I must say that I am extremely impressed with Windows 7 RC. While I never experienced the mirid horrors that I've seen reported about Vista, still I grew to hate Vista immensely. But, so far, Windows 7 RCUltimate seems to be everything that Vista promised to be but wasn't (knock on wood). Unfortunately, it nows seems that, like with everything Microsoft, my life if going to be made a living ____ when it comes timeto upgrading at the end of October. Because I was so impressed with Windows 7, I pre-ordered the Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade, since I was running Vista Home Premium before installing Windows 7 RC. Now from what I gather on these forums is that I am not going to be able to use the "upgrade" of Windows 7 Home Premium now that an "Ultimate" copy has been installed on my machine. Does this mean I'm going to have to do a clean re-install of my Vista Home Premium and then do an upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium?!

I'm afraid you've read the right things. Since you cannot "upgrade" from a higher to a lower version, and a "downgrade" also isn't possible, you have to do a clean re-install... etc. (re-installing all your apps used on RC included). Mobile AMD64 3000+, VIA Apollo K8T800 chipset, 1 G RAM, ATIRadeonMobility 9700, 20x DVDRW, C:XPSP3 (55G),D:WIN7 (25G),F:DATA (250G)

I currently have Win 7 Ultimate installed and I have pre-ordered the professional upgrade. I did a clean install of the Win 7 RC Ultimate because I could not get it to upgrade from Vista Home Premium 64bit. I do not mind doing another clean install when I get the Win 7 Professional Upgrade but I hope I will not have to re-install the old Vista Home Premium 64bit OS. Inserting the Vista CD should be enough. Al

That's another question. To be honest, there are so many different informations on this that I don't feel able to give a satisfying answer. I agree, inserting the Vista CD should be enough, but I can't tell you with certainty that this will be the way to go.Mobile AMD64 3000+, VIA Apollo K8T800 chipset, 1 G RAM, ATIRadeonMobility 9700, 20x DVDRW, C:XPSP3 (55G),D:WIN7 (25G),F:DATA (250G)

Yes, to upgrade from vista to 7you must have a qualifying system installed so you will have to reinstall the vista 64 first. An upgrade can't becompleted byjust having the dvd of the older vesion, it must also be installed. I hope that answers your question Al.

I must say that I am extremely impressed with Windows 7 RC. While I never experienced the mirid horrors that I've seen reported about Vista, still I grew to hate Vista immensely. But, so far, Windows 7 RCUltimate seems to be everything that Vista promised to be but wasn't (knock on wood). Unfortunately, it nows seems that, like with everything Microsoft, my life if going to be made a living ____ when it comes timeto upgrading at the end of October. Because I was so impressed with Windows 7, I pre-ordered the Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade, since I was running Vista Home Premium before installing Windows 7 RC. Now from what I gather on these forums is that I am not going to be able to use the "upgrade" of Windows 7 Home Premium now that an "Ultimate" copy has been installed on my machine. Does this mean I'm going to have to do a clean re-install of my Vista Home Premium and then do an upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium?! HiThe RC is a beta version of Windows 7 that is a free download for testing purposes only. This was clearly stated on the download website. A freely available can never be used as a qualifying product for an upgrade to a final, retail version.The following was also stated in several places on the RC download website.Things you need to have before you start: Dedicated test PC: Please don't test the RC on your primary home or business PC.The Windows 7 RC will stop working on June 1, 2010. To continue using your PC, please be prepared to reinstall a prior version of Windows or the final released version of Windows 7 before the expiration date. We recommend doing a custom (clean) installation. Here are complete instructions on how to uninstall the Pre-release version of Windows 7 and revert to a previous genuine operating system. Back up your data: We know you know this already, but please back up your data and please don't test the RC on your primary home or business PC. Keep your PC updated: To get critical updates, be sure to turn on automatic updates in Windows Update. Remember expiration dates: Please plan ahead for when the RC expires. You'll get two weeks' notice, and then beginning on March 1, 2010, your PC will start shutting down every two hours. The RC will expire on June 1, 2010. To avoid interruption, you'll need to rebuild your test PC to replace the OS with a valid version of Windows, and reinstall all your programs and data before the software expires. Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC): Free Download-Installation Instructions Hope this helps.Thank You for testing Windows 7 Ronnie Vernon MVP

Yes, to upgrade from vista to 7you must have a qualifying system installed so you will have to reinstall the vista 64 first. An upgrade can't becompleted byjust having the dvd of the older vesion, it must also be installed. I hope that answers your question Al. I forgot when I did the clean install of RC1 it was to a new hard drive. My old system drive with Vista Home Premium 64bit was unplugged before that install. Guess I just have to hook up that old drive again and then I should be able to do another clean install of Windows 7. I will try the old way of doing a clean install first though. I just can't believe that Microsoft would force someone that had a hard drive crash with the Windows 7 install to go throught the process of installing and activating Vista again. Al

This is hard to believe but I have heard stories from people who said they had to do just that. Upgrades in my opinion don't really save people that much money. Fora hundred bucks more you'll never have to worry about it. It is also my opinion that the practice of selling upgrades should end untill the activation servers can keep a more accurate record of how and under what circumstance product keyshave bean used and activateded.