VMware turned Win7 Pro into Win7 Basic

[DaveHCYJ]

I recently got a license for VMware Workstation. The Easy Install feature alone makes this product leaps and bounds better than Virtual Box which I had been using for the past year.

I had something weird happen today though, I did my first install (in vmware) of Win7 Pro. After the VM booted I went to activate windows and it failed. Somehow VMware turned my Win7 Pro install into Win7 Basic. I tried giving the activation window a Win7 Pro key and it complained. I got a message that said I either needed to enter a Win7 Basic key or I needed to reinstall windows.

Anyone else see this before (in vmware or otherwise)?

 

[Automata]

Doesn't the install media give you a choice on what version you want to install? I vaguely remember Vista doing that, so I'm sure that 7 would too. I haven't installed 7 in a VM yet since I don't have enough licenses.

 

[DaveHCYJ]

I've heard that, but I've never seen an option. Granted I haven't done that many installs of Win7. The media is specifically Win7 x64 Pro media.

I have the feeling its a bug with the Easy Install feature of vmware. Easy Install basically lets you enter a bit of data (user name, key, password, etc.) and then you can walk away and it does the whole OS install for you. I've used it for Ubuntu, Server 2003, and Windows XP and its worked flawlessly. I'm thinking at some point Easy Install is erroneously selecting Home Basic instead of Pro, although a brief search of google and the vmware site didn't turn up anything.

Just for grins I tried the install again with the same results.

 

[DaveHCYJ]

I went through and did an install manually not using the easy install feature. Everything worked fine, the version turned out to be Pro. Also, there was definately never an option to choose the version you want. It asks you to start the install and then pops up a Windows 7 Professional specific EULA for you to accept.

I grabbed the x64 Pro Volume License media off MSDN overnight and ran through that install using the Easy Installer this morning and it came out as the Pro version.


Investigating further I found there is a dropbox to pick the version of windows you want that I had completely missed (didn't need it for Ubuntu, Server 2003, or XP). With the Win7 Volume License media the only option is Professional which is why it worked. With the Win7 Retail media the box defaults to HomeBasic

I guess that confirms there are indeed multiple versions on the Retail media, although as far as I can tell you can only access the "wrong" version by using an unattended install, not through the standard gui install process. VMware should have been able to detect it was Professional media and not default to HomeBasic though

 

[LuvComputers]

I went through and did an install manually not using the easy install feature. Everything worked fine, the version turned out to be Pro. Also, there was definately never an option to choose the version you want. It asks you to start the install and then pops up a Windows 7 Professional specific EULA for you to accept.

I grabbed the x64 Pro Volume License media off MSDN overnight and ran through that install using the Easy Installer this morning and it came out as the Pro version.


Investigating further I found there is a dropbox to pick the version of windows you want that I had completely missed (didn't need it for Ubuntu, Server 2003, or XP). With the Win7 Volume License media the only option is Professional which is why it worked. With the Win7 Retail media the box defaults to HomeBasic

I guess that confirms there are indeed multiple versions on the Retail media, although as far as I can tell you can only access the "wrong" version by using an unattended install, not through the standard gui install process. VMware should have been able to detect it was Professional media and not default to HomeBasic though

DaveHCY, I am in the process of installing my "Windows 7 Pro 64 bit" onto a vmware workstation and encountered the same problem.

I read your posts and see that you resolved the issue. I'm having trouble understanding how you resolved the issue. Did you use the same disk that was giving you the problem? or did you use a different disk? When I run the disk with the problem, it doesn't provide any place to choose any OS, it just prompts for the Product Key prior to it taking off on the installation. In other words, how did you do the "install manually"?

Thanks for any help. for now I am stuck.

Al

DaveHCY,
I was able to resolve the issue. I performed an upgrade using the original install disk and it upgraded itself to Win7 Pro 64Bit.

Thanks,
Al

 

[EarthDog]

Merged triple posts on 4 year old thread.....

Welcome luvcomputers!!!

 

[c627627]

File ei.cfg controls which version of Windows 7 is automatically installed.
It is located inside the /sources/ folder.

If you remove this file, you will be prompted which version of Windows 7 you wish to install.


Or you can edit this file in Notepad and set which version of Windows you want installed automatically. Simply change the word 'Ultimate' to any other version you would like to install automatically:

* Ultimate
* Professional
* HomePremium
* HomeBasic
* Starter

 

[trents]

Doesn't the install media give you a choice on what version you want to install? I vaguely remember Vista doing that, so I'm sure that 7 would too. I haven't installed 7 in a VM yet since I don't have enough licenses.

That certainly is true with the free VMWarePlayer. I remember running into an issue that I was using a version of Vista that was not in the VMWarePlayer pick list. I was using Vista Ultimate I think and the closest thing turned out to be Vista Business as I recall.