I've seen many questions in the SQL Server newsgroups and other public forums about upgrading SQL Server Personal Edition to a full Standard or Enterprise Edition. Many of the responses have been needlessly complex. For the record, SQL Server Setup is a perfectly safe and supported method of upgrading one edition of SQL Server to another. If you need to upgrade SQL Server Personal Edition to SQL Server Standard Edition, simply run the setup program from a SQL Server Standard Edition CD-ROM. The setup program will make all the necessary registry changes. Running the setup program is painless and takes just a few minutes. To be sure about this answer, I ran it by reliable sources on the Microsoft development team and received their stamp of approval.
