With the release of Windows 7 RTM to TechNet and MSDN subscribers Windows has reached a major milestone as most of the XP, Vista, and Windows 7 RC users are moving to the finest OS ever.
If you have been running Windows 7 RC, then you might want to upgrade from Windows 7 RC to Windows 7 RTM. Although Windows 7 RC to Windows 7 RTM in-place upgrade is not supported officially, you can upgrade from Windows 7 RC to RTM with a simple trick.
If you are a XP or Vista user, you might find the following articles as useful:
How to upgrade XP to Windows 7
How to upgrade Vista to Windows 7
Here is how to upgrade from Windows 7 RC to Windows 7 RTM:
1. Extract Windows 7 RTM DVD or ISO file contents to a folder, and navigate to the following directory:
Windows 7 RTM extracted folder/sources
To extract Windows 7 files from ISO, use zip utilities like 7Zip or Winzip or WinRAR.
2. Under Sources directory, locate the file named “cversion.ini”. Open the file “cversion.ini” with notepad.
3. Modify the MinClient value from 7233 to 7000. You can enter any number less than 7233.
4. Save the “cversion.ini” file. Use any software to create ISO file. You can directly start upgrading from RC to RTM build by running setup.exe file in the root of the folder.
5. Start upgrading from Windows 7 RC to Windows 7 RTM.
Note that it’s always better to do a clean Windows 7 RTM to get better performance results.
Meena says
My values are
[HostBuild]
MinClient=7077.0
MinServer=7000.0
to what value should i change them? :(
Plz help
Paul says
Just to be clear Donald’s advice worked except instead of all caps use EditionID to HomePremium and Product Name to Windows 7 Home Premium just the first letter was capped in each. I would see how it is in you current registry settings and follow suite with that if they are ll capped then follow that mine registry entries were not all caps. but this along with the cversion changed worked fine for me. Thank You So much guys!!
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Donald Murphy
Posted November 15, 2009 at 4:57 am | Permalink
Open the registry and navigate to HKLM/Software/Microsoft/WindowsNT/Current Version. Change EditionID to HOMEPREMIUM and Product name to Windows7 HOME PREMIUM. You can then upgrade RC to RMM
Daniel says
How is it expressed?
admin says
@Daniel
It’s always recommended to do a clean install as you will get good performance.
Paul says
Hey Donald,
Will that work for Windows 7 Professional as well? And if so what name do I use for Windows 7 Pro?
Daniel says
Is there any difference between upgrading from the RC to the RTM and installing a clean version of the RTM?
Rob says
Could you clear up how to allow the Windows Ultimate RC upgrade to Home premium. I have changed the settings down in minclient etc.
admin says
Of course you need to use the RTM key.:)
Daniel says
And wich key do u have to use?
admin says
@ Nate
Microsoft recommends a clean installation. But it’s legal as far as you are using the legal Windows 7 copy to upgrade from RC to RTM.;)
Nate says
Is this legal to upgrade RC this way?
Ziyad Dadabhoy says
I need help extracting the files from the RTM disc. Can anyone help me?
Donald Murphy says
Open the registry and navigate to HKLM/Software/Microsoft/WindowsNT/Current Version. Change EditionID to HOMEPREMIUM and Product name to Windows7 HOME PREMIUM. You can then upgrade RC to RMM
Qaz says
Hmm, I guess the RC version I have is Ultimate (are they all like this?), and it won’t let you go to a RTM version of Home Premium. Great!
Qaz says
Getting the same error, saying can’t go from Ultimate to Home Premium. I have the RC version 7100
admin says
@ Max
I think you are trying to upgrade from Ultimate to Home Premium. So, Windows doesn’t allow you to move from Ultimate to Home Premium
Max says
I did this whole process..any reason why I’m still not allowed to upgrade from RC to RTM? I’m getting the “Windows 7 Ultimate cannot be upgraded to Windows 7 Home Premium.” message still, but WinClient is set to 7000.
admin says
@Jec
You need to have a RTM key.
jec says
Will you have a chance to enter a new product key when installing the RTM? or will it try to use the RC key?
admin says
@roberto
Yes. Installed programs will work fine.
roberto says
Hi, I have a question for you, my programs installed at RC will not be touched after upgrade?
admin says
@ Alonso
RTM means Release To Manufacturing. That is, RTM is the final one. So it will not expire.
Alonso says
do you guys know if the RTM has an expiration date?
The RC expires on march 1, but… i don’t know nothing about the RTM. I got my copy from my university and i’ll install it tomorrow…
Peter says
Thanks.. i have got the version shown as;
Version 6.1 (Build 7600)
am i getting the right RTM release of Window 7?
admin says
Right-click on Computer icon and go to properties to know which version of Widnows 7 and edition you are running. You can also type winver in start menu search box and hit enter to know more about your version of Windows 7 including build details.
Peter says
Wondering how could i ensure the copy i get is RTM release? How to differentiate between RC and RTM in others word?
Blesav says
Ja sam bio velika budala i išao sam skidati x64 verziju umjesto x86 jer se nisam sjetio da trenuta?no imam windows 7 RC 32bit i kao takvu je ne mogu nadograditi s 64bit verzijom. A žao mi je jer mi se ta 64bit verzija skinula za 3 sata…a ovu 32bit skidam ve? 5h i još ?e je skidati barem par dana…ciganarija prve vrste.
admin says
You are right, Joe. This is the best OS till date.
admin says
@John
Absolutely right.:)
John says
I’m assuming my RC key will not work with RTM, right?
Joe says
I also noticed that RTM has faster response times when i shut down my machine compared to RC. I think this is the best Microsoft has done to date.
Ryan says
Yes, there are lots of bug fixes that have been done in the RTM which haven’t been done in the RC. It ain’t just performance.
admin says
Although there are no changes in RC to RTM (except default wallpaper), RTM better as far as performance is concerned.
j says
is there anything noticably different in the RTM worth jumping over for?