Install any edition of Windows 7 from the same DVD

There is a possibility that the Windows 7 DVD you received is locked or restricted to install only one edition of the Windows 7, like Starter edition, Home edition or Professional edition etc. For example, if you have Windows 7 Professional DVD then it installs only Windows 7 Professional edition. You are not given any choice of selecting which edition you want to install during the setup process. But there is workaround that you can follow to change this. This article discusses how to convert any Windows 7 single edition DVD into a Windows 7 DVD that can install any edition you want.

Requirements

  1. A Windows 7 DVD.
  2. An application to create and edit ISO images like PowerISO (http://www.poweriso.com/).
  3. A blank DVD-R or DVD-RW of 4.7 GB capacity
  4. A DVD writer

Procedure

  1. Insert Windows 7 DVD in your DVD drive. Close down the installation dialog if it appears.
  2. Use PowerISO (http://www.poweriso.com/) to create an ISO image of the Windows 7 DVD. Start PowerISO, from the menu select Tools → Make CD/DVD Rom Image file. In the dialog that pops up, select the DVD Rom drive in which you inserted Windows 7 DVD. In the Destination file select ISO file and a location like C:win_7_en_dvd.iso.

  3. In PowerISO, open the newly saved ISO image. Double-click on sources subfolder in the left pane. In the right pane, scroll down and select ei.cfg file. Right-click on it and select Delete to delete the ei.cfg file.

  4. Click on the Save button in the toolbar to save the modified ISO image.
  5. Use your favorite ISO burning software tool (like http://www.poweriso.com/) to burn the modified ISO to the blank DVD-R. You can also use PowerISO to burn the modified DVD by clicking on the Burn toolbar button.

That’s it. Now you have an unrestricted Windows 7 DVD which you can use to install any edition of Windows 7.

Notes

  1. You still need a valid Windows 7 license key, for each edition of Windows 7.
  2. Windows 7 Enterprise edition DVD cannot be used for this process.
  3. Windows 7 x86 (32-bit) edition DVD cannot be used to install any 64-bit Windows 7 edition.
  4. Windows 7 x64 (64-bit) edition DVD cannot be used to install any 32-bit Windows 7 edition.