Microsoft has yet to announce whether it is possible to upgrade from Windows 7 RC to the final retail version, a question that many have been awaiting an answer for. Dwight Silverman from TechBlog contacted a Microsoft spokesperson, who told him that this will be possible.
If you are running an activated version of Windows 7 RC, you will be able to install Windows 7 from an upgrade disk without installing an older version of Windows. However, you will not be able to do an upgrade installation. Only the custom installation option will be available, which would carry all files on your current Windows installation over to Windows 7 and store it in a folder called windows.old.
Microsoft has continually discouraged upgrade installations from an older Windows 7 build to a newer build. In the RC, the upgrade installation option was disabled if you were running the installation from an older Windows 7 build. However, making a simple edit to the cversion.ini file located on the Windows 7 installation disk would allow you to do so. Microsoft even posted this workaround for those who really wanted to upgrade to the RC from a previous build. The latest RTM candidate build issued to top partners, build 7264, still contains the cversion.ini file, although there is nothing inside. But the fact that the file still exists on the installation image may suggest that this workaround will continue to be possible in the final version of Windows 7.
Even though it will be possible to upgrade, Silverman claims that this could only be done once. If you’ve upgraded from the RC using the Windows 7 upgrade disk and decide to do a clean install of Windows 7 again, you’ll first need to install an older version of Windows.
This last bit of detail doesn’t seem logical at all, since the main purpose of the upgrade disk is to check for an activated version of Windows currently installed on the system before allowing the user to install Windows 7. I’ve contacted a Microsoft spokesperson for additional details and will update if additionals details are provided
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