Windows 7 Looking to replace invalid Windows 7 Ultimate with valid Windows 7 Home with minimal hassle

[s1980]

Long story short: The copy of Win7 Ultimate I was given by a friend is invalid. I want to purchase a valid copy of Win7, but do not want the Ultimate Edition. Too many bells and whistles to collect dust. I am looking to buy the Win7 Home Family Pack from the MS website, since we have 3 computers in the house.

Is it possible to install the Home edition without having to re-install everything else on my computer? I'm not 100% tech savvy. I recently had my hard drive die and had to re-install everything on a new one so I am not looking forward to having to go through that again. What I want to do is be able to install Home and uninstall the invalid Ultimate without having to lose everything else. I'm not too crazy about partitioning my hard drive or having my machine dual boot, but if it is the only way to do what I want to do, then I can bare to do that temporarily.

Also, if i am asking this in the wrong place, please let me know.

 

[Medico]

Unfortunately, no. Change of Bitness or downgrading versions requires a Clean Install (Custom Install) However when you choose Custom Install a folder is created in the root drive (C Drive) called windows.old. This folder contains the entire old OS so you can open the folder and grab all your data to put back in the new OS. You will however have to reinstall all apps and customizations. Sorry for the info.

 

[s1980]

I believe I did have to do that a long time ago with another hardware incident. Customizations and applications are nothing, it's more the programs I was worried about. Re-downloading and re-installing a 12gig program is not fun. Thanks for the response and the information. Now I just need to get the ball rolling and get the new software.

 

[ickymay]

It also depends what the 12gb program is ?

I have my games installed into their own partition so will remain regardless of what i do with my operating system ?

If you need more help post back