How to Select Any Edition or Version (SKU) of Windows 7 to Install From Single Edition DVD Disc Media or ISO » My Digital Life

How to Select Any Edition or Version (SKU) of Windows 7 to Install From Single Edition DVD Disc Media or ISO » My Digital Life

How to Select Any Edition or Version (SKU) of Windows 7 to Install From Single Edition DVD Disc Media or ISO



It’s possible the Windows 7 ISO or DVD disc media that end-user possessed may be restricted to install a single edition or version of Windows 7 only. For example, a Windows 7 Professional media may not prompt option to select which edition of Windows 7 to install, and instead will install Windows 7 Professional edition. Likewise for Windows 7 Ultimate DVD ISO image or disc which may not have edition selection screen.

However, all DVD of Windows 7 does contains and able to install all and any version of Windows 7, from Windows 7 Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional to Ultimate edition. Actually, the ability to select the version or edition of Windows 7 during setup installation, or which edition that the setup will automatically install, lies with a small configuration file
named ei.cfg on the Windows 7 DVD, disc media or ISO image.

Select an Edition of Windows 7 to Install During Setup

The content of the ei.cfg file, inside the “sources” folder of the DVD looks like below:

[EditionID]
Ultimate
[Channel]
Retail
[VL]
0

When ei.cfg does not exist, Windows 7 setup process will display a screen during Install Windows wizard to ask user to select the operating system
(edition) to install. The selection of OS includes Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Home Basic, Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate. Thus, in order to be able to install any editions or install another different edition of Windows 7 without having to download ISO image or order a new DVD of Windows 7 with all SKUs enabled (allSKU version), use the following hack to delete or modify ei.cfg file.

1. Download and install an disc image utility such as PowerISO or UltraISO to open the ISO image of Windows 7 DVD. If you own a physical DVD disc media, the similar tool allows you to rip the DVD to ISO or other image format too.

Another alternative for user with Windows 7 DVD ISO image downloaded via torrent or from Internet
is to extract all contents of the ISO image by using extraction tool such as WinRAR or 7-zip, or mount the ISO and copy contents to a folder.
2. Browse to /sources/ folder.
3. Locate ei.cfg file.
4. Depending on preference, it’s possible to modify/edit or simply delete ei.cfg file, as explained below.

Choice 1: Delete ei.cfg

When ei.cfg is deleted, Windows 7 setup wizard will give user an option to select and choose which version (SKU) of operating system user wants to install during installation.

Select Windows 7 OS Edition to Install

Choice 2: Edit and Modify ei.cfg

By modifying the EditionID section of ei.cfg by replacing Ultimate (or other edition specified there) with another edition, user can preset another edition SKU of Windows 7 that user want setup to install automatically. The Edition ID available for installation are as follow:
* Ultimate
* Professional
* HomePremium
* HomeBasic
* Starter

Save the ei.cfg after editing.
5. For user who wants to in-place upgrade to Windows 7, it’s possible to run setup.exe from extracted DVD contents now. The modified ISO can also be burned to a DVD disc or saved to a new ISO image.

Tip: Editing of ei.cfg can now be automated by Windows 7 ISO Image Edition Switcher, and deletion of ei.cfg with ei.cfg Removal Utility.



The ei.cfg Removal Utility is a simple tool that will disable the ei.cfg from any Windows 7 ISO disc image, thereby converting the image into a “universal disc” that will prompt the user to select a preferred edition during setup. ei.cfg Removal Utility works directly to patch the ISO image, by toggling the deletion bit in the UDF file table to instruct the operating system to ignore and remove ei.cfg, or treat it as if it does not exist. Best of all, ei.cfg Removal Utility can reverse the patching to restore the ISO disc image to its original state when the tool is been used to apply on a disc image that previously been patched by the utility.

ei.cfg Removal Utility is a standalone portable app, and thus no installation required. In fact, the program does not have much user interface. After selecting the target Windows 7 ISO, the disc image will be patched right away. So make sure a copy of ISO backup is done.

Download ei.cfg Removal Utility: eicfg_removal_utility.zip