HOW: Win 7 RC to RTM Upgrade

Finny76

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Aug 31, 2002
Messages
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Is there a way to UPGRADE RC to RTM w/o doing a clean install?

Everytime i try insalling RTM ontop of RC it says this software cant be upgraded and gives me a compatability report.


:confused:
 
It is a very bad idea to install RTM over the RC. However, being a technet subscriber I assume you know that already as most people who buy the technet subscriptions are in the IT field and understand the pains that go with trying to upgrade from an RC to an RTM.

That being said....


You can trick the RTM to install over the RC. Here is how:

Extract the files in the ISO
Browse to the “sources” directory
Open “cversion.ini”
Change the ‘MinClient’ number from “7233.0” to “7100.0”
You should end up with something like this:

[HostBuild]
MinClient=7100.0
MinServer=7100.0

Save the file
Run “setup.exe” from the extrated files and upgrade!
 
dont want to
That doesn't make it a bad choice though. Some people bitch about the process of reinstalling everything, but it's always over-dramatized. You'll thank yourself in the long run, as mentioned above.
 
You should not be allowed to comment on this forum if your going completely against everything Microsoft recommends.

This isnt a Microsoft forum. On this site we regularly go against, and way way beyond what the manufacturer recommends. Even if its a bad choice or something blows up (as may happen here).

And despite all the gloom and doom, the upgrade process is actually rather nice now. All the horror stories of XP to Vista (or earlier!) upgrades are obsolete. Win 7's upgrade actually works. The couple beta to RC upgrades I've done went perfectly. Let us know how it goes.

The worst that can happen is you have to reinstall anyway.
 
I am well aware of what people do on this site, I just dont like when people do things like this then come back looking for support or complaining that this OS is terrible.. This person may not do it but you know there are a bunch that do and will...
 
This isnt a Microsoft forum. On this site we regularly go against, and way way beyond what the manufacturer recommends. Even if its a bad choice or something blows up (as may happen here).

I dunno about that... Ever since Vista all anyone says is "leave it alone!" :p



(I agree with you completely.. thinker, poke, customize, enhance, and/or break.. it's the [H] way.)
 
From one who used to work on setup, I would strongly recommend against doing that. But as many have said, do it at your own risk. (I would ask why clean installing an RC is major deal, did you not expect to have to clean install later?)

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
 
A clean install takes what?? An hour or two to get it back up and get your program back on??
 
well this is on a test system, so that why im not bothering with doing a clean install...

then the Retail versio comes out im buliding a new system and will be doing a fresh win7 install..
 
Clean install ftw... some people will never comprehend it, and that's fine I suppose. But it's always going to be the recommendation, period.

(especially when the OS you're getting rid of/replacing is a beta one...)
 
Finny76,

You will not be able to upgrade from Windows 7 RC to Windows 7 RTM -- you will have to clean install. To receive further support with this process, Microsoft does have an official Windows 7 RC Support Forum. It is supported by product specialists as well as engineers and support teams.

Jessica
Microsoft Windows Client Team
 
Well i dont have a RTM key yet, so I guess ill wait till its officially released!
 
Clean install ftw... some people will never comprehend it, and that's fine I suppose. But it's always going to be the recommendation, period.

(especially when the OS you're getting rid of/replacing is a beta one...)

I'm calling "There should no longer be reason for that principle to continue holding true!"

Because even the 'upgrade install' is nowadays an image based deployment. It's no longer a process of "change the OS installation to turn it into the new one rather than the old one". The old OS installation isn't retained in any shape or form. It gets nuked.

From Vista onwards the install is a file based (rather than sector based) image deployment. Perfform an upgrade install and the procedure can take a while, because user files and settings are migrated out of the old install, a clean new OS install image gets decompressed fro the install disk and put in place on the hard drive, and then the user files and settings are migrated into that new installation.

Where, in all that, is the potential for the 'old install' to somehow be able to compromise the new one? It got rubbed out!



If a person has a whole heap of crap installed to their RC installation and that is compromising the system, it's almost certainly gonna compromise the newly 'upgraded' install too, when it gets migrated back in. Bit then, in that circumstance it's gonna compromise anyways, even in a 'clean install', if the user reinstalls all the crap after the clean install is conducted. No real difference, is there?


I can genuinely see no rational line of reasoning to assume that RTM couldn't quite safely be 'upgrade installed' to RTM code, if that RC install is set up with fully compatible software and working stably/reliably.




Edit: and by the way. I'm a fella who has previously been quite fierce in the repitition of the 'clean install for a fresh start" mantra.
 
Windows installs have always been file based. Microsoft moved all the files into a .WIM file which is still file based. Have you looked at the setup procedure in XP? It erases the old files before deploying the new ones, or moves the old installation to Windows.old. I've never known the new OS files to cause problems during an upgrade or repair. It has always been the drivers, shell hooks and software settings that caused issues.

Bottom line, if your desired end result is a completely stable system, you start the build with a clean install of the OS, unless you are 100% sure that there will be no compatibility issues. I know installing several multi-gigabyte games can be a pain in the ass but even then, most of them run without re-install (that is if you keep your games on another partition or disk like I do) or just require certain runtimes to be in place which is easy to take care of.

To be fair, the issues normally reared their ugly heads on installs that had a lot of software and add-ins installed. Reinstalls of apps were generally needed and I would get the usual "I don't really use <this or that> application/service anymore". So a clean install and reinstallation of a handful of apps would have been quicker and less stressful.
 
We all do things with our software and machines that may not always be recommended.
Just follow the golden rule . . . back that shit up
 
I'm calling "There should no longer be reason for that principle to continue holding true!"

Because even the 'upgrade install' is nowadays an image based deployment. It's no longer a process of "change the OS installation to turn it into the new one rather than the old one". The old OS installation isn't retained in any shape or form. It gets nuked.

From Vista onwards the install is a file based (rather than sector based) image deployment. Perfform an upgrade install and the procedure can take a while, because user files and settings are migrated out of the old install, a clean new OS install image gets decompressed fro the install disk and put in place on the hard drive, and then the user files and settings are migrated into that new installation.

Where, in all that, is the potential for the 'old install' to somehow be able to compromise the new one? It got rubbed out!



If a person has a whole heap of crap installed to their RC installation and that is compromising the system, it's almost certainly gonna compromise the newly 'upgraded' install too, when it gets migrated back in. Bit then, in that circumstance it's gonna compromise anyways, even in a 'clean install', if the user reinstalls all the crap after the clean install is conducted. No real difference, is there?


I can genuinely see no rational line of reasoning to assume that RTM couldn't quite safely be 'upgrade installed' to RTM code, if that RC install is set up with fully compatible software and working stably/reliably.




Edit: and by the way. I'm a fella who has previously been quite fierce in the repitition of the 'clean install for a fresh start" mantra.

Well from one who worked on the code, a Clean install is still recommended if possible over an upgrade. ;) There are reasons I'm not going to go into, why that's still the recommended path.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
 
*blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda*

Blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda, and good day to you, but Microsoft said it's not a good idea and they know more about this shit than we do, and you can't do it without mucking around with something so, that's that. :)

Even Ranma_Sao agrees... and I didn't see his post till I hit Save... HAHAHA That's priceless... :)
 
I just like the idea of having a fresh install. If only for that reason (but I agree with Joe, it's not like it's terribly difficult).

Even these vaunted "image based installs" get mucked eventually--it's not perfect and never will be. Remember when Microsoft said NTFS didn't need to be defragemented, ever? NTFS > FAT32, but NTFS != perfect. In the same way, upgrades to 7 > upgrades to XP/Vista, but 7 upgrades != perfect.
 
I had 2 out of 3 Beta to RC go bad. Same issue on both, lost all rights to the C drive and taking back the rights didn't completely work, so after spending the time for upgrade had to nuke them both and start over. Would have saved me time on both. Not gonna take that chance even though MS says Vista Ultimate to & Ultimate is OK for upgrade. Besides the fact that I've been getting the nvidia display driver has failed and restarted erro about 30 times a day now.
 
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