Windows 7 Beta To RC Upgrade Instructions

[Mercurial]

The Microsoft Engineering team has outlined how Windows 7 Beta users can upgrade their version of Windows 7 to the soon to be released Release Candidate of Windows 7. The disappointing news is that Microsoft suggests to do a clean install instead as the development changes introduced after the release of the beta of Windows 7 were not always compatible with the upgrades made thereafter.
A clean install on the other hand would mean that all the changes and customizations made to the operating system by the user would be lost. This is a nuisance although everyone knew beforehand that this could happen eventually. Microsoft is suggesting to do a clean install or upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7.

The RC, however, is about getting breadth coverage to validate the product in real-world scenarios. As a result, we want to encourage you to revert to a Vista image and upgrade or to do a clean install, rather than upgrade the existing Beta.

The Windows 7 release candidate setup will quit automatically if it recognizes a pre-RC build on the computer system. Microsoft did however publish a workaround for that for users who really need to do it:
1. Download the ISO as you did previously and burn the ISO to a DVD.
2. Copy the whole image to a storage location you wish to run the upgrade from (a bootable flash drive or a directory on any partition on the machine running the pre-release build).
3. Browse to the sources directory.
4. Open the file cversion.ini in a text editor like Notepad.
5. Modify the MinClient build number to a value lower than the down-level build. For example, change 7100 to 7000 (pictured below).
6. Save the file in place with the same name.
7. Run setup like you would normally from this modified copy of the image and the version check will be bypassed.

There you got it. It is still possible to upgrade a pre-release candidate release to the RC of Windows 7. Microsoft did add some words of caution to the article which are quoted below:

These instructions will be brief. Since everyone reading is a well-versed
and experienced beta tester you know ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR MACHINE before running any OS installation and NEVER TEST AN OS ON YOUR ONLY COPY OF ANY DATA. Testing a pre-release product means just that it is testing and it is pre-release. Even though this is a Release Candidate, we are still testing the product. We have very high confidence but even if an error happens once in 1,000,000 we want to make sure everyone is taking the precautions normal for a pre-release product.
One other related caution is INSTALL ONLY OFFICIALLY RELEASED BUILDS FROM MICROSOFT. It will always be tempting to get the build with the mod already done but you really never know what else has been done to the build. There's a thrill in getting the latest, we know, but that also comes with risks that can't even be quantified. For the RC we will work to release a hash or some other way to validate the build, but the best way is to always download directly from Microsoft.

It basically says to avoid unofficial releases of Windows 7 and to make sure that data has been backed up before starting the installation of beta and release candidate builds.

source: http://windows7news.com

PS: Admin can you allow animated AVATARS please ;D, ".gif"'s

 

[Mark]

PS: Admin can you allow animated AVATARS please ;D, ".gif"'s

They are allowed, but if they are to large then they wont work.

 

[Akatsui]

They are allowed, but if they are to large then they wont work.

Mine is small enough. ^w^

Thanks for the post by the by.

 

[Night Hawk]

I'll simply nuke the primary for a clean install if it doesn't go on and leave the usual Windows.old folder. The 7000s are about to be gone anyways with the 64bit going very soon! 1% remaining on the x64!

Now for animated avatars? There are not too many that will fit available. I still haven't found the right one here yet.

 

[DaveTaylor]

thanks already knew this but cheers, but my avatar owns lol

 

[YupYup]

thanks already knew this but cheers, but my avatar owns lol

cause it was posted 2 days ago http://www.sevenforums.com/news/6640-delivering-quality-upgrade-experience.html

 

[Mercurial]

They are allowed, but if they are to large then they wont work.

then can he make the limit a bit larger then D:

 

[Mark]

then can he make the limit a bit larger then D:

I don't know but you could always ask them, alternatively you can use this online tool to resize your Gif, it need to be max of 100x100 and max file size of 48.8.

Animated Gif Image Resizer Lite v1.01 - Resize Animations Online

 

[error]

Maybe I'm missing the point? We are all beta testing this for microsoft...we get to play with their shiny new OS and they get to find the bugs and fix them...everybody is happy!
By upgrading from the beta to the RC you are, effectively.taking yourself out of the program..as your data will no longer reflect that of normal users..upgrading from vista.
I, like many others, still have a vista installation..though I have no intention of using it as a primary OS again (seven really is that good), I think I kinda owe it to microsoft to continue the program as per their wishes, so I will upgrade the vista install and run that for a week or so, before wiping and going clean RC1.

 

[Night Hawk]

Here I don't have to worry too much about replacing the 64bit 7000 build with anything newer since I still haven't been able to get online with any 64bit OS to date! Even changing the ISP didn't even help since the modems they provide lack 64bit support from the manufacturer meaning a substitute modem or wait for ...?

When the RCs start being seen you know there's good news since the various development sections have all submitted their best version for the section of Windows they work on. Some for networking/internet, another team for file indexing/storage, then another for appearance/themes, one for security, and even another for hardware/software compatibility, etc.

Now take all that and combine it to an RC composition. When going to test any build you don't assume everything is in 100% working order to start with and prepare for disaster recovery by dual booting or stand alone installs on another drive or even a separate test build.

(that would be the old clunker you upgraded out of left for recycling!) :roflmao:

 

[Ex_Brit]

I just had a thought so have a question. (Yes I do think occasionally!!). I am planning on installing Win 7 RC as an upgrade to the current 7000 build (N: drive) and as usual I always install my other OS's from within XP which is my C: drive. That way I can control which drive letters are allotted to my various boots.

If I have that modified image somewhere on my C: drive - do I literally just click setup.exe & proceed from there?

So what's all this I read all over the web about setting up a virtual drive or using Daemon Tools? Or is that only for people who either have no DVD drive and/or no other partition to play with?

I could download Virtual PC from Technet Plus but see no need.

Sorry to sound dense but have never installed an OS from anything other than CD/DVD media.

Question 2 - why not burn the modified ISO to media instead of the original one?

 

[Night Hawk]

Have a good 4-8gb usb flash drive available? Brink just finished writing a great tutorial on how to install from a usb key rather then burning to a blank dvd if you just happen to lack a dvd burner. Often the older premade desktops as well as many laptops suffer in that area big time! http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2432-usb-windows-7-installation-key-drive-create.html

Rather then the usual slap a leak on a dvd-r and toss a frisbies when found to be a fake or reformatting a dvd-rw for checking one out the flash drive here gets some use since you are able to start the setup.exe while in 7 as well as in Vista or XP! While the flash drive is still made bootable you don't run into one problem starting the installer while already in Windows.

You wouldn't have any problems starting the setup.exe file while booted in XP to start with being a previous version of Windows and seeing a custom install. The one thing you tend to still see is XP becoming the boot sector and not being mounted at first when booting into 7. Unfortunately that works in reverse of what you want making XP unavailable at first while in 7.

The one thing you will want to be familiar with effects 7 the same as with Vista namely the system restore cancelation problem when dual booting XP with 7. The Vista problem still remains seen in 7 as well where the method to protect 7's points is the same as Vista's. System Restore Points - Stop XP Dual Boot Delete - Vista Forums

The RC installer should simply pack all the 7000 folders into the Windows.old folder rather then trying to use the upgrade option. You would still plan on a fresh install all over again with the new registry. The RC will likely see far better upgrade capability while you still have to be prepared for a fresh Windows all over again when it replaces the 7000 install you have on now.

 

[Ex_Brit]

I installed W7 from XP in the first place anyway and Easy BCD and iReboot from Neosmart helps with getting back and forth. (Same with Vista actually).
I've had singular lack of luck booting from USB here, even tho' it's enabled in the BIOS.
I also have taken care of the dual boot restore issues.
That installation key drive link is very interesting. I'm off to have a good read of it now.
Thanks for the input.

 

[Night Hawk]

What I did here for the leak test partiion was not even booting from the usb flash drive but simply allowing the installer to copy the setup files over. Once that is complete your system will reboot on it's own and carry on with the rest of the installation. That will then see one 7 replaced by the next.

The best move at this time to see how that will work is grab the 7077 for a quick install even if you have a second drive with some free space available while leaving the 7000 intact. With the EasyBCD tool you can later remove the "previous versions" entry and set which install you want(XP, 7000, or 7077) as the default.

 

[blackcomb]

Will just clean install. Instructions are simple enough, but I can't trust a MS OS as far as I can throw it. Best safe than sorry.

 

[Night Hawk]

It won't matter to me since I can either elect to replace one with the other or go as far as nuking an entire drive including removing the existing partitions to see a clean install on a brand new primary easy enough. Instead of spending the time reformatting even I simply delete one, create the next, and off to clean install quite often.

 

[Ex_Brit]

Mercurial,

I have one small question....

1. Download the ISO as you did previously and burn the ISO to a DVD.
2. Copy the whole image to a storage location you wish to run the upgrade from (a bootable flash drive or a directory on any partition on the machine running the pre-release build).
3. Browse to the sources directory.
4. Open the file cversion.ini in a text editor like Notepad.
5. Modify the MinClient build number to a value lower than the down-level build. For example, change 7100 to 7000 (pictured below).
6. Save the file in place with the same name.
7. Run setup like you would normally from this modified copy of the image and the version check will be bypassed.

How does one browse to that directory? An ISO file is normally unreadable.

 

[swarfega]

With the more recent builds I have tended to actually remove all the partitions on the hard drive and install win7 without creating any new partitions to see how it sets partitions up.

In early 70x builds following this procedure meant that the windows 7 installer created an unassigned partition on hd0 of about 200mb. In more recent builds this has been reduced to 100mb. I believe this partition is used for recovery and boot data.

 

[Mercurial]

use winrar to browse an iso ._.

but I think you extract the iso not just copy the iso to a storage device .

 

[Ex_Brit]

OK, thanks very much.