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How to Upgrade from Windows 7 RC to Final
Here are the quick text instructions. After the jump you can find detailed (and possibly really boring) screenshots.
- Get the MS USB/DVD Download Tools
- Put your Windows 7 Utlimate ISO on a USB stick. Note that it must be Ultimate, and that it has to correspond to the one you've got installed (x86 or x64).
- Edit sources\cversion.ini and change MinClient from 7233.0 to 7000. Save and close.
- Install from within Windows so that it upgrades (installing by booting from the USB will give you a fresh install and defeat what we're trying to do here).
Make sure your USB device is large enough. It actually has to be empty, as I later discovered.
Point the USB/DVD Download Tool at your ISO file. (Must be Windows 7 Ultimate, because the RC was Ultimate).
Click USB device here.
Click Begin copying.
This is where you get the alert if your USB drive isn't empty. If you get this, select Erase USB Device (obviously, back it up first if you want to).
Now the DVD tool does its thing:
Now go to the USB drive, and sources\cversion.ini. Double-click it to open it in notepad.
Change this:
To this:
Save and close. You can now upgrade your Windows 7 RC with the Final version by installing it from within Windows.
Comments
12
Subscribe to commentsAndyFeb 25th 2010 12:33PM
Your article has a discrepancy. The text says to change "MinClient" to 7100, while the screenshots say to change it to 7000. Which one is correct?
Daniel WyntersFeb 25th 2010 1:05PM
Doesn't matter, as long as it is a lower number than the RC version.
ProlornFeb 25th 2010 1:21PM
This Icrontic article suggests a hack to enable upgrading from RC to any version of RTM: http://tech.icrontic.com/articles/upgrade-the-windows-7-rc-to-retail/
Though, I can only imagine that this will make the upgrade even less reliable. Seemed to work fine for them, though.
Since there isn't much on my old desktop RC installation I really want to keep, and I already have RTM on my laptop, I don't think I'm going to bother myself.
JeremyFeb 25th 2010 4:08PM
@Prolorn
I used that exact method to move from the RC to my retail version of Home Premium. I have not experienced any issues at all.
rokubungiMar 3rd 2010 12:26AM
I upgraded in a similar way too except I just copied all the files to the hard drive, changed all the registry keys to say 'Professional' instead of ultimate, did the minclient bit and just ran the install directly from the hard drive. a bit quicker than waiting on USB
Mark EriksonFeb 25th 2010 7:23PM
I can verify that the Icrontic instructions work. I went from Ultimate RC to Home Premium RTM. Just had to copy the DVD to my hard drive, edit the minclient value in the .ini, change the registry key, and run upgrade.
RajFeb 27th 2010 10:08AM
Will I be able to upgrade using "Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Upgrade" retail DVD? Thanks for the article.
ChuckFeb 27th 2010 12:56PM
I don't have the cversion.ini file in the sources folder
powerhouselb2Feb 28th 2010 1:11PM
Well, I used Remove WAT a few months back. I got the countdown stating I had two days left, so I gave the hack a try. I changed both number to what was in the tutorial because neither matched. The server number I changed to 7100 like in the tutorial. I ran the upgrade and used the Serial Key that came with the RC. Now it states that I'm using evaluation build 7100.
Remember, I changed the first number to 7000 from 70xx.0 and server number to 7100 from 7000.0. I see now that I should have left the second number alone. Would changing the server number to 7000 and doing the upgrade over again help? Today is my last day on Windows 7 and I LOOOOOVE Windows 7.
powerhouselb2Feb 28th 2010 1:37PM
Can the ISO be a RC too? That's what I used.
powerhouselb2Mar 1st 2010 2:27AM
Okay, I've completely miss understood. I get it now. This is a method to update a RC to a retail version using a retail copy. I should have known better than to believe that this site would post instructions on how to trick Microsoft into thinking you have a retail copy. I apologize for the posts. I completely misunderstood.
w7profMar 17th 2010 9:37PM
For information on upgrading from the RC version to Windows 7, including deadlines for the RC version, please check this link: http://bit.ly/au2CuD. If you are not sure which version of Windows is best for you, you can read about the different features of each version on http://bit.ly/Win7CompareEd