Upgrade the Windows 7 RC to retail

Thrax · Oct 2009

Ivan · Oct 2009

djmeph · Oct 2009

Thank You! Now my boss will spare my life.

Cliff_Forster · Oct 2009

This article is going to make many RC users very happy.

Todd · Oct 2009

Great tip! Now I know why I left a big empty partition when I first loaded 7RC.

chizow · Oct 2009

This definitely works for RC to RTM, but only for Ultimate as the article disclaimer indicates:

Lastly, be aware that the RC-to-Retail upgrade process only works with the retail edition of Windows 7 Ultimate. A technique which opens the upgrade process to Windows 7 Professional or Home Premium hasnâ€™t been developed yet. We are, however, exploring possibilities; should one bear out, we will update this article with the necessary steps.

That should be displayed more prominently imo, as the price of Ultimate jumps drastically for all versions and the pre-order deals in June were only for HP and Pro.

Butters · Oct 2009

Did this when Win 7 was available to Technet. It works great!

BuddyJ · Oct 2009

Hey Chizow, I know something you don't!

/me sings.

Thrax · Oct 2009

UPDATE:

This guide now includes the steps necessary to upgrade from the Windows 7 release candidate to any retail version of Windows 7.

We have certified the steps by successfully converting an RC install to the retail version of Windows 7 Professional.

Enjoy!

chrisWhite · Oct 2009

This. Is. Awesome. Great work Thrax!

mas0n · Oct 2009

Robert, you're my hero.

Geek_Tech_Edge · Oct 2009

Thanks this will save me the hassel of having to install from sratch along with all my program files!

Allan · Oct 2009

I concur - this is great info just in time for the release. I will be installing the European version of W7 which I think does not allow an upgrade at all. Does anyone have any experience with this release relative to W7RC. Given that an upgrade may not be possible, what's the next best (least worst) route?
Thanx in advance for your help - Al

CyberBob · Oct 2009

This is great! I'm assuming that this will work for Upgrade retail disks as well as Full (not-upgrade) disks? There's a big difference in price between the two.

Thrax · Oct 2009

@Allan: For Euro users, a clean install is unfortunately the only way. I do advise making a backup of your current user profile using Windows Easy Transfer... This will save all of your desktop settings, favorites (for both Firefox and IE), documents, SOME program settings, and more. You'll have to reinstall drivers and any programs that were lost in the reformat, but the WET file will save you a lot of time.

@CyberBob: As far as I am aware, it will work for upgrade and FPP discs just the same. :)

User 1 · Oct 2009

Ive done this 2 times now and some applications will work that came with windows... but other things like firefox or even installers for programs will not launch.

Any suggestions?

Thrax · Oct 2009

There are SO MANY variables that could lead to the problem you are experiencing. Some users on another forum were experiencing the same symptom (with a clean install)... Bad memory for one person, overheating processor for a second, a virus scanner for a third person was gumming up the works.

What I can tell you is that I had no troubles on my end. The PC happily browsed on firefox, etc. I wish I could be more help, but there are simply too many variables to consider to give you a concrete answer.

Nic · Oct 2009

Hi to all. my rc win7(watermark says win 7 evaluation copy build 7100) but the minclient reads=7077.0 and minserver=7000.0. Can i still do the upgrade. IF not what do i do? and on a final note where do get the serial and product key to activate(surly the rc keys wont do job). And if some one could provide them or a link or even a crack would be much appreciated. Thanks for your time.

Nic · Oct 2009

Sorry previous post is meant to read; my release candidate copy of windows 7. Thanks for the great post and help again:)

Thrax · Oct 2009

Nic said:
Hi to all. my rc win7(watermark says win 7 evaluation copy build 7100) but the minclient reads=7077.0 and minserver=7000.0. Can i still do the upgrade. IF not what do i do? and on a final note where do get the serial and product key to activate(surly the rc keys wont do job). And if some one could provide them or a link or even a crack would be much appreciated. Thanks for your time.

1. Yes, it will still work.
2. You buy Windows. We're not here to help you steal.

Nic · Oct 2009

Hi i am sorry, i dont want to steal or do anything illigle but i am concerned that with the rc i could not even get into the trail with out the activation key, which i got from microsoft but will it be the same with the rtm where i dont know where to get a key from? PLEASE dont think i want to do anything illigle but i was and i still concerned. Thank you so much for your reply.

Thrax · Oct 2009

The RTM is the final retail copy purchased from a store. The key comes with the product, and it'll be available on October 22.

chizow · Oct 2009

The registry tweak to enable upgrade to any RTM version is brilliant! Doesn't really help me as a TN subscriber but will be a great solution for all those pre-order upgraders.

Nic · Oct 2009

Hi i'v followed your instructions perfectly and have attemted 3 times but i still have build 7100 but in my cversion.ini the minclient is 7077 and the minserver 7000. PLEASE PLEASE help! am i doing something wrong. what should i do?

chizow · Oct 2009

Nic said:
Hi i'v followed your instructions perfectly and have attemted 3 times but i still have build 7100 but in my cversion.ini the minclient is 7077 and the minserver 7000. PLEASE PLEASE help! am i doing something wrong. what should i do?

Do you have a valid RTM key and installation disc/image? This isn't a magical hack to transform a RC install into an RTM install, it simply tricks the RTM installer into thinking the installed RC version is compatible for upgrade to RTM.

Chuck · Oct 2009

Curious whether you've tried this on the 90 day Enterprise trial. I've just spent many hours loading up a 64 bit Win 7 trial with all my office software to confirm compatibility before deploying to a production environment. Very impressive, positive result. All the software works magnificently, some of which is very poorly coded and crash prone. All my printers, scanners, etc perform using Vista 64 drivers. No issues with SBS 2003 or MS Exchange.

I set up the trial build knowing that it would be good only for a short time, so have used trial versions of all the applications. Now you've got me wondering whether this RC-to-RTM conversion might work on a RTM Enterprise trial to Professional Retail conversion.

Thrax · Oct 2009

I'm afraid I have no data on Enterprise. It seems to me, though, that you could make a VHD of Enterprise, boot it into a VM and try the upgrade. :)

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Upgrade the Windows 7 RC to retail

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