Categories
How-To Software Technical

Upgrade Windows Server without Re-installing

Like in my previous post, we will be using the DISM.exe command (Deployment Image Servicing and Management Tool), that is available in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. This time to change the version of Server 2008 R2 from Standard to Enterprise Edition.

Click on the “Start Button” Type Power, PowerShell will then show under programs, Right Click the PowerShell Icon and select “Run as administrator.

Enter the following command to see which version you can in place upgrade too “DISM /online /Get-TargetEditions”

You can see from the output of the command window, Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard can be upgraded to Enterprise and DataCenter.

Enter in the following command to upgrade your version of Windows Server R2. In my case I am going to upgrade to Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition, by using the following command

DISM /online /Set-Edition:ServerEnterprise /ProductKey:XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX”

You need to have a key for Enterprise edition and fill in the XXXX with that information. You can also use a KMS Key to active using this method.

Once the computer restarts, you will now see you are running Windows Server Enterprise.

Know Errors:

“Setting an Edition is not supported with online images” the reason you are getting this error is because the server you are trying to in place upgrade has the AD DS Role installed and is acting as a domain controller. You server you are trying to in place upgrade us holding an Exchange Server Role.  From what I can tell, you will need to install new at this point.

– Jermal