Unpirating Windows Advice

[starrymarkb]

I've been naughty and have been running a dubious version of Windows 7 Ultimate... Windows has now sussed it and so is complaining....

I've decided to be honest and have ordered a copy of Windows 7 (arriving in the next few days), my question is can I just enter the new Serial, or will it be a format and reload job? The retail copy I've ordered is Home Premium, will it just lock out the extra features (which TBH I never used hence why I've bought Home Premium) that my dodgy Ultimate serial gave me.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Probably best to re-load; you never know exactly what might be in the Long John Silver version.

 

[GB]

If you have ordered Home Premium but your current install is Ultimate you will NOT be able to use the Home Premium serial and will need to do a reinstall.

 

[Dai.]

You will have to reinstall.

A. It's a pirate version so not a legitimate version.

B. It's a lower version

C. It could hold viruses aplenty in the pirate version.

 

[starrymarkb]

Thanks - it is a clean pirate copy AFICT (I run virus scanners and tested it in Virtualbox first)

I'll make a start on the backing up (2 HDDs make it easy but I still prefer to have a DVD copy too just in case)