You can use the Windows® edition-servicing commands to change one edition of Windows® 7 to a higher edition within the same edition family. The edition packages for each potential target edition are staged within a Windows 7 image. This is referred to as an edition-family image. Because the target editions are staged, you can service a single image, and the updates will be applied appropriately to each edition in the image. This can help reduce the number of images you have to manage, but it might increase the factory time or end-user time spent in the specialize configuration pass.

Offline changes do not require a product key. If you change to a higher edition using offline servicing, you can add the product key using one of the following methods:

The base syntax for servicing a Windows image using DISM is:

DISM.exe {/Image:<path_to_ image_directory> | /Online} [dism_options] {servicing_command} [<servicing_argument>]

You can use the following edition-servicing options on an offline image to list editions or to change a Windows image to a higher edition:

DISM.exe /Image:<path_to_ image_directory> [/Get-CurrentEdition | /Get-TargetEditions |/Set-Edition | /Set-ProductKey]

The following edition-servicing options are available for a running Windows operating system:

DISM.exe /Online [/Get-CurrentEdition | /Get-TargetEditions]

The following table provides a description for how each edition-servicing option can be used. These options are not case sensitive.

Option Description

/Get-Help

/?

When used immediately after an edition-servicing command-line option, information about the option and the arguments is displayed. Additional Help topics might become available when an image is specified.

Examples:

Dism /Image:C:\test\offline /Get-CurrentEdition /?

Dism /Online /Get-CurrentEdition /?

/Get-CurrentEdition

Displays the edition of the specified image.

Examples:

Dism /Image:C:\test\offline /Get-CurrentEdition

Dism /Online /Get-CurrentEdition

/Get-TargetEditions

Displays a list of Windows editions that an image can be changed to.

Examples:

Dism /Image:C:\test\offline /Get-TargetEditions

Dism /Online /Get-TargetEditions

/Set-Edition:<target_edition_ID> {/ProductKey:<product_key>}

Use the /Set-Edition option without the /ProductKey option to change an offline Windows image to a higher edition. Use /Get-TargetEditions to find the edition ID.

Use the /Set-Edition option with the /ProductKey option only to change a running Windows Server® 2008 R2 operating system to a higher edition.

Important:

You should not use the /Set-Edition option on an image that has already been changed to a higher edition. We recommend that you use this option on the lowest edition available in the edition family.

Example:

Dism /Image:C:\test\offline /Set-Edition:Ultimate

On a running Windows Server operating system only:

Dism /online /Set-Edition:Datacenter /ProductKey:12345-67890-12345-67890-12345

/Set-ProductKey:<productKey>

The /Set-ProductKey option can only be used to enter the product key for the current edition in an offline Windows image after you change an offline Windows image to a higher edition using the /Set-Edition option.

Example:

Dism /Image:C:\test\offline /Set-ProductKey:12345-67890-12345-67890-12345

Limitations

  • If you do not enter the product key when you set the edition of your offline image, you must either enter the product key during OOBE, or use an unattended answer file to enter the product key during the specialize configuration pass.

  • You cannot use edition-servicing commands on a Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) image.

  • To maintain edition-specific customizations, you should apply edition-specific answer files after the edition upgrade.

  • If you want to run the /Set-Edition option against a 64-bit image with more than 30 language packs, you must run it from a 64-bit computer. Otherwise, you might receive an out-of-memory error. This limitation only exists if you are manipulating a 64-bit image from a 32-bit computer. This limitation does not exist when you run this option on a computer that matches the architecture of the image.

  • You cannot set a Windows image to a lower edition. The lowest edition will not appear when you run the /Get-TargetEditions option.

  • When you run the /Get-TargetEditions option, only the edition of Windows that you can change the image to will appear. Note that end users will not be able to use Windows Anytime Upgrade (WAU) to change Windows 7 Starter edition to the Windows 7 Home Basic edition. They can use WAU only to upgrade from Windows 7 Starter to Windows 7 Home Premium or higher editions, or to upgrade from the Windows 7 Home Basic edition to the Windows 7 Home Premium or higher editions.

  • You cannot set a Windows image to a higher edition in a different Windows family.

    Windows families and edition ranking: (ranked lowest to highest)

    Consumer and Retail Family

    1. Windows 7 Starter

    2. Windows 7 Home Basic

    3. Windows 7 Home Premium

    4. Windows 7 Professional

    5. Windows 7 Ultimate

    A European regulatory edition of Windows will be identified with an N appended to the edition name and can be changed to a higher edition only within this family.

    A Korean regulatory edition of Windows, with the Korean Language Pack, will be identified with a KN appended to the edition name and can be changed to a higher edition only within this family.

    Volume Licensed

    The Windows Edition Servicing commands are not applicable to Volume Licensed editions of Windows. You can only upgrade to a higher edition of Windows if it is in the Consumer and Retail family.

    1. Windows 7 Professional

    2. Windows 7 Enterprise

See Also