The bad news for Windows 7 Beta or RC users is that they are unable to upgrade from Beta or RC builds to current Windows 7 RTM build: 7600.16385 that’s recently has been signed off to be final RTM. If you are trying to upgrade to Windows 7 RTM, you will be facing this type of error message:

“You cannot upgrade this prerelease version of Windows 7. Go online to see how to install Windows 7 and keep your files and settings.”

Don’t worry for this error message, because there’s something you can do to bypass this problem. Refer the following steps to upgrade from Windows 7 Beta or RC to Windows 7 RTM build: 7600.16385:

1. Extract Windows 7 RTM ISO Image file to any folder or USB Disk using WinRAR.
2. Go to source folder, open “cversion.ini” file using text editor such as notepad.
3. Changes the “MinClient” build number to a value lower than the down-level build. For example, change 7233 to 7000.
4. Next, you need to save the altered or updated file in the same location and then run the setup.exe to start Windows 7 RC Upgrade process.
5. An installation screen will appear to make you choose which Windows 7 version you want to upgrade: RC or Beta.
6. That’s it…..