I have used Windows 7 beta, the RC, and now the RTM version of Windows 7.

If you used the beta and/or RC, there is a way to update to the RTM if it’s that important to you. Now if it isn’t then do a clean install. And for this to work, you will need either Windows 7 Ultimate or Enterprise final version. Home Premium, Basic, and Starter will not work!

1. Boot into the Windows 7 RC (or beta but most won’t still be using that since the shutdown date already passed).
2. Copy the files from your final version Windows 7 DVD to a folder.
3. Go into that folder and inside that is a folder called Sources.
4. Edit the file in the folder called cversion.ini and change Minclient number to 7000.0. Close and save.
5. If you are upgrading to final version of Ultimate, skip to step 10. If you are upgrading to final Enterprise, go to step 6.
6. Go to, Start, Run: and type: regedit.exe
7. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersion
8. Change the key : ProductName from “Windows 7 Ultimate” to “Windows 7 Enterprise”
9. Change the key: EditionID from “Ultimate” to “Enterprise”
10. DO NOT RESTART
11. Now go to that folder with your copied files from the DVD and run setup to start the upgrade process.
12. You will have to reactivate Windows by right-clicking Computer and going to Properties. And you will have to click the “Change Product Key” to enter the product key that came with your Windows 7.

Again, this will only work if you bought the full version of Windows 7 Ultimate or Enterprise. Since the beta and RC was Ultimate, going to Home Premium is considered a downgrade and things can be unstable even if it does work at all. For not losing items with Home Premium, I would suggest backing up and restoring after a clean install.

Now for you Vista users and particularly those who have Vista Ultimate. You remember those extras that Microsoft said they would give and didn’t really deliver too much? You upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate and those things will no longer be available to you. The upgrade takes them away. Me personally I don’t care. I occasionally powered up the Texas Hold ‘Em Game when I had nothing else to do and actually remembered it was there. All 3 or 4 times over the years. Same with Dreamscape. Keep that in mind when you go to Windows 7. If things are that important to you in Vista, then you may think about dual-booting.

Windows 7 has been so far through beta and RC, very rock solid compared to Vista and with what it brings over Vista, I can do without Dreamscape or deciding to go all-in. It would have been nice if Microsoft didn’t mess with what programs were there already in the upgrade or even leave it to the person’s choice. Such as if they upgrade, it stays and if they do a clean install it’s gone.

Windows 7 can make use of larger flashdrives for it’s ReadyBoost that Vista limited it’s use to 4 gb of a flashdrive memory.

My only issue to date with Windows 7 came in playing a few online games. And it wasn’t even a problem in Windows as it was a problem with nVidia’s drivers for my GeForce card. One driver (185.x and 186.x) caused problems with a few games before the final version of Windows 7 was released. However since the release, the latest driver (191.x) from nVidia causes a problem with Champions Online. I’ve found the driver that gives me stability in all the games I played is the 190.38 driver.

I have yet to find a program that ran in Vista that did not run on Windows 7. And most of the time ran even better.

Microsoft is beginning to make me think they do pretty good every other OS they do. 98/98SE was nice for it’s time. ME was a mistake. XP was pretty solid for it’s time. Vista has issues. Now Windows 7 is so far pretty solid. It makes me weary about whatever they do next.