Windows 7 Beta Begins Automatic Shutdown Phase Comments

"Yes, it is a pain not being able to upgrade from Windows 7 Beta to the Release Candidate and the same will be true for those moving from the RC to the released version."

All you need do is a slight hack on the installer if i remember correctly, got it working perfectly without a format! It will probably be possible with the RTM too though might not be stable. Have to wait and see on that one..

1. Download the ISO and burn the ISO to a DVD.
2. Copy the whole image to a storage location you wish to run the upgrade from (a bootable flash drive or a directory on any partition on the machine running the pre-release build).
3. Browse to the sources directory.
4. Open the file cversion.ini in a text editor like Notepad.
5. Modify the MinClient build number to a value lower than the down-level build. You need to change the value to 7000 as it is the beta version build number.
6. Save the file in place with the same name.
7. Run setup like you would normally from this modified copy of the image and the version check will be bypassed.

just upgraded from beta to RC 2 yesterday, worked like a charm

Re the "Pre-Order Offer."

MICROSOFT'S Q&A SECTION STATES.
To be eligible for the offer, you need to be running a genuine copy of the Windows XP or Windows Vista operating systems.

I waited to build my new machine until Winddows 7.000 was available. (I didn't want Vista anywhere near it.) I have since upgraded to the RC release.

So will I be able to pre-order and install? Does the fact that the European editon 7E is a full version and not an update version mean that we won't have to have XP or Vista already installed?

@xbrumster "1. Download the ISO and burn the ISO to a DVD." Or use Daemon Tools to mount the ISO and then copy the files from that. It saves having to burn a DVD.