Upgrading from Windows 7 Beta to the Release Candidate

Still on track to meet your prediction that Windows 7 would ship in April 2009?

I'll wait for the publicly-available RC before attempting any install on a computer here, thanks. BTW: Microsoft just posted a survey to Registered Partners to ask how they would like to receive Action Pack updates in the future. The emphasis is on receiving software electronically, rather than waiting for quarterly update kits with discs. I'm really hoping they implement this before Windows 7 ships, so that I can get the bits a lot earlier. MSDN and TechNet Plus users have had access to downloadable software for years now. Action Pack subscribers have been left out of the loop. Also, it would make a lot more sense for Microsoft to add ISO mounting via a low-level driver so that software installation would be faster. I'd like to see command-line support in Windows PE too. They already did this with VHD support. ISO support is the last remaining piece of the puzzle.

By the way, a supposedly legitimate copy of build 7077 x86 is available through the torrentsphere right now. This may be the build that is going into RC escrow.

@Waethorn: Not true, but thanks for playing.

Still not satisfied that she didn't by your precious (overpriced) Apple lappy? Awwwwwwwwww. Apple fanatics = Life's losers. Anything to keep covering for the drop in sales of Apple computers while PCs are rising, eh? Guess more people want to be like Lauren, and less like robertsjoe. Shocker!

@robertsjoe: You should know already that nobody reads pages on *week.com and *world.com. People here know better. btw: Kennedy called. Your credit card was declined for that copy of DMS Clarity you ordered.

@Raf: Since you're watching this space, do me a favour: Grab a netbook or small notebook system with Vista or 7 on it (preferably a Premium version, but it doesn't have to be running Aero) and throw on the Origami Experience 2.0 and run it for common things like web and media functionality. Don't forget to check out the impressive RSS stuff in it too. Now, don't you think this is the UI that Microsoft should be pushing for low-end netbooks to compete against similarly UI'ed netbook versions of Linux?! How did they completely overlook this UX when they were contemplating netbook versions of Windows 7???

@mikegalos, @master3: It's obvious you guys like inferior stuff. Microsoft is inferior. PCs are inferior. @waethorn sells the stuff to unsuspecting people. Microsoft is like McDonald's. Lots of crap dished out to millions of people.

@mikegalos: It's ironic that the "comic" is using one of Microsoft's worst creations ever, Clippy.

Hopefully Windows 7 will retail soon.

Everybody is just jealous that Windows 7 is getting more coverage than vaporware Snow Leopard :P

"Microsoft is like McDonald's. Lots of crap dished out to millions of people." Careful there, sparky. You're setting yourself up for another one of "Waethorn's" patented pro-McDonald's rants. He spews them as he wipes the (alleged) poutine from his lower lip.

"You're setting yourself up for another one of "Waethorn's" patented pro-McDonald's rants." At least McDonald's has choice on their menu - something you don't get. "He spews them as he wipes the (alleged) poutine from his lower lip." Poutine is only served in McDonald's restaurants in Quebec and western New Brunswick, sorry to say.

"users should always look out for is the dreaded "lockin" where one vendor tries to create barriers to future changes." Funny that you state that before this line: "Whatever I think of Win7 or Vista relative to OSX, I would prefer them to XP. However, if it breaks our old creaky enterprise software, we'll stick with XP." Funny, that.

Sounds like the RC will just be a nuke and pave over the build 7000. It's a Beta so no big deal. I love seeing the true nature of the thin skin Mac weenies coming out for all to see. Their hysteria over a couple of fun but not particularly derisive ads is pretty funny to watch. At least Microsoft didn't resort to all out lies to try to make their point. I expect we'll see Mac market share start heading south once Win 7 is released.

"I don't get your comment on the lockin." It's quite simple. You say not to get locked in by a vendor that prevents future changes, and yet you'd prefer to use Vista or 7 over XP. Your enterprise software vendor is locking you in to a version that prevents you from upgrading your platform infrastructure software ie. your preferred OS. That's my comment. When you can't upgrade your IT infrastructure because your enterprise software vendor is holding you back (either due to compatibility or just a made-up support requirement), that's still vendor lock-in. You can't blame that one on Microsoft either. Whether you control IT resources in the company that you work for or not, you should still be able to recognize the vendor lock-in scenario that you were previously complaining about.

Waethorn Based on the PS in the original Windows Engineering Blog post (quoted below) they know they should have it in there so it's not unwillingness. ---------------------- PS: At Step 1 above many of you are probably thinking, “hey why don’t you just let me mount the ISO and skip the plastic disc”. We’ve heard this feedback and we deserve the feedback. We don’t have this feature in Windows 7 and we should have.

@mike: My argument is for implementing it at a basic level so that commandline tools in Windows PE work. You can do this with diskpart in Windows PE for VHD's already. AFAIK, you can't do something simple like that with Virtual CloneDrive - it needs to have the GUI support. If someone knows a way to implement Virtual CloneDrive in a Windows PE commandline environment, well then, everyones complaints for the lack of functionality will start to go away.

"Poutine is only served in McDonald's restaurants in Quebec and western New Brunswick, sorry to say." As you like to say, "WRONG!!!" (with three exclamation points). I've seen it on the menu in Ontario.

@subzero "Not all Mac users "think" alike." You are right. There are a very few, VERY vocal group of Mac users (robersjoe types) that are very ANTI-MS. Most Mac users I know have moved to Mac or have been there a long time and dont even know what 7 is, let alone considering it at all. They are not ANTI-MS, they just like what they use and USE it.

@all: I got Virtual CloneDrive to work in Windows PE, and much simpler than I had previously suspected. You can run the setup EXE file from a Windows PE command prompt using the /S parameter. IT IS CASE SENSITIVE. This will install CloneDrive into the proper Programs File folder that is loaded into the RAMdrive that WinPE creates (normally X:). It also sets up the driver correctly (using DRVLOAD doesn't work). It will automatically set up one virtual drive using the first free drive letter available (excluding A and B). Inside the X:\Program Files\Elaborate Bytes folder is a program called VCDmount.EXE which will allow you to found an image file to that drive letter. You'll have to know which drive letter that is though. That's not the easiest thing to automate either (some help here would be appreciated). Assuming your drive is drive F, the command would look something like this: > vcdmount /L=F "" The /L command is to signify the drive letter in which to mount the image. Be aware of a couple of limitations: If your program requires access to the files on disc after a reboot, THIS WON'T WORK. I haven't tried doing anything major with this, like installing Windows 7 from the ISO or whatever. I also haven't tried this with x64 versions of Windows PE. I've only tried it with a Windows Vista SP1 OPK CD that's been booted. It contains an x86 version of Windows PE, based on Windows Server 2008 source files. I also haven't tried completely integrating CloneDrive into Windows PE directly. So far, this works, and you can probably script it easily without having to heavily modify your Windows PE files. You'd have to find a way to figure out exactly which drive is the virtual one though if you're using this method on disparate systems.

"Too bad the kitchens aren't the former and the food isn't the latter." I have yet to see a McDonald's like those featured in "Super Size Me" (like that one where the kitchen staff were standing in backed-up sewage while cooking). Of course, I've never eaten at one in the States. I'm glad for that, too.

"it runs "best" with IE, which I find appalling." When it's a Windows infrastructure that you're running and systems are locked down from users tampering about, then it shouldn't be an issue. When you start mixing and matching platforms for no reason (or just because that's what the user prefers), that's when you (read: IT) get into trouble. Being "platform agnostic" without a good reason is just stupid IMHO, and usually it results in a lack of fluidity and integration, which affects workflow on down the line. "I assume that this will all be fixed in Windows 7 and that backwards compatibility will be much better than Vista?" Sorry, but it's a common misconception that Windows 7 will be any better at compatibility than Windows Vista. It won't magically fix things that don't work in Vista. What is happening is that Microsoft is adding extra compatibility shims to Vista, and those shims will be present in Windows 7. Windows 7 will be more compatible AT LAUNCH than Windows Vista *was* AT LAUNCH. Windows Vista NOW is much better at compatibility than it was, and it's certainly worth retesting by IT if they only tested it shortly after launch. The work will continue on during the lifetime of 7, and Software Assurance customers will receive Windows 7 as part of their agreement. It's possible that Microsoft might eventually cut off compatibility updates to Vista in favour of 7 in the future. That remains to be seen though. My whole point about compatibility has to do with support lifecycles. I look at hardware and software together in a platform. I don't see a point of using old software with new hardware, so upgrading software WITH hardware is always ideal. Getting support from all vendors during the same lifecycle upgrades should be easier for companies, regardless of whether or not they are proprietarily-based or platform-agnostic. Unfortunately, some businesses find that certain vendors will keep them held back. Vendors that rely on support and maintenance agreements usually have very low R&D expenses, so they don't contribute to industry innovation. That's what I think is one of the worst parts of it all.

Master....time for the meds. Agro aleart!!!! Chuck is right with "Apple is somehow both a looming threat and a trivial irrelevance?" Which is it? I also agree with "an enormous fraction of those "Windows Computers" are cash registers" Rough break down of where I work, tad over 5k employees, tad over 1500 AD users, No Vista, maybe 60 users have an actual computer, split between IT/Marketing and are about split Leopard/XP. Users in our stores connect to TS farm via Wyse thins, users at corp connect to VDI servers with Wyse thins. We have some thins that are 10 years old running strong, no "desktop hardware refresh" going on here. Of the roughly 650 copies of XP running that we maintain, about 525 are registers, that run a single, full touch screen app, no keyboard. The rest of the XP is either VDI or a few notebook/desktops in IT.

"When you start mixing and matching platforms for no reason (or just because that's what the user prefers), that's when you (read: IT) get into trouble. Being "platform agnostic" without a good reason is just stupid IMHO, and usually it results in a lack of fluidity and integration, which affects workflow on down the line." And here I thought having choices was a good thing. Guess not. When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything starts looking like a nail.