Microsoft released the final RTM version of Windows 7 to partners via MSDN last week. I have four computers, and I just finished upgrading all of them to RTM. Microsoft recommends a clean install from the test version, but that is a LOT of work and I decided I would risk it and do the unsupported upgrade. I've had a great experience with Windows 7 and I would recommend upgrading to at as soon as you can. My experience, and benchmarks that I've seen, seem to indicate that it is even faster that Windows XP. I have had very few issues and have been off of Vista and XP since the day the first Beta version of Windows 7 was available.
After finishing the last machine tonight, I wrote these notes up for a few people at Gold Systems who are also early adopters. Remember, Microsoft recommends a clean install, and I recommend backing up your systems in case anything goes wrong.
I decided to upgrade all my computers to Windows 7 RTM, rather than do a clean install. I found this website telling how to do it, and it really was easy. Basically,
1. Copy the DVD to your hard drive
2. Edit an ini file to set the minimum version required to upgrade. The file is 3 lines long and you just change a number
3. Run setup from the hard drive
Here’s the link:
http://www.7tutorials.com/how-upgrade-your-windows-7-test-version-final-release
It seems to be working just fine, but here are the gotchas.
Because of patch Tuesday I think, my machines needed a reboot before I could install RTM. The installer doesn’t check that until 5 or 10 minutes in, so you should start with a reboot of your machines to make sure your patches are installed before starting the install.
RTM won’t install with McAffe virus software (my version) installed, so uninstall it and reboot before starting.
On one machine I had an old SoundBlaster card that was listed as incompatible, but I went ahead with the install, and Windows update was able to find a good driver after the install was done, and it seems to be working now.
Once the installation gets going, you don’t have to do anything so you can just let it run. I think it took 2 or 3 hours per machine.
The background wallpaper is new, and the stock tracker gadget has disappeared which is strange. Other than that, I don’t see any difference. Oops, I just noticed my printers on my laptop are gone. And my homegroup is gone, which I’ve found to be useful, but it will be easy to set that back up. Outlook, Communicator, etc. all seem to be working fine.
I hope this helps and saves you a few false starts. Ned and Steve – THANK YOU for being so tolerant of me insisting on being on the bleeding edge! J
Terry