Steps To Upgrade Windows 7 Beta To Windows 7 RC

Microsoft is gearing up for the next test version of Windows 7 operating system, Windows 7 RC. Today in a blog post they announced information on upgrading to Windows 7 RC. Microsoft is suggesting as well as requesting all the Windows 7 beta testers to upgrade to Windows 7 RC by downgrading the Windows 7 Beta to Windows Vista first.

Microsoft says

You’re anxious for a refresh. You’ve installed all your applications. You’ve configured and customized the system. You would love to get the RC and quickly upgrade to it from Beta. 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. We know that means reinstalling, recustomizing, reconfiguring, and so on. That is a real pain.

Even though Microsoft is requesting all the Windows 7 Beta testers to follow Vista to Windows 7 RC upgrade, I prefer directl upgrade from Windows 7 Beta to Windows 7 RC. The reasons why I prefer to go for direct upgrade –  lazy to downgrade to vista and then upgrade to Windows 7 RC and not willing to loose all the existing configurations and applications installed on Windows 7 Beta.

Luckily Microsoft provided the steps for Windows 7 Beta to Windows 7 RC upgrade. All we need to do is

1. Download the ISO as you did previously
2. Extract the ISO file to any storage location( local harddisk or external hard disk)
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.

Will you prefer to downgrade your Windows 7 Beta to Vista and then upgrade it to Windows 7 RC?