Microsoft Windows 7 Anytime Upgrade [Home Premium to Ultimate]

by Microsoft

Product Features

• Move up to Windows 7 Ultimate from Windows 7 Home Premium with Windows Anytime Upgrade
• Work in the language of your choice and switch between any of 35 languages
• Help protect data on your PC and portable storage devices against loss or theft with BitLocker
• In addition to full-system Backup and Restore found in all editions, you can back up to a home or business network
• Connect to company networks easily and more securely with Domain Join

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B002JZ1QWA
• Item model number: 39C-00040
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 29, 2009
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #417 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #15 in Software > Operating Systems > Microsoft Windows > Windows 7

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

If you want more features than you currently have in your existing edition of Windows 7, you can upgrade to another edition using Windows Anytime Upgrade. Upgrades from Windows 7 Home Premium edition to Windows 7 Ultimate edition.

With Windows Anytime Upgrade, you can upgrade to a more advanced edition of Windows 7 in as little as 10 minutes. Click to enlarge.

Windows Anytime Upgrade

No disks, no delays. And no leaving the house: With Windows Anytime Upgrade, you can upgrade to a more advanced edition of Windows 7 in as little as 10 minutes. That way, you get to take advantage of extra features while keeping your current programs, files, and settings intact.

In the past, upgrading Windows could be a bit of a hassle. In Windows 7, the software you need comes preinstalled. All you have to do is purchase an upgrade key from Microsoft or another authorized retailer to unlock those shiny new features.

Get more now. Move up to Windows 7 Professional

Windows 7 Ultimate is designed for people who want it all. Safeguard the entire contents of your PC and flash storage devices with BitLocker encryption. Run many Windows XP productivity programs in Windows XP Mode2. Connect easily to business networks. Watch TV shows for free when and where you want with Internet TV1. And switch your PC to any of 35 different languages at any time. Windows 7 Ultimate does everything for work, home, and play.

Simplifies everyday tasks

• Improved desktop navigation features like Snap, Peek and Shake, make it easier to manage all of your open windows
• Creating a home network has never been easier. You can even share files and printers with all the PCs with Windows 7 on the network.
• Find virtually anything on your PC--from documents to songs to email--just by typing a word or two with WindowsSearch.

Works the way you want

• Designed to make your PC sleep and resume quicker.
• Takes full advantage of the power and multi-tasking capabilities of the latest 64-bit PCs.
• Windows XP Mode gives you the business flexibility you need.
• Work in the language of your choice or switch between any of 35 languages.

Makes new things possible

• Watch, pause, rewind and record TV with Windows Media Center.
• Includes integrated video and Dolby audio codecs.

* Requires either OEM pre-installation or post-purchase download of Windows XP Mode (which runs on Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate) and a virtualization technology such as Windows Virtual PC. Customers can download Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC free-of-charge from http://www.windows.com/business/downloads/ when available.

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Windows 7 Ultimate. Designed for people who want it all.

Windows 7 Ultimate is the most versatile and powerful edition of Windows 7. It combines remarkable ease-of-use with the entertainment features of Home Premium and the business capabilities of Professional, including the ability to run many Windows XP productivity programs in Windows XP Mode. For added security, you can encrypt your data with BitLocker and BitLocker To Go. And for extra flexibility, you can work in any of 35 languages. Get it all with Windows 7 Ultimate.

More work, more play, and more of everything in between. Click to enlarge.

Manage lots of open programs, documents, and browser windows easily with thumbnail and full-screen previews of open windows. Click to enlarge.

With Snap you can arrange two windows side-by-side just by dragging them to opposite sides of your screen. Click to enlarge.

Open files you use regularly in just two clicks with Jump Lists on the improved taskbar.

Easiest Windows to use ever

• Simplify your PC with new navigation features like Aero Shake, Jump Lists, and Snap.
• Customize Windows to look and feel the way you like by changing themes and taskbar programs.
• Easy to network (with or without a server).
• Back up your complete system over a network.
• Help protect data on your PC or portable storage device against loss or theft with BitLocker.

Faster and more flexible

• Designed to make your PC sleep and resume quicker.
• Takes full advantage of 64-bit PC hardware and memory.
• Windows XP Mode gives you the business flexibility you need.
• Switch between any of 35 languages.

Best PC entertainment experience

• Watch, pause, rewind, and record TV with Windows Media Center.
• Blu-ray read/write support for data files.
• Includes integrated video and Dolby audio codecs.

Simplifies Everyday Tasks

Simple to use

Preview
Manage lots of open programs, documents, and browser windows easily with thumbnail and full-screen previews of open windows.

Pin
Open files and get around your PC faster with the improved taskbar. You can easily pin programs you use often to the taskbar and launch them in just one click.

Windows 7 lets you peek behind open windows to get a quick look at your desktop. Click to enlarge.

Instantly locate and open virtually any file on your PC right from the Start menu with Windows Search. Click to enlarge.

Jump Lists
Open files you use regularly in just two clicks with Jump Lists on the improved taskbar.

Snap
Windows 7 has simple new ways to manage open windows. For example, with Snap you can arrange two windows side-by-side just by dragging them to opposite sides of your screen.

Peek and Shake
Windows 7 lets you peek behind open windows to get a quick look at your desktop.

Windows Search
Instantly locate and open virtually any file on your PC, from documents to emails to songs, right from the Start menu, with Windows Search.

Easy to connect

Setting up wireless connections is easier with consistent, one-click connections to available networks. Click to enlarge.

Enjoy the photos, music, and videos on your home PC when you're away from home with remote media streaming. Click to enlarge.

Windows Touch makes PCs with touch screens easier and more intuitive to use. Click to enlarge.

Wireless setup
With Windows 7, setting up wireless connections is easier with consistent, one-click connections to available networks, whether those networks are based on Wi-Fi, mobile broadband, dial-up, or corporate VPN.

HomeGroup
Connect Windows 7 PCs on a home network in just four clicks and easily get to the photos, music, and files on each one--even share printers--with HomeGroup.

Easy to browse the web

Internet Explorer 8
Visual search helps you quickly find the information you want by adding visual cues and previews to search results from top search providers including Live Search, Wikipedia, Yahoo, Amazon, and others.

Internet Explorer 8
Use Web slices to conveniently keep up with changes on frequently updated websites, like eBay auctions or traffic sites, directly from the IE8 toolbar.

Easy to communicate and share

Windows Live Photo Gallery
Windows Live Photo Gallery makes share your photos to your favorite photo site easy.

Windows Live Mail
Windows Live Mail makes managing multiple email accounts easy.

Windows Live Family Safety
Keep your child safe by managing what sites they can visit and who they can send/receive emails and im communications from.

Note: Windows Live components need to be downloaded separately.

Works The Way You Want

Faster and More Reliable

Resume from sleep
We designed Windows 7 to help PCs sleep and resume from sleep more quickly by improving the way Windows 7 manages drivers, programs, and power.

Faster and more reliable
We reduced the amount of memory your PC needs for open windows and to execute commands to help it be more responsive to commands.

Fewer clicks and less interruptions

Turn your PC into a TV with Windows Media Center, and enjoy your favorite videos and music with Windows Media Player. Click to enlarge.

Makes New Things Possible

Media on your terms

Windows Media Center
Turn your PC into a TV with Windows Media Center.

Windows Media Center
Watch shows for free when and where you want with Internet TV.

Manage Backup and Restore and other features through Action Center. Click to enlarge.

Search, organize, and edit files across a network in the same way you would a single folder.Click to enlarge.

DirectX 11
DirectX 11 technology delivers breathtaking game graphics so real, it's unreal.

New ways to engage

Windows Touch
Windows Touch makes PCs with touch screens easier and more intuitive to use.

Media on your terms

Windows Media Player
More and more consumer electronics, from TVs to digital photo frames, can be connected to home networks. With Play To in Windows 7, you'll be able to easily send music, photos, videos from your PC to a networked device throughout your home.

You can enjoy the photos, music, and videos on your home PC when you're away from home with remote media streaming.

Work anywhere

Location Aware Printing
Windows 7 will automatically pick the right printer for you when you move from home to work networks.

Work anywhere with less effort.

• Get connected in three clicks wherever there's a wireless network connection.
• Keep documents on your PC and on network servers in sync automatically.
• Your PC will automatically use the printer you prefer for whatever network you're on.
• Simplify making presentations special settings that keep your PC from sleeping and turn off messages, notifications, and screen savers.
• Instantly locate virtually any file, email, or document on your PC just by typing a word or two.
• Get around your PC faster with the improved taskbar.
• Open programs you use regularly in one click and files you use regularly in just two.
• Manage lots of open programs, documents, and browser windows easily with thumbnail and full-screen previews of open windows.
• Manage multiple email accounts, including Hotmail, Gmail, AOL, and Yahoo! Mail Plus, all in one place with one simple program.
• Get to the files, photos, and music on any PC with Windows 7 in the house from any other.
• Print to any printer in the house from any PC with Windows 7 in the house.

Safeguard your hard work.

• Advanced Backup and Restore makes it easier to keep your work safely backed up to external or network drives and accessible if you need it.
• File encryption helps keep proprietary and confidential information on a PC secure if it is lost or stolen.
• Preserve your investment in programs designed for Windows XP with Windows XP Mode.
• Windows Internet Explorer 8 helps keep your PC safer from malware and you safer from fraudulent websites designed to fool you into divulging private information.
• Easily add your PC to a secured, managed, network with domain join capabilities.
• Group policy controls help administrators more easily and effectively manage the security and configuration of multiple PCs.

Product Description

Windows 7 Ultimate gives you everything Home Premium and Professional offers – plus added security features and the flexibility to work in multiple languages. Create a home network and share all of your favorite photos, videos and music. You can even watch TV programs for free, whenever and wherever you want.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars (ALMOST) As Easy as A, B, C, December 23, 2010

By 

Michael Ballack "mike_of_london" (London) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Microsoft Windows 7 Anytime Upgrade [Home Premium to Ultimate]

I give this product 4 stars. 5 Stars for the quality of features unlocked and less 1 star for the hoops and hurdles involved in getting the Win 7 XP mode to be fully functioning.

Well, if you were previously like me, having a Win 7 Home Premium O/S, hesistant about spending an extra US$129.99 (as at the time of writing) for an O/S upgrade, there are a couple of things you might want to know before taking the plunge.

My Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q898 laptop (also bought from Amazon) came pre-installed with Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit. Unless you require practical features such as Bitlocker, XP Mode and the ability to use other languages for your O/S, the Ultimate edition is an overkill for the typical consumer. Well, as for "intangible" benefits, running Win 7 Ultimate comes with bragging rights too... ;) hee hee

This product will only upgrade Win 7 Home Premium 32 Bit/64 Bit to Win 7 Ultimate 32Bit/64Bit respectively. It will not work with any other combination of OSes. For e.g., if you currently have Win 7 HP 32 Bit, you will only get Win 7 Ultimate 32 Bit, NOT Win 7 Ultimate 64 Bit. Another e.g., if you have Win 7 Starter, Win XP (any variant) or Vista (any variant), this product will not work.

This product does not come with any discs, neither DVD nor CD. You are actually purchasing a serial-number printed onto a little card. The card itself is enclosed in a plastic box the size of one's palm. The plastic box is itself wrapped by a cardboard sleeve. This is what one would expect to physically receive from purchasing this product.

On my system,it only took 5 mins to perform the upgrade. I attribute this to the SSD boot drive on my system. MS states that the upgrade will take 10mins. I reckon the other extra 5 mins is required for conventional systems which boot up from a non-SSD HDD. This is because your system needs to reboot a couple of times after the upgrade is performed.

The actual upgrade from Home Premium to Ultimate is the easy (as a,b,c) part. All you have to do is to follow a couple of instructions printed on the other side of the serial number card and key in the said number. You will unlock the Bitlocker and multiple languages features this way.

The latter requires an additional optional download for your choice of extra language packs from MS Windows Update.

Need to spell "gravlaks" or "krabbelag" in Norwegian? Well, now you know what's been missing from your current OS installation. ;)

However, getting the XP mode upgrade feature requires one to be more IT savy. Firstly, your processor must support Intel virtualization technology. You must also enable this in your BIOS. Next, you have to download 3 other files (of which 1 was and still is 500mb!!! in size) from MS Windows Update website. Getting the XP mode to work after you've done all the above requires one to Google for even more detailed instructions. So, be prepared to jump through a couple of hoops before you can actually run your older (non Win 7) programs under XP mode.

HDD Considerations:

Keying in the upgrade key will require an additional 10 GB of space as extra features are unlocked.

Installing the XP mode requires an additional 1 GB of HD space.

Actually using the XP mode may require up to an additional 15GB space.

So if you cannot spare an extra 26GB of space on your HDD, you might have to reconsider purchasing this upgrade.

Cost Savings:

Amazon sells this for US$10 less than that at MS' online store. With super saver shipping thrown in, what are you waiting for?

After reading all the above details, I'm sure that you can now appreciate why I've chosen the "(ALMOST) As Easy as A, B, C" title for the name of my review. :)

P.S. Norwegian "gravlaks" or "krabbelag" are not included. :)

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Make sure your computer has a TPM chip, March 27, 2011

By 

AKO California (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Microsoft Windows 7 Anytime Upgrade (Home Premium to Ultimate) [Online Code] (Software Download)

In order to use bitlocker, your computer must have a TPM chip in it. If not, you can turn bitlocker on but have to use a USB drive to hold the key file every time you boot it up. An acceptable solution for a desktop, but for a laptop a bit of an inconvenience having a USB drive sticking out of it, plus it takes up a USB port. My 2 month old Dell XPS laptop had the option of having Win 7 Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate installed, so I assumed I could upgrade afterwards. Turns out they must only put that chip into models shipping with Ultimate already. So double check that if bitlocker is important to you.

Other than this issue, the update process was quick and painless. It seemed to take less time than installing a regular software program since it didn't have to load off the CD and do a lot of registry changing.

Ultimate itself with the XP mode seems a good upgrade for me. A few hardware items and some software just doesn't work with Win 7. Plus I needed encryption for some files. While I use some third party encryption, it's just easier for some files if the OS does it without having to log into another software. Some of the other differences between Ultimate and Professional aren't relevant to me, so Professional was probably a better match.

3/28/11 Additional note: Found a website that says the TPM chip not only handles the encryption key, it actually does the encrypting and decrypting activity so that the CPU does not have to. When using a USB drive for the key, the CPU does the encrypting/decrypting which reduces performance.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Upgrade to Ultimate a snap, March 29, 2011

By 

ron_in_california - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Microsoft Windows 7 Anytime Upgrade (Home Premium to Ultimate) [Online Code] (Software Download)

I upgraded a Dell machine that was pre-installed with Windows 7 Home Premium using the code that Amazon provided electronically, and the upgrade completed without any issues, in a reasonable amount of time. Ultimate features (like encryption, backup to a remote share, etc...) are all available. Registration process with Microsoft also went without a hitch.