Clean Install Windows 7 with Upgrade Media: Paul Thurrott has the Answer

Until Windows Vista, it had been possible to install a clean copy of Windows without a previous version being installed. During the installation, it would ask you to insert the disk of the previous version and voila… it worked.

Microsoft changed things slightly with Vista (but I never actually upgraded so this didn’t affect me). With Windows 7 things are the same, except Paul Thurrott of the SuperSite for Windows website has a solution, with the help of some others. The solution can be found here:

http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2009/10/23/clean-install-windows-7-with-upgrade-media-the-answer.aspx

Thanks to Kevin Fisher and a bit of testing, I have a simple workaround that does work.

After performing the clean install, ensure that there are no Windows Updates pending that would require a system reboot. (You’ll see an orange shield icon next to Shutdown in the Start Menu if this is the case).

Then, open regedit.exe with Start Menu Search and navigate to:

HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/

Change MediaBootInstall from "1" to "0".

Open the Start Menu again and type cmd to display a shortcut to the Command Line utility. Right-click this shortcut and choose "Run as administrator." Handle the UAC prompt.

In the command line window, type: slmgr /rearm

Then tap ENTER, close the command line window and reboot. When Windows 7 reboots, run the Activate Windows utility, type in your product key and activate windows.

Voila!

Enable Remote Desktop

The steps involved in doing this are already discussed all over the Internet. As with most things I find the steps that work, bookmark them and then am unable to find the bookmark when I need it. So I post these steps for my own reference, but if this helps others do the same, that’s a bonus!

These steps can either be run locally, or remotely. To perform these steps remotely also carry out the optional steps, otherwise skip them and do it locally. .

Enable remote desktop in the remote registry.

1. Run Regedit
2. Select File | Connect Network Registry (Optional)
3. Enter the name of the remote computer and select Check Names (Optional)
4. Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\fDenyTSConnections
5. Change the fDenyTSConnections to 0

Allow Remote Desktop through the Windows Firewall

1. Get the PSTools from Microsoft. We need the psexec utility. (Optional)
2. At a command prompt, run the following: psexec <remotecomputer> cmd (Optional)
3. Run the following commands:netsh firewall set portopening protocol=TCP port=3389 name=TS mode=ENABLE profile=DOMAIN

   netsh firewall set service remoteadmin enable

   netsh firewall set service remotedesktop enable

Neil