the computer restart and continue with the setup. However, your computer may crash upon restart, complaining about a missing or corrupt ‘winload.exe’. Mine did, but yours might not.​

18. If, howeve, it does, replace the Vlited SP1 slipstreamed Ultimate DVD with the Enterprise/SP1 DVD. Stages c); d) and e) are, imho, generic in nature and do not specifically require the Ultimate DVD anymore.​

19. Restart your crashed computer, using Ctrl-Alt-Del and let it boot from the Enterprise/SP1 DVD. Select language and other preferences, and click on ‘Next’​

20. Now select ‘Repair your computer’​

21. You should now be presented with a choice. Obviously, you don’t need to repair your still fully functional Enterprise installation, so naturally choose to repair the new ‘setup’.​

22. Let Vista run and repair. Upon completion, restart the computer and boot from the hard disk as normal.​

23. If everything went according to plan, setup should now continue, picking up where it left off.​

24. Stage c) should complete without any further problem.​

25. Stages d) and e) should complete without any further problem.​

26. After you’ve done, clean up your hard disk.​

Notes:​

1. If your computer crashes and you’ve a Raid setup, you might need to do a verify/repair.​

2. If your computer crashes in step 17, swap the DVDs as advised. I found that (for me) leaving the Ultimate disk in the drive and using that DVD, didn’t work, i.e. the repair was ineffective. Don’t ask me why.​

Regards,
Boudewijn

 

[uruiamme]

Hacking regisry WFM

I tried and tried and tried to get Boudewijn's method to work for me. No dice.

Here's my sit. I had Vista Enterprise x86 (RTM) installed on this laptop I just bought. Cute, but I have a Vista Ultimate license. My Ultimate DVD has SP1 on it already. So the first time I tried to use the Ultimate disc, it told me I must update to SP1. Okay, fine, so I did that.

Next, I tried to upgrade Enterprise SP1 to Ultimate SP1 and found out that this is not a possible upgrade path. Typical M$ stupidity. Not sure why they checked for service pack level and then decide, oh, sorry, you can't even do it after all that.

And so I wound up here. Again, this method did not work. The error I got was after step 12. Setup gave me this ugly error 0x8007001, saying it cannot access the file in D:\sources\install.wim which is that 2 GB file with all the compressed file data. I tried a lot of different ideas and nothing.

Then I got a hunch. After step 6, the machine is virtually a "Vista Business" install, so the Ultimate disc should be able to upgrade it!

Hello dmex,

Procedure:​

1. Start up your computer, sign in as true Administrator.​

2. Open regedit and change two registry keys:​

3. Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurentVersion​

4. Change the key: ProductName from​

“Windows Vista ™ Enterprise” to “Windows Vista ™ Business”​

5. Change the key: EditionID from “Enterprise” to “Business”​

6. Do not restart your machine.​

====
7. Insert the Enterprise/SP1 DVD.​

^^^^ NO!​

In my situation, I will note that my Vista Ultimate is a SP1 DVD from Microsoft. It should be flawless. It is also not 6.0.6001.17028, it is version 6.0.6001.18000. In fact, both my current install and the 2 DVDs I had (the Enterprise DVD with SP1 and the Ultimate DVD with SP1) were both the version 6.0.6001.18000.

In any case, I tried replacing step 7 with merely inserting the Ultimate DVD. It looks like it works, because now I am on the last step of the install, and I was able to do an upgrade and keep my data it would seem.

Not too sure why M$ disables this upgrade for their corporate customers, but it would appear that we now have at least a second way to do it.

In summary, I never needed the stupid Enterprise DVD. It was quite a pain to acquire one of those, so I regret not messing around with this sooner since the regedit takes all of about 30 seconds to change to a Vista Business install, for this intent and purpose.

Step 1: Upgrade to SP1
Step 2: Hack registry (as per Boudewijn method, steps 1-6) to "Business"
Step 3: Run setup from Ultimate DVD with SP1

​