Hi there, Im fairly new to all this so please bare with me, Im a li'l n00b Im currently on Win7 7100 x86 and was wondering the best way to go from now. I ideally want to move to 64bit (though I only have 2GB RAM I hear it still has advantages) but only have 32 bit Windows Vista so upgrading from that when Win7 is actually out seems unlikely. If I clean install the 7260 RTM build, will my RC key be able to activate it? And more importantly will I be able to upgrade to the final Win7 when its released? I ask this because I already bought Vista and dont wanna pay full price for the full Win7 install, Id much rather buy an upgrade pack. Anyone got any advice? Im not TOO fussed about 64bit since I do a ot of music production and I hear there can be some issues with it, but Id like to try. Thanks!
I wouldn't go with 7260 since 1. It is 32-bit and that would make it difficult for you to then move on to 64-bit and 2. RTM is just around the corner. If you do decide to go ahead yes, the RC keys still work but when the RTM is released they will not work and you wouldn't be able to upgrade to it. However you can buy an upgrade license at release. My advice is that you wait a couple of days and see if any other builds show up that still work with the RC keys, install that and then wait until you can purchase an upgrade license.
So if I were to, for example, install (cleanly) a 64bit version of 7100 or a newer build that uses the RC keys, I could just buy an upgrade disk and upgrade from that at launch? Or does the final RTM need to upgrade from a Vista installation (if so Im stuffed since I dont have 64bit Vista)
It is highly not recomended but I think it is possible with a text file edit just like the one for upgrading from beta to RC.
There is no way to upgrade from x86 to x64, you have to install clean. RC Keys will activate 7260 but that may change as new builds are leaked or the code goes gold. You will be able to upgrade from the RC to the final, or from a certain build to RTM. If they block the RC upgrade you can just edit the cversion.ini in the sources folder on the disk and change the low build number to 7100 and you will be fine. It may not be officially supported but you are probably better upgrading from 7 to 7 because you already have all the new framework down, the only thing the install does is the hard link migration of your files, and upgrading of features and components, most of the time when I upgrade from build to build it takes 30-40 mins depending on how much crap is in my profile.
upg ok I successfully upgraded from 7100 to 7260 . x86 versions both. all that in an old Pentium 4 1.6 GH, 512 MB RAM, Nvidia 32 MB card