You are most likely reading this article because you’ve install Windows 7 RC way back when and now have one day left. If you’ve tried to install the full retail/oem version and failed with the message below, then this guide is for you.

The Problem

Windows 7 checks whether or not the current version you are running is a pre-release copy, and prevents you from upgrading further. For reference purposes, this is the error you’ll see when you try and upgrade.

The Solution

The solution is to edit a file inside the Windows 7 DVD—which you’ll have to extract to the hard drive to proceed.

• If you are using an ISO image for the installation progress, you can use the awesome 7-Zip utility to extract the ISO to a folder on the drive.
• If you are using an actual DVD, you can simply copy all of the files from the DVD to a folder on your hard drive.

Once you’ve extract the files, browse down into the “sources” folder to find the cversion.ini file.

Once you’ve opened up the cversion.ini file, you’ll notice that the MinClient line has a value of 7233.0, and since the Windows 7 RC release is build 7100, you can understand why it’s not working.

All you need to do is change the MinClient value to something less than the current build you are using. For the RC release, you can change it to 7000.

Now you can simply launch the setup.exe file from within the folder, and do the upgrade directly from the hard drive. Once you’ve started the setup, click Install now.

Once you get to the type of installation screen, choose to Upgrade the existing install.

Once you reach the Compatibility Report screen (if it doesn’t show up at all, be happy about it), you’ll see the list of applications that probably won’t work once you upgrade. Realistically most of these apps will work just fine, but the important thing is that you’ll be able to upgrade.

Note: You could always smooth the upgrade process by removing any apps that have compatibility problems, before you do the upgrade.

At this point, the upgrade should start working, and will take a rather long time.

Important Notes

There are a few important things to keep in mind when you are upgrading to the final version:

• The Windows 7 beta or RC releases were Ultimate edition, so you’ll only be able to upgrade to the RTM (final) if you are installing Ultimate Edition.
• Whenever possible, you should really backup your files and do a clean install. There are less headaches this way, and you get the benefit of a nice clean profile.

Happy upgrading!

VIA HowToGeek

I have been beta testing an add in for my Windows Home Server for what feels like ever!!! It’s an essential tool in managing your disks in Windows Home Server. It has seamless integration with WHS. When it is installed, you wonder how could Microsoft possible have left these features out of a server… Oh well, we ask that question enough anyway…

Here are the details and press release:

Tentacle Software is proud to announce the release of Disk Management 1.1, the next version of our very popular Windows Home Server Add-In. It has, as they say, been a long time coming.

We’ve kept this release under the radar, for the most part. We’ve talked about it in hushed whispers (through various threads on We Got Served, and teaser posts here) for at least a year and a half. Why did it take so long? We really, really wanted to get it right.

New Features

We re-architected the entire Add-In to use a Windows Service to do all the back-end heavy lifting. That’s given us the flexibility to add a bunch of functionality that you’ve all been asking for.

Everyone loves bullet points, so here are our new shinies in no particular order:

• Significantly improved user interface (including a collapsible pane for the wireframe if you don’t use it)
• Significantly improved performance, especially on multi-core CPUs
• Charts for disk space statistics
• Charts for disk space utilisation over time
• Disk statistics logging to a file
• More disk details, including the NTFS mount point for each disk
• Real counting of the actual backup database size (for all you crazy kids with backup duplication enabled)
• A detailed help file

The new UI is something we’re really proud of. No more pop-up windows to see detailed information about your disks, it’s all there in one display.

New Price

The other major change is that we’re going professional. Disk Management will no longer be free.

There are a number of reasons for us to do this, but mostly we believe that Disk Management is worth paying for, and moving to a paid model will help ensure that Disk Management is supported and maintained in the future.

Disk Management is available as a free 30-day trial, with no feature or functionality limitations. You can try it out with no risk and see how awesome the new version is. If you love it as much as we do, a license for v1.x will cost you US$10 per server.

New Website

The Tentacle Software website has had a major facelift. We’ve got a whole new style, and a new store. Have a look and tell us what you think; we would love to hear your feedback.

The Future

We’re very excited about this release, as I’m sure you can tell. We believe that Disk Management 1.1 is the start of something special for us, and we’ve got plans for all sorts of goodies for Windows Home Server that I’m sure you’ll love.

We want to sincerely thank all our beta testers, and everyone who has given us feedback. Disk Management and Tentacle Software are two years old and we couldn’t have made it this far without you.