Microsoft begs Windows 7 testers to start from scratch

 

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Posted on 9 Apr 2009 at 07:51

The company claims its telemetry shows that millions of people are running Windows 7 full time. However, it's asking those customers to go through the pain of a clean installation because it wants to test the real-world upgrade experience.

"The RC is about getting breadth coverage to validate the product in real-world scenarios," the company claims on the Engineering Windows 7 blog. "As a result, we want to encourage you to revert to a Vista image and upgrade or to do a clean install, rather than upgrade the existing Beta."

"We know that means reinstalling, recustomising, reconfiguring, and so on. That is a real pain. The reality is that upgrading from one pre-release build to another is not a scenario we want to focus on because it is not something real-world customers will experience."

Those who attempt to install the Release Candidate over the beta will find their path blocked. However, the blog does provide a workaround for those who are determined to upgrade from the beta, which essentially involves changing the build number to an earlier version to trick the Release Candidate into thinking its upgrading a Vista machine.

Microsoft warns that those who don't perform a clean install may suffer "some oddities after upgrade". Microsoft claims these are merely build-to-build issues that are often experienced by people who download leaked, unofficial builds of the operating system.

"We've seen people talk about how a messenger client stopped working, a printer or device 'disappears', or start menu shortcuts are duplicated. These are often harmless and worst case often involves reinstalling the software or device," the blog claims.

Microsoft doesn't provide any further information on the release date for Windows 7 RC, but the fact that it's issuing upgrade instructions now suggests the release is imminent.

Author: Barry Collins