I have purchased a Windows 7 Home ISO from Microsoft and installed it on a computer. Now, what I would like to do is use that same ISO to install Windows 7 Starter onto a netbook using the Windows 7 Starter product key that it came with.
Before I take the steps to remove Ubuntu from the netbook and attempt to install Windows 7 Starter with the netbook's product key using the Windows 7 Home ISO/DVD, is it possible?
I'll be more likely to accept an answer if it's definitive and experience-based or includes a link to some online documentation / article.
Answer
Yes it is possible if you remove a single file from the windows 7 installation medium.
I have a legal copy of windows 7 ultimate. I put the installation files from that DVD on a USB pen drive. (Microsoft offers a utility to do this). This is quite handy for netbooks which do not have a DVD drive.
I then removed the file ei.cfg.
The result is that the windows installer no longer knows which version to install and asks the user to select one.
Needless to say you will need a legal key to install, and trying to use a key for a wrong version will fail.
Disclaimer: This was done with a windows 7 ultimate x86 disc from a MS conference. It worked for me. I did not test it with a win7 SP1 iso.
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