Engadget’s Windows 7 review here
Engadget recently published a review of Windows 7 RTM. I think it’s flawed, because the reviewers seem to have encountered problems with Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer 8, yet the review did not disclose any reason why, or any related effort to determine why two components central to the new operating system displayed errors.
The only reason I am writing this very brief post is to perhaps help people upgrading to Windows 7 avoid some of the potential issues, it seems Engadget may have encountered.
I’ve tested Windows 7 extensively and have installed it on a variety of machines and in different ways, including:
Clean installs of 32 and 64 bit versions
Custom installs parallel to an existing installation over Windows Vista 32 and 64 bit
Installs over the top of Windows 7 RC (build 7100) to RTM 32 and 64 bit
It seems to me and based upon my own tests that the only way that Engadget would have encountered errors on their review system would be as a result of one, or more of the following:
They performed an install over the top of Windows 7 RC and or they failed to first remove Adobe FLASH player, Apple iTunes and or Apple QuickTime and Toshiba’s Bluetooth Stack first.
One may perform an install of Windows 7 RTM over the top of Windows 7 RC by following this method:
1. Download the ISO as you did previously and burn the ISO to a DVD.
2. Copy the whole image to a storage location you wish to run the upgrade from (a directory on any partition on the machine running the pre-rerelease 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. For example, change 7233 to 7000.
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.
Most users can avoid the pitfalls Engadget seems to have encountered by:
- Performing a clean install, or in the case of an in-place upgrade by first removing:
- Any and all security software, except where one is running Microsoft Security Essentials BETA on Windows 7 RC
- Adobe FLASH (uninstaller here) restart the computer once FLASH is removed and before upgrading
- Uninstall Apple iTunes and or Apple QuickTime before upgrading. (no time for the detail as to why, just re-install it after the upgrade is completed)
- If it is a notebook computer being upgraded and it has the Toshiba Bluetooth stack installed, uninstall it and install the most recent version AFTER the upgrade is complete. (Windows 7 RTM compatible version is here) (A great many non-Toshiba notebooks ship with the company’s Bluetooth stack).
That’s it. If you want a smooth Windows 7 RTM upgrade, try the above. These are the only issues I have noted across my test builds. I have recorded that having any of the featured software installed on a computer being upgraded will produce the same results Engadget observed. I think it is weak that they did not seem to work to discover why and worse that they singularly attributed the issues to either Internet Explorer 8 or Windows Explorer. It’s sloppy of them in my opinion and the time and effort people will invest in upgrading deserves more from such a well-known and respected site.