How To Upgrade Windows 7 RC to Windows 7 RTM

I setup Windows 7 RC (Release Candidate) on my media center. However a few days ago the RC finally expired. When trying to do an upgrade to Windows 7 RTM I got the following message:

You can't upgrade this prerelease of Windows 7. Go online to see how to install Windows 7 and keep your files and settings.



Well there actually is a way to upgrade windows 7 from an RC or Beta copy. To do this follow my instructions:

1. Copy the entire contents of the Windows 7 RTM media to a folder on your local hard disk.

2. Once copied open the sources folder, it is the directory right under the root of the DVD.

3. Open the file cversion.ini in a text editor such as Notepad.

4. Modify the file to look like the following and save it:

Original content of cversion.ini:
[HostBuild]
MinClient=7233.0
MinServer=7100.0

Change it to:
[HostBuild]
MinClient=7000.0
MinServer=7100.0

Run the setup.exe file that sites on your hard disk while in windows. It will boot up Setup and give you an option to upgrade. Follow through the steps until the upgrade is complete.