Upgrade Windows 7 Starter with Windows 7 Family Pack Home Premium Upgrade

February 2, 2011 --Whether you find a small netbook the ideal portable computer or like to save space on your desktop, certainly the ability to address your computing needs with such a small device is attractive to many. Generally most netbooks being sold these days include Microsoft Windows 7 Starter.

As a way to keep the retail price down relative to larger notebooks and desktops, Microsoft left out a short list of features on the low end of the Windows 7 product range. This is not a totally new strategy as there was always a difference between Home and Professional versions of XP and Vista, in price and features, as there are between Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate.

For most users, the features that are unavailable will have little effect considering the larger impact of a small form factor and an Atom processor. These netbooks are not intended for high-end needs. That said, there may be some additional features that you might find useful when using your netbook on your desk at home, that could be acquired by upgrading to Windows 7 Home Premium. A most desirable feature for me is the ability to connect an external monitor and extend my desktop. This feature is disabled in the Starter version.

Microsoft has introduced a very easy way to upgrade called Windows Anytime Upgrade. They are to be commended on this. Windows Anytime Upgrade is designed to upgrade your computer from one edition of Windows 7 to another edition of Windows 7. After purchasing an upgrade key online for US$79.95 (and up), a few clicks and a few minutes will unlock the additional features of a higher edition of Windows 7.

The good news is that you can also make use of the reduced price for the Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade Family Pack 3-User Licence and use one of your licenses to upgrade your Windows 7 Starter version to Windows 7 Home Premium. The process is as simple as starting the Windows Anytime Upgrade program and entering your upgrade key.


The point I really want to make is that even though the Family Pack upgrade is promoted as a move from XP and Vista, it also works for upgrading Windows 7 Starter. If you have multiple computers at home that you expect to upgrade and have just purchased a new netbook, this might be a good time to purchase the Family Pack. Microsoft has said that the 3-user Family Pack will be available for a limited time only. Many would suggest that this packaging should always be available. Time will tell. At the time of writing this article the Family Pack is still available for US$149.99 in the Microsoft online store but I found it at an exceptional price of US$109.99 at Amazon.com and £108.04 at Amazon.co.uk. Strangely I could not find it discounted in Canada and is priced at C$199.99 at Amazon.ca and elsewhere.

To start the upgrade process, click Start, in the search box type Anytime Upgrade, and select.

Next, enter the product license key from your Family Pack upgrade.

Once your upgrade key is entered, it just takes about 10 minutes. No additional software is installed, as the upgrade simply unlocks features already installed.

While you are at it, I suggest you consider upgrading your memory from 1GB to 2GB, which is the usual default and maximum for netbooks. Your local computer store can usually help you. At the low cost of memory this is a worthwhile investment.

After this you can check your System status to confirm your upgrade. Now that was easy!

--MLJ