Delivering a quality upgrade experience

Article
04/07/2009

This is a little bit of a tricky post to write because we’re going to be asking everyone using our Windows 7 Beta to help us out, but doing so is going to take a little time and require a bit of a commitment to helping test the next milestone. This has been a remarkably valuable and beneficial testing cycle for Windows as we have had a tremendous amount of very rigorous testing and usage. We’ve had millions of people install and use the Beta since January and as we’ve talked about, the feedback and telemetry have been of tremendous value as we finalize the product. The effort of Beta testers has contributed immensely to our ability to deliver a high-quality product to hundreds of millions of customers. We continue to follow the plan we have previously outlined and this post is no announcement of any news or change in plans. Since we know many people are running the Beta we want to provide a heads up regarding the behavior of the Release Candidate (RC) as it pertains to upgrades. Of course we are working hard on the RC and following the schedule we have set out for ourselves.

A big part of the beta process is making sure we get as much “real world” coverage of scenarios and experiences as possible and monitor the telemetry of those experience overall. One of the most challenging areas to engineer is the process of upgrading one release of Windows to another. When you think about it, it is the one place where at one time we need to run a ton of code to basically “know” everything about a system before performing the upgrade. During the development of Windows 7 we routinely test hundreds of original OEM images from Windows Vista and upgrade them and then run automated tests validating the upgrade’s success. We also test thousands of applications and many thousands of devices as they too move through the upgrade process.

Many of you installed the Windows 7 beta on a PC running Vista. We received that telemetry and acted on it accordingly. We believe we’ve continued to improve the upgrade experience throughout the release. Similarly, based on our telemetry most of you did clean installations onto new drive partitions. Through this telemetry we learned about the device ecosystem and what drivers were available or missing. We also learned about PC-specific functions that required installing a driver / application (from XP or Vista) to enable support for buttons, connectors, or other hardware components. Together we get great coverage of the setup experience.

We’ve also learned that many of you (millions) are running Windows 7 Beta full time. 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. The reality is that upgrading from one pre-release build to another is not a scenario we want to focus on because it is not something real-world customers will experience. During development we introduce changes in the product (under the hood) that aren’t always compatible with what we call “build-to-build” upgrade. The supported upgrade scenario is from Windows Vista to Windows 7. Before you go jump to the comment section, we want to say we are going to provide a mechanism for you to use if you absolutely require this upgrade. As an extended member of the development team and a participant in the Beta program that has helped us so much, we want to ask that you experience real-world setup and provide us real-world telemetry.

If you do follow the steps below, you might run across some oddities after upgrade. We experience these internally at Microsoft occasionally but we don’t always track them down and fix them because they take time away from bugs that would not only manifest themselves during this one-time pre-release operation. From time to time we’ve noticed on a few blogs that people are using builds that we have not officially released and complained of “instabilities” after upgrade. Nearly all of these have been these build-to-build issues. We’ve seen people talk about how a messenger client stopped working, a printer or device “disappears”, or start menu shortcuts are duplicated. These are often harmless and worst case often involves reinstalling the software or device.

We’re just trying to be deterministic and engineer the product for the real world. Speaking of the real world, many have asked about upgrading from Windows XP. There's no change here to the plan as has been discussed on many forums. We realized at the start of this project that the “upgrade” from XP would not be an experience we think would yield the best results. There are simply too many changes in how PCs have been configured (applets, hardware support, driver model, etc.) that having all of that support carry forth to Windows 7 would not be nearly as high quality as a clean install. This is something many of you know and already practice. We do provide support for moving files and settings and will prompt at setup time, but applications will need to be reinstalled. We know that for a set of customers this tradeoff seems less than perfect, but we think the upfront time is well worth it.

So when you try to upgrade a pre-RC build you will find that you’re not able to and setup will tell you and you can then exit gracefully. You can install as a clean installation and use the Windows Easy Transfer feature as well (run this from your current installation of course) if you wish to move your accounts, settings, files, and more. To bypass the version check, the instructions below will use a mechanism that is available for enterprise customers (so we are also testing this as well). It is not a simple command line switch. We didn’t make it multi-step on purpose but wanted to stick to using proven, documented and tested mechanisms.

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.

Here’s what you can do to bypass the check for pre-release upgrade IF YOU REALLY REALLY NEED TO:

Download the ISO as you did previously and burn the ISO to a DVD.
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).
Browse to the sources directory.
Open the file cversion.ini in a text editor like Notepad.
Modify the MinClient build number to a value lower than the down-level build. For example, change 7100 to 7000 (pictured below).
Save the file in place with the same name.
Run setup like you would normally from this modified copy of the image and the version check will be bypassed.

These same steps will be required as we transition from the RC milestone to the RTM milestone.

Again, we know many people (including tens of thousands at Microsoft) are relying on the pre-release builds of Windows 7 for mission critical and daily work, making this step less than convenient. We’re working hard to provide the highest quality release we can and so we’d like to make sure for this final phase of testing we’re supporting the most real world scenarios possible, which incremental build to build upgrades are not. At the same time everyone on the beta has been so great we wanted to make sure we at least offered an opportunity to make your own expert and informed choice about how to handle the upgrade.

We’re always humbled by the excitement around the releases and by the support and enthusiasm from those that choose to run our pre-releases. We’re incredibly appreciative of the time and effort you put into doing so. In return we hope we are providing you with a great release to work with at each stage of the evolution of the product. Our next stop is the RC…see you there!

THANK YOU!

--Windows 7 Team

PS: At Step 1 above many of you are probably thinking, “hey why don’t you just let me mount the ISO and skip the plastic disc”. We’ve heard this feedback and we deserve the feedback. We don’t have this feature in Windows 7 and we should have. So please don’t fill the comments with this request. There are several third party tools for mounting and if you’ve got a Vista image there’s a good chance your PC came with those tools on it.

Comments

Anonymous
April 06, 2009
Excuse Team, this Update is from Vista?
Anonymous
April 06, 2009
Hi team. I have been trying some of the other builds out, but have now almost copied this before you even posted it. I reverted to Vista Home premium (factory install) and then re-installed an upgrade to Windows 7 build 7000 in anticapation of the RC1 when its released. That means I am now back with IE8 crashing nearly all the time when trying to access some of my favourite websites. This was actually one of the reasons why I tried one of the 'unofficial' builds as it is fixed in those, so I wait with baited breath for the RC1 to be lauched so that I can then surf with no problems! Keep up the good work Windows 7 team, you are doing a great job, oh and thanks for listening.
Anonymous
April 06, 2009
Indeed - this ought to be standard functionality in Windows now (it's that useful). I'd love to not have to both installing third party tools to unpack/install a MS product!
Anonymous
April 06, 2009
Sounds reasonable enough, it's Beta for a reason so why waste time on an upgrade path. I hope in the RC that pinned items are at the bottom of the list rather than the top, who's idea was it to put your pinned items at the furthest point possible from the clicking point!!?
Anonymous
April 06, 2009
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
April 07, 2009
Just would to ask you...doas Microsoft lissen to: www.windows7taskforce.com ?
Anonymous
April 07, 2009
Mounting ISO, try the free tool Virtual Clone Drive.
Anonymous
April 07, 2009
Nice, TY :D www.windows7taskforce.com
Anonymous
April 07, 2009
I just wanted to thank you guys for being so open and involved in the beta/RC program. It's awesome, and quite a deviation from previous Windows beta programs. It's also a bit surprising that you guys aren't absolutely furious about all the leaks, but I guess that's just more real world testing. Can't wait for the RC, and the RTM.
Anonymous
April 07, 2009
I'm eager for the Release Candidate as well, and I hope you've monitored that Windows7taskforce.com website - they've noted some inconsistencies in wording and icon styling, and how some things, like Task Manager and Windows Defender, which could use the now in-icon progress indicator ability of Windows 7. I hope more programs make use of that excellent at-a-glance functionality. I hope Win7 can bring improved podcast support to WMP and WMC, and that the improvements to Win7 will continue past RTM. Looking to the future, I hope that the first Service Pack will bring a host of new features that you wanted in RTM but couldn't put in there due to time constraints. Keep up the good work!
Anonymous
April 07, 2009
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Anonymous
April 07, 2009
I only do clean installs. But I hope the telemetry from my computers and notebooks is usefule nonetheless. www.windows7taskforce.com
Anonymous
April 07, 2009
I challenge the Windows 7 team to write a blog entry without using the words "Ecosystem", "Experience" or any other over used buzzwords.
Anonymous
April 07, 2009
@schwarz Just curious, what feature of dynamic disks do you depend upon? And, since XP to Windows 7 isn't a supported upgrade, you can always use Windows Easy Transfer(WET or Migwiz) from the Windows 7 DVD to copy your data off to an external location & then clean install Windows 7 using WET to restore your data.
Anonymous
April 07, 2009
I haven't upgraded a Microsoft OS since Windows 98. Its is just a given when switching to a new version of Windows that a complete whipe and fresh install is the only way to avoid broken software, performance loss and funky crash states and or obscure error messages.
Anonymous
April 07, 2009
Hello, I installed Win 7 x64 Beta on my machine. I have a Asus K8V Deluxe motherboard with AMD64 3400+. Some of the drives run on a Promise 150 TX2 Plus. Now, those drivers came on the Vista x64 OEM disc that I got from Microsoft, but The Win 7 DVD didn't have them, do you think the RC is going to? I have all of my personal data on those disk, and if I can't use them, I can't be running Win7. Hopefully some here can help me and I would love to run Win 7. The little time I played with it, absolutely loved it 100%. I'm one of the few that loves Vista too, but I felt like Win7 ran a lot smoother on my machine. Thanks for the help.
Anonymous
April 07, 2009
I use all that dynamic disks can offer! Except raid 5, as Win 7 won't allow raid 5. (why is beyond me....) I have my os + applications + personal media mirrored. (PC is also workstation for work) Swap + temporary media files (work in progres) are striped. A simple backup volume for the most important and time critical data and media files. All my other (work) Media files are spanned (so i can expand storage when needed) I use 2 seperate external drives for backup. (1 off site) 7 drive total (5 internal 2 external) ~160 GB raid 1 (over 2 drives) ~360 GB striped (over 5 drives) ~1.2 TB spanned (over 5 drives) ~200 GB backup (1 drive) 2*1 TB USB drives (backup)
Anonymous
April 07, 2009
It's very kind of the Win7 team to offer this functionality. And as a Beta Tester, I will do my duty and do a clean install. :) I've installed my machine over and over enough times over the years, it's almost muscle-memory the folders I need to back up, haha.
Anonymous
April 07, 2009
I do a clean install too. I have Vista (not used since build 7000 comes out) and Win 7 here at work and at home
Anonymous
April 07, 2009
Sounds fair enough to me. I remember the upgrade from XP to Vista was flaky, it still had XP sounds, and Windows Mail said Outlook Express in the title bar :)
Anonymous
April 07, 2009
I don't mind doing a Vista update... my question is, when will the RC be available? Is it ready yet? ... Is it ready yet? =)
Anonymous
April 07, 2009
"Is it ready yet?" ... heck I don't care; I'll take it just the way it is <VBG> - it has to be better than XP. One upgrade scenario that I didn't see addressed and I would like to know before doing the Vista re-install upgrade suffle is will there be an upgrade route direct from Vista x86 -> Win7 x64? This was the only reason that I haven't installed Win7 on all of my systems - Beta wouldn't allow upgrade from Vista x86 to Win7 x64. Thanks!
Anonymous
April 07, 2009
First, Looks like Windows 7 will be the one that makes me wan't to forget XP, so GREAT job Windows 7 team! Second, I've installed Windows 7 64-bit (beta 7068) on my second partition using a clean install, overwriting Windows Vista 32bit and Win7 beta 7000 without a problem. Third, will 64-bit be pushed a lot more this go around?
Anonymous
April 07, 2009
@ET3 -- we still will not support upgrade across architectures (32 <-> 64 bit). Sorry about that. @MattJC -- we're starting to see more and more machines ship with 64-bit by default and we do expect this trend to continue, particularly for all-in-ones, desktops, and for 64-bit capable laptops. --Steven
Anonymous
April 07, 2009
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Anonymous
April 08, 2009
Enough with the teasing, give us the release candidate!
Anonymous
April 08, 2009
I have a small computer service business and I'm entertaining doing an upgrade of my Vista workstation at the release of the next RC. I'm using a domain with Server 2008 and Vista, XP and one other W7 workstation(s). It isn't a problem to image my Vista machine for safety and then try this. The Vista install has been in use for about 18 months. I would do this both for myself and to add to the collection of experience data. I need to get my feet wet from the support side of Windows 7 is another reason to give this a shot. I have Vista 32 but would like to use the 64 bit Windows 7 if possible. Will that be possible with the next RC?
Anonymous
April 08, 2009
Several comments here:
Windows 2008 R2 Std version will allow max 32Gig memory, but W7 will support 128Gig. If it stays that way a lot of people will run w7 on their latest server hardware to avoid this odd limitation. Especially considering even low end servers already now support 48Gig for very little money.
Dynamic disc: Please support raid 10, it is truly annoying having to depend on very flaky hardware implementations of raid to get this.
Dynamic disk setup in installation.
Dynamic disc Raid 5 and 1 (and 10): Add support for dirty bitmaps like Linux has had for ages, so that rebuilds does not take forever.
Anonymous
April 08, 2009
I have run Win 7 as my primary OS on my primary system since release. I am a gaming enthusiast, and have been putting Win 7 through its paces with the hope of having the RTM be a rock solid gaming platform (since we all know Vista failed miserably to meet the gaming communities expectations). My experience so far has been hit or miss. I realise Microsoft has no control over the stability of individual games or QC over their code. However, DX10 and ATI 4870 X2 (cat 9.3 Win 7 wddm) do not play well on too many games. I am sure a large portion of the mountainous gaming/DX10 telemetry is my fault ;) What I want to see: You can't prevent bad game code from occasionally hanging/crashing, I would rather crash to desktop, than blackscreen/reboot (which is the norm not the exception on Win 7 build 7000). Maybe this is fixed in RC, I will definately be clean installing to that once it is released, if not, PLEASE fix the feature that is supposed to prevent 3D apps from crashing the whole system. While the gaming community is a narrow demograph, rest assured that they are the ones that migrate if it works, and blog about it if it doesn't!
Anonymous
April 08, 2009
This really doesn't seem like the appropriate place to be suggesting this to me but I'm not sure where else to go! I have several small suggestions regarding the taskbar. I absolutely love all the new things I can do with the taskbar. There are a few things which I would like to be able to drag and have stick to the right side of the taskbar, it just seems like they should be over there. Also, an option to force certain apps to stay in the "combined" mode where they have a small cube shaped entry in the taskbar while the rest of the items are not in "combined" mode would be nice. I like using the "Combine when taskbar is full" option. There are a few apps which only ever have one window open by design and can be very easily identified by their icon. In combination with having them open almost 100% of the time I'm using my PC would make this option very useful. The ability to force these apps to keep their icon only in the taskbar without any text would save me a ton of space.
Anonymous
April 08, 2009
Well, one thing I can promise - I'll test RC as clean install :) Since all my home computers, as well as those at work are XP (32bit), and in particular because I'm planning to move them all to Win7 64bit - there won't be any other way. Oh, ofcourse, I won't move all of them to RC, I'm talking about future move to final copies of Win 7 (probably Enterprise at work since we have access to them; Premium for home computers). But one feature I will be trying, if I only get time, is that User State Migration Tool 4.0 with those hard-linked files and all that (remember? http://edge.technet.com/Media/User-State-Migration-with-Windows-7/ ). This is something that I will almost certainly use to move all company users from XP to Win7 when the time arrives, so this is what I will be testing. Real world you want, real world you get :) Testing exact things that I'm going to use once Win7 is available for sale ;) Cheers! And keep up with the good work :)
Anonymous
April 08, 2009
I don't have my activation code for Windows 7. How I go about reactivating it if I do a clean install of Windows 7 with RC1?
Anonymous
April 08, 2009
I can accept resetting back to vista for the RC for real world testing, but are we going to have to reset again when the actual product is released?
Anonymous
April 08, 2009
Just a quick comment and a request. I love Win7. This will be a redefining product for Microsoft. I have used every version of Windows and many of Nix. This is the best. Now a request - PLEASE provide a mechanism for disabling the Libraries feature. I have seen this request on numerous Win7-related forums and the most common response is, "just do x,y, and, and live with it". It is not a matter of failing to understand the concept or to appreciate Microsoft's innovativeness. However, not everyone uses an OS in exactly the same way, and I truly have no use for this feature. I merely want the choice to "opt out". I could go on...but this is a simple request. And please, no Billy Sunday conversion speeches from Library fanboys :). I may have given away my age with that reference. Thank you Microsoft (not sure I would have envisioned that remark in years past). It is well desreved now, however.
Anonymous
April 08, 2009
I love the Windows 7 beta, I have all the builds that have been "unreleased" but have ended up on my site's FTP annomyously! I haven't upgraded from 7000 yet, seeing as every time I plan to, I find a new file starting to be uploaded to my server, and each and every time, I don't feel like risking the install through an ISO file (even though I did that to upgrade it from Vista) One problem I have found is that running this OS on older hardware means that hardware that used to be able to play even the most basic of games won't play much anymore. In my case, this is a Dell Inspiron 8200 laptop that happens to have a GeForce 4 Go 440 (32Mb) card in it, and on my Nlited XP installation, it runs Halo and a few other D3D games fine, but on 7, I get problems playing any game, and it complains about not finding D3d, but DxDiag says it is running fine... any reason for that?
Anonymous
April 08, 2009
Right team, I am now back with Vista Home Premium ready for the RC1 so that I can do the upgrade to Windows 7. Back in Vista its amazing the features that you miss about Windows 7. The jump lists, the icons on the taskbar, the Action Centre and the fantastic themes. It's nice to be back with Windows Live One Care though! (and a none crashing IE8!)
Anonymous
April 08, 2009
I thought the reelase was coming in May not April. This post seems a bit early, no?
Anonymous
April 08, 2009
I thought the release was coming in May not April. This post seems a bit early, no?
Anonymous
April 08, 2009
I think the GUI improvement of Win7 is significant. However, I'd like to share with your team a suggestion that I have heard a lot: you should really consider slenderizing the window frame (when it is not maximized). It just occupies a lot of desktop space and does not make much sense (making win7 look fat). I hope that RC release would be smooth!
Anonymous
April 09, 2009
As so many others have pointed out: http://www.windows7taskforce.com/ Come on team, there are still crucial problems that need to be addressed. You have done great, and we have a lot to be happy about, but this product is still far from perfect, and most of the issues are so simply solved with simple changes. Many of my / others' previous posts are LOADED with great ideas that would make this the best OS ever from MS. I honestly do hope you will take at least some of the major, thousand times requested features and put them in. (Come on PAUSING a file transfer without a third party program...) I've always ended my posts with "great job guys" or similar, but not today.

AeonSlayer / Simon

Anonymous
April 09, 2009
If you don't want to waste a disk to burn the ISO file, and have a little free space, another very simple way to do this is to use one of the many freely downloadable *zip type programs to extract the contents of the ISO onto a folder on your hard drive or thumbdrive and use that as your installation media. I personally do all my installs from thumbdrives and love it.
Anonymous
April 09, 2009
It is time for MS to make it easy for the end user's and those that support them to upgrade from previous versions, or buy a new computer for the new OS and move EVERYTHING from the old computer easily. No having to buy PC Mover from Laplink, or having to re-install all of their software. Your customer focus is long gone, and needs to return. Most of us skipped the fiasco that was VISTA. If this next one is as painful as your recent attempts, I will be moving freinds and family to either Apple, or LINUX. I have not more patience for the crapware and horrible customer service coming from Redmond.
Anonymous
April 09, 2009
I have used several Windows 7 post-7000 builds and have had a consistantly pleasing upgrade experience with out any data loss or problem afterwards. Also out of a practical need to fully test the differences I have done a Clean install on a seperate disk, the clean install is always better with the use of The File and Settings Transfer Wizard. I now await the Offical RC Build and have a complete file backup of my sytem to do the clean install, can't wait untill the R.T.M.! Great Work from the Windows 7 Team...
Anonymous
April 09, 2009
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Anonymous
April 10, 2009
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
April 10, 2009
Can you give me a little inside info here? I'd like to know if DirectWrite and Direct2D are going to be in the sp2 vista update? Thanks, Matt
Anonymous
April 10, 2009
My experience with Windows 7 beta has been very good since such point I feel part of my PC would like, me that the launching left the final version candidate to be able to have it in Spanish and a question cannot be made updates of a beta to the RC and as would be the errors that could give in case of updating, because to return to install Windows Vista SP1 I would not like to lose all my programs installed in my computer, would be something arduous for my, since I must be constantly connected to Internet
Anonymous
April 10, 2009
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Anonymous
April 10, 2009
@Steven You said "These same steps will be required as we transition from the RC milestone to the RTM milestone." Does this mean that this will be a 'supported' upgrade path for the RTM? Thanks.
Anonymous
April 10, 2009
@ALL Happy Easter to all ! and special thank's Windows Team for Windows 7 RC (is coming..) SUPER BEST WORK! THANKS
Anonymous
April 11, 2009
Thanks Team Win 7... I'll do a slew of vista upgrades with various installations of softwares to see how they pan out. Excited to see the RC.
Anonymous
April 12, 2009
For folks running the Beta, will that expire or will we be able to hang on without having to go through the RC and hence two conversions? Each conversion causes multiple problems with non-Microsoft software activation issues (the need to get new activation codes due to an additional replacement installation). Can we elect to keep running the Beta until we do a complete new re-install with the RTM? In other words, please don't do a forced Beta expire until the RTM is available. Thanks.
Anonymous
April 12, 2009
Happy easter to all & especially to the Windows 7 Development Team. What a great product you are making! I cannot wait to see and use the final version of it. However (I realize this has been brought up by many people, and I want to add to their weight): THERE IS STILL SOME WORK TO DO! You have seen this URL in many comments and are probably getting sick of it, but here it is again: http://www.windows7taskforce.com. Much of the stuff there is as serious as it should be simple to fix. I am a developer myself. For anyone familiar with the code a lot of the requests could certainly be done in minutes. See for example the crucial http://www.windows7taskforce.com/view/1854 which has the potential to save every laptop user 30 seconds of time when shutting down - much more than can be gained by any elaborate startup optimizations. For all critics of the Taskforce: I myself would very much perfer if the Taskforce was run officially by Microsoft. This way I could be sure that the ideas are seen by the right people. However, referring to the official boards as the "right place to go" is NOT and adequate criticism of the Taskforce, as they certainly cannot be compared to it in terms of sheer usability and transparency. I beg you to take the people on the Taskforce seriously. Their number may be very small compared to the entire Windows user base of hundreds of millions, but the problems they address are common annoyances for all of us. Thank you for reading, I appreciate your work and this block greatly. Jovan Cormac
Anonymous
April 12, 2009
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Anonymous
April 12, 2009
Just one RC will be release? Which .NET framework will be included Windows 7 RTM ? what about Windows Server 2008 R2 ? Please write about .NET and future of it.
Anonymous
April 12, 2009
You have to goto this value in the registry. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetservicesrdyboostParameters You have to Delete the "BootPlan" Binary value then create it again and give it a value of "00" After I did that WOW what a differnce in boot up speed 6.1 sec to desktop and only using 367 megs of memory. Now I can live with windows 7.
Anonymous
April 12, 2009
Just tested Windows media center on the latest build. It found my WinTV HVR 1250 Perfect and Now runs TV. I can't belive my eyes. It works. Every other build I tried it would just lock up and freeze. Thank you....
Anonymous
April 13, 2009
Sounds like we're getting really close to RC or RTM.
Anonymous
April 13, 2009
I have to say that the upgrade is a pleasure. Did this again this afternoon, install was 12 minutes...Transfering in files and settings around 10 minutes then the backup restore was only 20 minutes. I have a system that out performs anything that Linux or the neutered BSD on the Mac platform can offer. I am more than pleased with the OS so thankx for the hard work, this is starting to feel finished.
Anonymous
April 13, 2009
Hi, developers Why did you remove check/uncheck option "Keep the taskbar on top" from taskbar properties? It was very convenient in Windows XP, I used it sometimes to avoid bugs in fullscreen (maximized the window instead of going fullscreen). I found the absence of it irritating... Will it be included in the final build?
Anonymous
April 15, 2009
Try XP start menu in Vista or 7 : VistaStartMenu 3.15 (freeware)
Anonymous
April 15, 2009
@Jovan http://www.windows7taskforce.com/view/1854 I couldn't agree more about this one - it literally keeps me awake at night (when the laptop sits there flashing the hibernate light when I've told it to shut down).
Anonymous
April 15, 2009
I've got a W7 beta on 3 PCs in my house, and I love it. It would be nice to be notified when a new beta or RC came out, with a link to download it rather than having to troll for it.
Anonymous
April 15, 2009
Update on this OS, it's ready for RTM. Thanks again for the hard work, my customers are even impressed and are enjoying the Beta Experience. Also there are absolutly no conflicts or problems with VS2008 and SQL2008 unlike some early builds. This product is great
Anonymous
April 16, 2009
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Anonymous
April 16, 2009
I am having a lot of trouble when visiting this blog lately. One out of four times the site doesn't load at all and instead gives me an error message from the server apologizing that right now, there are problems so it cannot be loaded. Three out of four times it loads extremely slow. Anyone else experiencing this?
Anonymous
April 16, 2009
hey team :D Easter it's ok? We re ready to final test :D and you?
Anonymous
April 16, 2009
Stupid question guys, but out of raw curiosity: Will the fact that my backup drive in XP Pro is configured as a Dynamic Disk mean that I will need to lose all this data and reformat when I switch to Win 7? Curt
Anonymous
April 17, 2009
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
April 18, 2009
Saad: OK tried it but it only changes start menu, not the taskbar...
Anonymous
April 18, 2009
Just a quick suggestion. I have been archiving some decade-old stuff and been using a lot 7zip lately. It struck me, how cool would it be, Windows 7 offering built-in 7-zip support. Better, make it an official Windows archive format. Eagerly waiting for RC!
Anonymous
April 19, 2009
I haven't installed my Windows 7 yet and have a couple of quetions is all. I have Vista Ultimate, intel (R0 Core (TM)2 Duo E8400 processor, on my computer so I am debating what to do. I have the following programs, not installed yet, Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V and Virtual PC 2007. I have been thinking about installing Windows 7 as a virtual PC on a seperate hard drive, usb. I have 5 PC's at home here that are networked. I just finished my BSIT/software engineering and am now going for my masters in information systems. My question is, which one of the above would be the best to use to accomplish this? Ideas please, thanks,
Anonymous
April 20, 2009
Were is Team? Stop new thread?
Anonymous
April 20, 2009
It's obvious that the TEAM 7 is pumping up for MAY 5... I can't wait!!!
Anonymous
April 20, 2009
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
April 21, 2009
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
April 21, 2009
I do hope it is easy to go from Beta > RC > Final Release. http://sevenuser.com
Anonymous
April 23, 2009
Hi, I have been trying to get into the Microsoft Connect web site to download the WDT 2010 Beta to help install Windows 7 on a different computer I have. I have been trying to get in there again for at least 3 days with no luck. Is anyone else having this problem? Thanks, Tyserman474
Anonymous
April 23, 2009
Sorry, that should have been, MDT (Microsoft Deployment Toolkit.
Anonymous
April 25, 2009
I don’t get step no.2. so i should copy the whole image to my current beta drive and edit it then copy it to the cd? or how?? Pls help! Can I just extract the files with winrar, edit the files, and burn it?
Anonymous
April 27, 2009
Today I have upgraded my Windows 7 beta to Windows 7 Rc (I got a copy somehow). I had a lot of apps so I didn't want to start from scratch. I agree that this should be done in severe necessity only. It was a good experience with few hiccups (resolved later). Pre-upgrade :

1- I extracted ISO file but setup didn't want to launch. It extracted to "7100.0.090421-1700_x86fre_client_en-us_Retail_Ultimate-GRC1CULFRER_EN_DVD" I renamed folder to "7100" and this worked. 2- After launching , Setup complained that upgrade is not possible so I followed workaround here. 3- While setup was detecting compatibility issues , laptop kept shutting down (just shuts down) so I figured out that some applications may need to be uninstalled first. I installed some including :

Video codecs.
Iso files mount applications.
Applications from non-famous vendors. I kept a lot more apps : Thunderbird ,Itunes , firefox , Nokia PC suite , Vmware , ALL MS apps , AVG Free AV After that compatibility check completed and warned about "SQL server 2008 express". However , I continued with uninstalling it. Installation ============= Guess went as charm becuase I went to sleep and woke up in morning to find windows waiting for product key (I skipped that). Post upgrade ============= 1- All devices were recognized except my Broadcom WLAN which didn't work with device manager complaining that it can't initialize device. After few retries , resolution was to uninstall driver with "delete the driver software for this device" then refreshing devices later. 2- My Cisco VPN client didn't work , a reinstall took care of the issue. 3- Warning about "AVG AV is on but is reporting its status to windows security center in a format that is no longer supported"

All in all : I like IE8 , windows media player new look. Windows restarts cleanly now after hanging sometimes before (maybe uninstalling some apps helped).

Anonymous
April 27, 2009
Correction for previos post : I (UN)installed some including :

Video codecs.
Iso files mount applications.
Applications from non-famous vendors. After that compatibility check completed and warned about "SQL server 2008 express". However , I continued with(OUT) uninstalling it

Good work team

Anonymous
April 28, 2009
I attempted to upgrade my Vista Ultimate x64 install to Windows 7 RC (twice now) and the installation seems to come close to finishing but then informs me the upgrade was not successful and rolls back into Vista and gives me a similar message but no reason why. I then tried a clean install, launching the setup through Vista and had exactly the same problem. I'm tempted to just boot from the DVD and install that way but what if that doesn't work?! Any suggestions here?
Anonymous
April 28, 2009
Mohan, Why don't you let us know where we might be able to somehow get a copy of the RC release. Thanks, Tyserman474
Anonymous
April 28, 2009
After spending a lot of time, initially trying to upgrade/install my Vista x64 to Windows 7 x64, I have discovered that the problem was my Gigabyte RAID Controller, GBB363, Windows 7 dislikes the driver which I find quite strange - why is this?! And why couldn't Windows 7 Setup tell me this before it went ahead? Part of my analysis involved breaking and recreating my RAID0, so clearly, no way to roll back into Vista. I have now switched RAID off and installed Windows 7 onto one hard drive, it's not ideal, but I suppose the other disk can be used as a dedicated page file!
Anonymous
May 01, 2009
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
May 03, 2009
I'm really suprised that there seems to be no way to leave feedback from the RC version. I did a win7 upgrade of one of my corporate vista laptops I use. I found some issues (noteably the Cisco VPN issues that someone mentioned previously) that were not detected by the upgrade compatability check. There appears to be no way for me to inform Microsoft about what's broken after the upgrade.
Anonymous
May 08, 2009
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
May 09, 2009
It seems that the build number for the 64-bit Win7 download in the .ini file from the Windows 7 site is actually 7077, not 7100. Is this what it should be?
Anonymous
May 18, 2009
I figured extracting the files to another drive would be a bit much to me just to change two numbers in the entire ISO, ("7077" to "7000") so I experimented a bit. Since an ISO is just all the files on a disk condensed into one large file, I decided the characters would just be the same in the ISO file. Here are the steps I went through trying to do this easily. First, I opened up notepad. I thought since the characters would be the same, I could just use notepad's "find" feature and look for "7077". Notepad's response: "The C:UsersBillyBobDocuments7100.0.090421-1700_x64fre_client_en-us_retail_ultimate-grc1culxfrer_en_dvd.iso file is too large for notepad. Use another editor to edit the file. No chance for that, apparently. I then remembered one of my hex editing programs (like all hexadecimal editing programs) had a text string search feature. Another thing about hex editors is that they can open just about any file size, which is pretty useful. I used the most basic, freeware editor I had ("HxD.exe", lol) and opened the file. I then went into the search dialog, typed in "7077", selected "text string" and voila! Within a few seconds, (took me about 7, times may vary across systems depending on disk transfer rate) the searching bar had disappeared, and left me at the exact section of the file containing the .ini file. I just replaced "77" with "00" and saved. The save took a bit, considering it makes an entire backup of the file under a .bak extension despite the fact you only change two numbers. Once it was done, I just burned the image. I still have yet to test the upgrade, so I'll let you guys know. Just offering this as an alternative to the steps 2-6 they offer.
Anonymous
May 18, 2009
Well, it took a while, but the upgrade succeeded. All I had to do was reinstall my 802.11g/b PCI desktop card drivers, as well as downgrade my display drivers from 8.15 to 7.14 so I could run Second Life. Simply enough, if you're not sure to try the upgrade, Windows Easy Transfer, or just a normal file backup, I'd suggest using this method if your resources are limited like mine.
Anonymous
May 18, 2009
Oh, I forgot to list that I'm running an HP Pavillion 6010n with an Intel Core 2 Duo @1.80 GHz with 1GB of DDR2 RAM, in the form of two 512MB cards. No graphics card, just Intel Integrated Graphics. I don't really have an external drive big enough to extract the ISO to, so I had to improvise.
Anonymous
May 21, 2009
I was curious if there is or will be an upgrade method for a transition from 32 bit (Windows Vista, XP ) to 64 bit Win 7?. It would save a lot of folks who's pc's are 64 bit capable but were sold 32 bit OS's for more competitive pricing?
Anonymous
June 10, 2009
i let windows 7 install over vista and shoving vista aside... i allready deleted vista off my bootlist. so windows 7 now has a XP/7 multiboot menu... well all this info is just meant to draw you a picture that windows 7 isn't as pickey on what harddrive what partition and what state of drive you are installing... i mean what i did to my pc is a nightmare for software. (and i know it) so in a way this is stressstesting win7 all the way imho :)
Anonymous
June 11, 2009
The save took a bit, considering it makes an entire backup of the file under a .bak extension despite the fact you only change two numbers. Once it was done, I just burned the image. I still have yet to test the upgrade, so I'll let you guys know.to help install Windows 7 on a different computer I have. I have been trying to get in there again for at least 3 days with no luck. Is anyone else having this problem?
Anonymous
June 11, 2009
I have now switched RAID off and installed Windows 7 onto one hard drive, it's not ideal, but I suppose the other disk can be used as a dedicated page file!
Anonymous
June 11, 2009
it came out on technet i downloaded burned and wacked the dvd into my main machine, wich HAD windows XP SP3 and vista on it... i disliked vista a whole bunch because i had failures of hardware (nvidia drivers) and unsupported hardware of allsorts
Anonymous
June 11, 2009
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
June 21, 2009
One problem I have found is that running this OS on older hardware means that hardware that used to be able to play even the most basic of games won't play much anymore. In my case, this is a Dell Inspiron 8200 laptop that happens to have a GeForce 4 Go 440 (32Mb) card in it, and on my Nlited XP installation, it runs Halo and a few other D3D games fine, but on 7, I get problems playing any game, and it complains about not finding D3d, but DxDiag says it is running fine.
Anonymous
June 24, 2009
Having deactivated RAID, I have newly installed windows 7 onto my HD, and to be honest it's not the best situation, but there is one perk - I suppose the other disk could be drafter in as a dedicated page file..
Anonymous
June 28, 2009
I'm trying to upgrade Vista Ultimate 64 bit to Windows 7 RC 64-bit but it fails. I get OK on the compability check. Trying to find a workaround...
Anonymous
July 01, 2009
Does anyone have an idea where I can download the beta version of Windows 7? I would love to try it out.
Anonymous
July 02, 2009
The beta version was available for download at the Microsoft official site quite a few days back, but the offer is closed as of now. I tried a few days back and couldn't download.
Anonymous
July 02, 2009
I am waiting eagerly for the official release of Windows 7. You know, so much is being talked all around and for the first time in a long time people are expecting good and real hgh from a microsoft operating system. Its great to see MS starting something from scratch and going the extra miles to build something new and having features never thought of before.
Anonymous
July 03, 2009
Windows 7 is going to be the next BIG thing!! Everyone is waiting eagerly. So finish the work soon guys and present us something awesome.
Anonymous
July 05, 2009
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
July 07, 2009
I just want to express my opinion With every new upgrage, new OS windows 2000, XP, windows 2003, Vista it requires more and more processor speed. That requirement exceeds accessible processor power for ordinary user. Win2k works perfect, Win2k3 slower. On the same machine 2.4 Ggz. Size of windows explorer win2k3 4 times bigger and 3 times slower than win2k. Vista slow it down much more. What is the matter ? eiappl
Anonymous
July 07, 2009
Why are people asking about the beta when RC1 is freely available? Also, though not officially supported, I successfully upgraded from beta to RC1 by copying the contents of the DVD to disk and modifying the file to use build 7000 as the minimum. It works great so far!
Anonymous
July 07, 2009
What will be the processor requirements for that one then? I run Vista and it already takes up 50% CPU when it is idling. I am an MS fan and not keen on MAC's. Does anyone know whether there will be a server edition for Windows 7 as well? Or will it be Desktop only?
Anonymous
July 08, 2009
Looks very interesting. Thanks for sharing..
Anonymous
July 11, 2009
It's awesome, and quite a deviation from previous Windows beta programs. It's also a bit surprising that you guys aren't absolutely furious about all the leaks, but I guess that's just more real world testing. Can't wait for the RC, and the RTM.
Anonymous
July 11, 2009
Its great to see MS starting something from scratch and going the extra miles to build something new and having features never thought of before.
Anonymous
July 12, 2009
I have tested the beta version, and really i couldn't find any differences between windows vista and windows 7 except the theme some little changes.
Anonymous
July 14, 2009
Another thing to keep in mind is that when we do a specific build internally of Windows 7 we have an extensive step-by-step validation process to ensure quality. This process takes time. Just because a single build may have “leaked” it does not signal the completion of a milestone such as RTM. As always, don’t believe everything that you read on the Internet - except this post ;-).
Anonymous
July 14, 2009
One of the areas of any release of Windows that receives a significant amount of testing and scrutiny is the performance of graphics - desktop graphics all the way to the most extreme CAD and game graphics. The amazing breadth of hardware supported for Windows and the broad spectrum of usage scenarios contributes to a vibrant ecosystem with many different goals - from just the basics to the highest frame rates on multiple monitors possible. In engineering Windows 7 we set out to improve the 'real world' performance of graphics as well as continue to improve the most extreme elements of graphics. [...] This post looks at this spectrum of engineering as well as the different ways performance is measured. Ultimately we want to inform you about what we have done in engineering Windows 7, while we leave room for the many forums that will compare and contrast Windows 7 on different hardware and in different scenarios."
Anonymous
July 15, 2009
I have tested the beta version, and I think it is much better than vista. When I first tested vista I was really disappointed, I stuck to XP, but now I think I am going to switch to windows7.
Anonymous
July 15, 2009
I hope all your efforts pay off and you develop the best Windows ever. For the first in the past few years, everything seems to be working right for you guys. Keep up the good work.
Anonymous
July 15, 2009
Yes guys, keep the spirit up. Provide us an awesome windows (which preferably we will never have to upgrade again :P). I liked your Vista too, so hopefully I will like 7 even more.
Anonymous
July 17, 2009
I hope windows 7 will fulfill the expectations!
Anonymous
July 17, 2009
I'm looking forward to Windows 7 now. It's supposedly much leaner than vista, which is going to rock.
Anonymous
July 19, 2009
I will expect that windows 7 teams will make it. keep up the good work
Anonymous
July 19, 2009
i am even a user of vista but I am mostly a fans of windows. i will try to use the windows7
Anonymous
July 19, 2009
I am looking forward to Windows 7.
Anonymous
July 21, 2009
it came out on technet i downloaded burned and wacked the dvd into my main machine, wich HAD windows XP SP3 and vista on it... i disliked vista a whole bunch because i had failures of hardware (nvidia drivers) and unsupported hardware of allsorts
Anonymous
July 21, 2009
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
July 21, 2009
This is very good news was well informed that the followers of the issue I am. Thanks...
Anonymous
July 22, 2009
http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/04/07/delivering-a-quality-upgrade-experience.aspx
Anonymous
July 22, 2009
i heard this Windows 7 from a friend of mine, they said that it is more quality to use. Keep it up windows team
Anonymous
July 23, 2009
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Anonymous
July 23, 2009
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Anonymous
July 24, 2009
I guess everyone is looking forward with excitement to the release of Windows 7. I myself don't know what to expect but I'm having a gut feeling that Windows 7 will be be fabulous.
Anonymous
July 25, 2009
Did I understand this right?....that we can only do an upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 and not from XP?
Anonymous
July 25, 2009
That is the way I understand it, unless they change something. My understanding also is if you take and download a trail version of Vista, don't enter a SN for it and then you can upgrade to Windows 7 from there. Double ch4eck this but I think I am right.
Anonymous
July 27, 2009
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
July 30, 2009
Great job guys! I am feeling much more capable of adding a comment to a blog or guestbook now. Thanks to you! I have one small request. Lots of blogs and stuff allow you to see the user names of the people who enter comments, but there's no way to see who the actual person is. If it's possible to require them to always post a social security number, date of birth, and mother's maiden name, that would definitely make it easier for people to know who was making a comment. I went to a site the other day and was thinking, Bluegrass Music, Bluegrass Music, we need more of it. Twang twang twiddle twidle ding dang and so forth. It really gets you. I wonder what I should do now.
Anonymous
August 03, 2009
Hey I am currently Using Windows XP Professionals Version. I want to know whether i be able to upgrade it from Windows XP or I would be required to format my C Drive and install a fresh copy of Windows 7. Please letme know.
Anonymous
August 04, 2009
Will the fact that my backup drive in XP Pro is configured as a Dynamic Disk mean that I will need to lose all this data and reformat when I switch to Win 7? Yes
Anonymous
August 04, 2009
Hey I am currently Using Windows XP Professionals Version. I want to know whether i be able to upgrade it from Windows XP or I would be required to format my C Drive and install a fresh copy of Windows 7. Yes, you'll be required to format your hard-drive.
Anonymous
August 04, 2009
Did I understand this right?....that we can only do an upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 and not from XP? Yes, that is true :/ It's all over the news guys...
Anonymous
August 04, 2009
Mohan, Why don't you let us know where we might be able to somehow get a copy of the RC release. Thanks, Tyserman474

Because that's not their job? :P

Anonymous
August 04, 2009
I'm looking forward to Windows 7 now. Looks very interesting
Anonymous
August 05, 2009
What is the major difference between Windows Vista and Windows 7. Can anyone please elaborate it?
Anonymous
August 08, 2009
I wonder if windows 7 is going to be as bad as vista. Vista in my opinion was a failure compared to XP
Anonymous
August 08, 2009
I forget to add, hopefully it consist of less bugs as well.
Anonymous
August 08, 2009
Looking forward for windows 7. I've seen the screen shots...lovely.
Anonymous
August 09, 2009
I have tested the beta version, and really i couldn't find any differences between windows vista and windows 7 except the theme some little changes.
Anonymous
August 09, 2009
I just talked to a couple of my friends who loaded and have been testin Windows 7 Beta. Overall, they think it is an improvement over Vista, but nothing Earth shattering as of yet. I am probably going to still switch to 7 as soon as it comes out just because I like to keep up with the latest technology. Let's hope it is a big improvement.
Anonymous
August 11, 2009
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Anonymous
August 11, 2009
I just talked to a couple of my friends who loaded and have been testin Windows 7 Beta. Overall, they think it is an improvement over Vista, but nothing Earth shattering as of yet. I am probably going to still switch to 7 as soon as it comes out just because I like to keep up with the latest technology. Let's hope it is a big improvement.
Anonymous
August 11, 2009
"شات " href="http://www.sau1di.com/ just talked to a couple of my friends who loaded and have been testin Windows 7 Beta
Anonymous
August 11, 2009
forget to add, hopefully it consist of less bugs as well "شات"href
Anonymous
August 12, 2009
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Anonymous
August 13, 2009
I have updated my desktops to Windows 7 since the RTM Release on July 22. So far no bluescreens or freeze =) Also there was no driver issue so far!!
Anonymous
August 13, 2009
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
August 14, 2009
I can't wait for the new windows. WOHOO
Anonymous
August 14, 2009
One problem I am having with my Windows Vista 7 is with the Windows Error Reporting system. Once in a while a program freezes and I get a pop up that says Microsoft Windows Operating System is Not Responding. It then gives me the option to close the program or wait for the program to respond. However, almost every time, in the background, despite my not choosing an option yet, the program in question shuts down, therefore losing all my work. In these type of crashes, it would be nice if Windows could force the program to remain open, or restart it just as you left it, that way work is not lost. Since the programs shut down each time in the background it seems that this is a Windows 7 issue, as this did not happen with my XP.
Anonymous
August 14, 2009
I have been using Windows 7 since last month, and I still wonder why Microsoft did not give a different posture for windows 7, as i feel no difference inbetween windows 7 and windows Vista. Though they have upgraded systemetic files that reduces less crashes.
Anonymous
August 14, 2009
The Windows 7 operating system is essentially a sturdier version of Vista, with a few bells and whistles added in for good measure. Features that distinguish Windows 7 from the Vista experience, and considerably from what was provided with XP, are centered around streamlining the user experience, maximizing every last drop from the graphical user interface, improving hardware management and the development of new security measures.
Anonymous
August 15, 2009
I do wonder though how windows 7 is going to compare to snow leopard by apple which is also coming out next month i believe. It would be interesting to see if this version will get all the pc ship jumpers back to windows
Anonymous
August 17, 2009
Windows 7 should be better than Snow Leopard. <a href="http://www.wowguide1to80.com/">wow 1 to 60</a>
Anonymous
August 17, 2009
Windows 7 should be better than Snow Leopard<a href="http://www.wowguide1to80.com/">1 to 60</a>
Anonymous
August 17, 2009
I think there will be a dynamic atmosphere when Microsoft and Apple are gonna officially launch their latest babies. I hope their respective product would be what they promised them to be.
Anonymous
August 19, 2009
A big part of the beta process is making sure we get as much “real world” coverage of scenarios and experiences as possible and monitor the telemetry of those experience overall. One of the most challenging areas to engineer is the process of upgrading one release of Windows to another. When you think about it, it is the one place where at one time we need to run a ton of code to basically “know” everything about a system before performing the upgrade.
Anonymous
August 20, 2009
all this info is just meant to draw you a picture that windows 7 isn't as pickey on what harddrive what partition and what state of drive you are installing
Anonymous
August 20, 2009
This was actually one of the reasons why I tried one of the 'unofficial' builds as it is fixed in those, so I wait with baited breath for the RC1 to be lauched so that I can then surf with no problems!
Anonymous
August 20, 2009
Why are people asking about the beta when RC1 is freely available? Also, though not officially supported, I successfully upgraded from beta to RC1 by copying the contents of the DVD to disk and modifying the file to use build 7000 as the minimum. It works great so far!
Anonymous
August 23, 2009
So beside Updated and Improved UAC, Better integration with peripherals, Faster performance and Revised Taskbar are there any differences between Vista and Windows 7?
Anonymous
August 25, 2009
at last i find some info about Windows 7 installation. thanks to author. best regards
Anonymous
August 26, 2009
Is there a way to bypass the language compatibility check? And to upgrade a non-english Vista to English 7?
Anonymous
November 06, 2009
I usually wait a couple years before upgrading, but this one sounds like it might be worth going early
Anonymous
November 09, 2009
"I think there will be a dynamic atmosphere when Microsoft and Apple are gonna officially launch their latest babies. "- i support these words!!
Anonymous
November 09, 2009
One of the most challenging areas to engineer is the process of upgrading one release of Windows to another.
Anonymous
November 10, 2009
i think eventually windows will become a perfect operating system with no flaws like its predacessors.
Anonymous
November 10, 2009
i think that microsft has been trying a long time and eventually pave the road to perfection
Anonymous
November 10, 2009
yeah well they are really going to have to do something to compete with mac lol
Anonymous
November 10, 2009
Outstanding Effort to come with a master piece... Hatsoff
Anonymous
November 12, 2009
Admitting that Windows 7 was somehow inspired by Mac was a bad PR move. I hope they will correct this.
Anonymous
November 12, 2009
Right on. I'm not sure what Microsoft was thinking. Besides, Windows 7 is simply a superior product and Mac doesn't even come closer.
Anonymous
November 12, 2009
Thanks for sharing your views on the topic. It makes one think and look the other side of the story.
Anonymous
November 13, 2009
Do computer savvy experts sway what people think of the system? are they really talking on behalf of the average user? It's hard to learn how one should develop a operating system when their are so many different types of users to think of. Every user have their own preferences and daily tasks etc Lets face it is everyone going to really appreciate all of the features Windows 7 has to offer? No, but their might be somethings they like.
Anonymous
November 19, 2009
is Windows 7 free from bugs? i want to downloat it and i dont know if it work good..
Anonymous
November 22, 2009
I have tested the beta of Windows 7 and it's excellent! That's what an OS should be.
Anonymous
November 24, 2009
"We don’t have this feature in Windows 7 and we should have." That's cool. I was actually thinking that whilst reading through. I'm looking forward to properly testing out Windows 7, looks like a great OS from what I've read. James
Anonymous
November 25, 2009
All in all first for a Beta (February, 2009) was epic, really stable and now with the RC1 I have no complains at all. And I tested it on my 3.20Ghz Pentium 4 HT PC with 2GB RAM and surprisingly on an old - 8-year-old - 20GB Seagate Hard Disk that runs at 5400RPM and with a buffer cache of 1MB
Anonymous
November 25, 2009
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
November 26, 2009
greate article, yeahh!
Anonymous
November 26, 2009
go on!
Anonymous
November 26, 2009
Oh yeah, 3 windows 7 installations all have been amazing. Love the fluidness of win 7 and look is awesome. Some stuff is a little confusing to get to but once i use it for a while all will be well. mighty fine job Microsoft! Microsoft for life!
Anonymous
November 26, 2009
Thank you so much to write so long a article sharing with us.
Anonymous
November 28, 2009
I wanted to upgrade to Windows 7 from XP but I read that I need a fresh install. The thought of installing all the applications again is a bit too much to handle but the reviews of Windows 7 are so good that I just have to buy it. I'm glad I bought it.
Anonymous
November 29, 2009
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Anonymous
February 15, 2010
It seems that the build number for the 64-bit Win7 download in the .ini file from the Windows 7 site is actually 7077.
Anonymous
February 16, 2010
Thats because its the RC not Beta i believe.
Anonymous
February 17, 2010
I don't want to do a Vista update because the RC will never be available ! top quality information ! Keep it up
Anonymous
February 18, 2010
I have two laptops with the Win7 RC. I have two windows 7 pro licenses. Can I upgrade from the RC using this workaround to win7 pro? I may be able to get 1 pro license from my company who has an action pack subscription, but most likely I'll only be able to get win7 pro licenses. It is nearing the end of the win7 beta trial I believe, and I don't want 2 laptops that restart every 2 hours.
Anonymous
February 19, 2010
It's very kind of the Win7 team to offer this functionality. And as a Beta Tester, I will do my duty and do a clean install. :) I've installed my machine over and over enough times over the years, it's almost muscle-memory the folders I need to back up, haha. <a href="http://www.freeallrecipes.com" rel="dofollow">Free healthy recipes online</a>
Anonymous
February 22, 2010
I believe the beta version is the more concise as well the legit things.
Anonymous
February 23, 2010
I have now switched RAID off and installed Windows 7 onto one hard drive, it's not ideal, but I suppose the other disk can be used as a dedicated page file!
Anonymous
February 24, 2010
Being a blogger myself, I am really impressed with your blog and the topics you’ve chosen to discuss.
Anonymous
February 25, 2010
Maybe I just need to spend more time getting used to it, but I'm not enjoying Windows 7 at all (coming from a Mac background). I think I'll persevere with it for another month, if I can't get into it I will go back to using my trusty Mac.
Anonymous
February 25, 2010
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
February 27, 2010
Thank you for windows 7 trick.
Anonymous
February 28, 2010
Tahnk you very much for this article. I am really impressed.
Anonymous
March 01, 2010
It was an awesome thing when they launched Vista - as it was for the first time when tehnology used was too much for what an user needs - simple things (aka Windows 7) remain the true gold for each user! Useful lesson here, thanks for sharing!
Anonymous
March 03, 2010
Superbe article, vraiment simple et utile. Bravo pour sa mise en ligne. C’est ce genre d’information que le public (et moi en particulier) recherche.
Anonymous
March 03, 2010
First and foremost, let me extend my gratitude for accepting my message. This is by far the best ultimate resource for the subject matter. It is a surprise to see dedicated people who really does their homework in providing impeccable information. I'm hoping to read more of your valuable advice and knowledge. Thank you and more power to you my friend!
Anonymous
March 03, 2010
"We’ve also learned that many of you (millions) are running Windows 7 Beta full time." A long time ago, before the Professional version, the Beta one was more for testing the upcoming Windows 7. Many of us took it just because we were very excited about it.
Anonymous
March 07, 2010
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
March 07, 2010
I'm really suprised that there seems to be no way to leave feedback from the RC version.
Anonymous
March 09, 2010
Thank you for new trick in windows 7 .I did not know that before.
Anonymous
March 10, 2010
While I'm watching you drown watching you scream when no one's around by Our Lady Peace clumsy.
Anonymous
March 11, 2010
Probably I just need to spend more time getting used to it, but I'm not enjoying Windows 7 at all
Anonymous
March 11, 2010
I just love windos7, works perfect on my pc
Anonymous
March 13, 2010
Like anything else it takes some getting use to, but then it's always better than the predecessor.
Anonymous
March 14, 2010
I like win7,it's really convenience for my work.
Anonymous
March 16, 2010
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Anonymous
March 18, 2010
I must admit, I have not liked the win7 experience so far but then I also never liked the move from xp to vista. I guess over time I will get used to it and it has one huge advantage, it is not Vista!
Anonymous
March 18, 2010
I enjoy windows 7 so far. Glad they did so much work on the beta as this blog shows.
Anonymous
March 20, 2010
Like anything else it takes some getting use to, but then it's always better than the predecessor.
Anonymous
March 21, 2010
Strong design and Microsoft don't always go together, but they do in Windows 7. Users might take a while to get used to the new taskbar and Aero Peek, but they're a pleasure to use.
Anonymous
March 21, 2010
Windows 7 has had very clever marketing saying it's so good and building it up! but it's really still slow and Vista like! And 6 Editions of it? Microsoft is clearly money hungry and deceptive !
Anonymous
March 21, 2010
I don't think that Windows 7 is slow at all, in fact I think it blows Vista away. My system loads up faster from boot, and I rarely see it crash. I would say that it is on par with OSX. I do agree that 6 editions is just stupid. They need two maybe: Work and Home versions.
Anonymous
March 22, 2010
Exciting. Thanks to Win7 team for excellent Os
Anonymous
March 22, 2010
I have use the beta and the RC version of Windows 7, but always think better to install from scratch rather than upgrade.
Anonymous
March 23, 2010
Is nice to see tutorials in picture is more easy to understand.
Anonymous
March 26, 2010
Upgrading from the beta to the RC was a pain, but after reading this guide, I know I made the right choice. Now I'm running windows 7 RC with no problems and with all my configurations set. Good to see some quality work from Microsoft.
Anonymous
March 26, 2010
[...]I am one of the happy customer of microsoft[...]
Anonymous
March 27, 2010
I read a comment further up mentioning the fact that pictures would be better at explaining tutorials I think i should just second that motion.Thank you.
Anonymous
March 28, 2010
I have tested the beta of Windows 7 and it's excellent! That's what an OS should be. <a href="http://www.soudiacool.com">شات صوتي</a> <a href="http://www.soudiacool.com"> دردشه صوتيه سعودي كول شات سعودي دردشه صوتيه شات صوتي</a> <a href="http://www.soudiacool.com/dir"><font">http://www.soudiacool.com/dir">دليل مواقع</a> <a href="http://www.soudiacool.com/dir"><font">http://www.soudiacool.com/dir">دليل سعوديه كول</a> <a href="http://www.soudiacool.com/dir"><font">http://www.soudiacool.com/dir">دليل مواقع</a> <a href="http://www.soudiacool.com/dir"> دليل سعوديه كول</a>
Anonymous
March 30, 2010
I did think long and hard before deciding if an upgrade to windows 7 or a fresh install would have been the better option. From previous experience with upgrades, I decided to take the 'safer' route with a clean install. The new format installation is fantastic, and the installtion went through without a glitch, not the mention the fact it installs super fast. Job well done MS!
Anonymous
April 01, 2010
i honestly think windows 7 is a great os, so many people have worked out how to use it without needing any help even with all the new enhancements that they are not used to
Anonymous
April 02, 2010
I'm grasping for straw! I know I'm in the wrong forum, but I have a major issue upgrading to W7. I'm wondering if someone has a solution...beside reloading. I'm getting the following message: "The following issues are preventing windows from upgrading. Cancel the upgrade..." Uninstall the following program: Trend Micro Internet Sercurity 2007 I've been though every forum, trick, and uninstall tool knows to man, and nothing is working. I've been on the phone with Trend countless times, and still no resolutions. Long story short, is there any way I can force the upgrade past this error? Any help that you can provide would be extremely helpful. Ray rcavaliere01@gmail.com
Anonymous
April 04, 2010
WS XP is my favourite, though I got used to Win 7 too, I am more efficient with the xp version
Anonymous
April 05, 2010
Wow, every time they come out with something that I see any benefit in, it gets fixed. I am already looking at ways to force an install pass the error, there is no way I am going to put up with Windows 7 if this is the case for long.
Anonymous
April 05, 2010
First and foremost, let me express my gratitude for accepting my previous message. This is by far the best ultimate resource for the subject matter. It is a great surprise to see dedicated people who really do their homework in providing valuable information. I really hope to read more of your valuable advice and knowledge. Thank you very much!
Anonymous
April 11, 2010
The new format installation is fantastic, and the installtion went through without a glitch, not the mention the fact it installs super fast. Upgrading from the beta to the RC was a pain, but after reading this guide, I know I made the right choice. Now I'm running windows 7 RC with no problems and with all my configurations set. Good to see some quality work from Microsoft.
Anonymous
April 13, 2010
Have been trying to use W7 - though the difference between Vista and 7 is HUGE!, I am still keen in using XP. After using both I think that 7 is the best windows version, but I cannot find a reason why to move from XP. Having an official license and constant updates keeps you away from any threats.
Anonymous
April 13, 2010
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
April 13, 2010
I tried to follow the bypass but got stuck - I'm doing those exact steps but my version doesn't pass the bypass - any ideas why? Thanks.
Anonymous
April 14, 2010
I tried to follow the bypass but got stuck - I'm doing those exact steps but my version doesn't pass the bypass - any ideas why? Thanks.
Anonymous
April 14, 2010
I'am tired in testing the Windows 7 Enterprise to my second pc(note book). I was not able to download the RC. I like to install the RC because, I want to compare this 2 set. May be the final release of the Windows 7 Enterprise, The bug will open up. I'm not blamimg the Microsoft IT Engineer because we are human to commit mistake. Thank you
Anonymous
April 14, 2010
Windows 7 is definitly great software to work with. The difference between Vista and Windows 7 is very obvious: Using Vista, my computer crashed 19 times, using Windows 7, my computer only crashed once!
Anonymous
April 16, 2010
This product is great, I hope the next release will be better
Anonymous
April 16, 2010
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
April 16, 2010
Did I understand this right?....that we can only do an upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 and not from XP?
Anonymous
April 18, 2010
I follow the bypass but got stuck
Anonymous
April 18, 2010
I don't think that Windows 7 is slow at all, in fact I think it blows Vista away. My system loads up faster from boot, and I rarely see it crash. I would say that it is on par with OSX. I do agree that 6 editions is just stupid. They need two maybe: Work and Home versions.
Anonymous
April 19, 2010
Perfect, but XP SP3 is better on netbooks!!!
Anonymous
April 19, 2010
I am running WIn 7 on my newly built rig (i7 920 OC to 4 Ghz, 6 Gb Corsair Dom GT TR3XGT 7-8-7-20, Asus Rampage II Ex, BFG GTX 285, 2X300 Gb V-Raptors in RAID-0, 1 TB WD RE3, Corsair HX1000W Etc, Etc). This is a test rig for me as I use my QX6700 set up for work and play. I love Win 7 so far. Best OS since DOS 3.0 :-) I plan on starting clean with the Win 7 RC1 when it is available. P.S. Blasting MS because they are not spending the time and money to make it easy for crybabys to use a new, free (for now) RC1. Stop weining and using language like a 14 YO if you want to be taken seriously.
Anonymous
April 22, 2010
This product is intresting, I hope the next release will most simple
Anonymous
April 22, 2010
thank you guys for being so open and involved in the beta/RC program, best job
Anonymous
April 23, 2010
Interesting post, It´s just a given when switching to a new version of Windows that a complete whipe and fresh install is the only way to avoid broken software, performance loss and funky crash states and or obscure error messages
Anonymous
April 25, 2010
Total for the first Beta (February, 2009) was epic, very stable, and now with RC1 I'm not complaining at all. I tested this on my 3.20 GHz Pentium 4 HT PC with 2GB RAM and a surprise on the old - 8-year-old woman - 20GB Seagate hard drive that works at 5400RPM and 1 MB cache buffer
Anonymous
April 27, 2010
Windows 7 engineering team we want to thank you very much for your contributions throughout development and your contributions yet to come to Windows 7. THANK YOU!
Anonymous
April 27, 2010
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Anonymous
April 27, 2010
thanks for the tips to upgrading.
Anonymous
May 04, 2010
thanks for the tips to upgrading.
Anonymous
May 04, 2010
The post is really interesting. Let me share my experience with you. I have installed windows 7, it's really nice i like the graphics i like the interface they have created and its really light. My suggestion for all of your system is slow then install windows 7 in your pc it'll boost up your computer speed.
Anonymous
May 05, 2010
it is using. Thanks to Windows 7 team for good OS
Anonymous
May 10, 2010
Windows 7 is cool and is working very good.
Anonymous
May 11, 2010
This is awesome. Thanks for all the info. Windows 7 is great and works great!! <a href="http://www.physical-therapy-schools.info/">physical therapy schools</a>
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May 11, 2010
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May 13, 2010
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Anonymous
May 16, 2010
well worth the read.I found it very informative as I have been researching a lot lately on practical matters such as you talk about...
Anonymous
May 27, 2010
Every time window 7 updates, it messes up the whole status of my desktop and reconfigures the MSN.com to less information and news. I hate this program and its constant reconfiguring every tiny step. Just leave it alone.
Anonymous
May 27, 2010
The comment has been removed
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May 31, 2010
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June 02, 2010
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June 02, 2010
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June 02, 2010
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Anonymous
June 02, 2010
Windows 7 is better and more stable than VISTA because of compatibility issues. www.freeonlineslotsmachines.com
Anonymous
June 02, 2010
It seems like it (Windows 7) is a reincarnation of Windows 98? www.ipod-repair-guide.com www.satellitetvforpcwatchtvonpc.com
Anonymous
June 02, 2010
This is good information about an upgrade version which I hope are better than the previous versions. www.freeonlineslotsmachines.com
Anonymous
June 16, 2010
I have a site that caters to the online Forex Robot community. (HTTP://www.robotforex.org) Is Windows 7 compatible with programs that work seamlessly with Windows Vista? Thanks.
Anonymous
June 17, 2010
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July 10, 2010
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Anonymous
August 01, 2010
Hi team. I have been trying some of the other builds out, but have now almost copied this before you even posted it. I reverted to Vista Home premium (factory install) and then re-installed an upgrade to Windows 7 build 7000 in anticapation of the RC1 when its released. That means I am now back with IE8 crashing nearly all the time when trying to access some of my favourite websites.
Anonymous
September 04, 2010
me falta win7 por borar el ordenador tine 6 meses
Anonymous
September 05, 2010
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Anonymous
September 06, 2010
Meu microsoft office 2007 está bloqueado, não consigo trabalhar e pede uma chave de segurança. Não sei onde encontrar, pois o programa já veio instalado no meu netbook e também procurei na caixa e nas instruções mas não encontrei. preciso de ajuda. att. michael.
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September 24, 2010
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Anonymous
December 22, 2010
Hi My pc is no charging and it keep saying that i need a new battery. i purches this laptop last year in july. and pay 3 yrs warranty. can you help me, becuase office work is not helping me. thank you
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February 07, 2011
Windows 7 has nice design for windows, anyway a step forward.
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August 23, 2011
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January 21, 2012
about the PS: you gave us the whip, and beg for us not using it, well that has a name ;) Why doesn't Win7 come with iso support? Win7: ARGHHH Why doesn't Win7 come with iso support? Win7: ARGHHH Why doesn't Win7 come with iso support? Win7: ARGHHH
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July 29, 2012
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. Thanks for this wonderful post. I hope to see more posts in the future.
Anonymous
September 11, 2012
I'm running on my laptop, windows home premium.

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