Installing SharePoint 2010 RC on Win7

I figured an installation of SharePoint 2010 RC on Windows 7 would have some hiccups for two reasons:

1. I never installed on Win7 before
2. I have heard about issues getting the correct prerequisites for the installation

So, I went to the MSFT source first and used the installation guide posted here.  I followed every step in order and had no issues until it was time to run the configuration wizard.  I received the following error:

SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard
Configuration Failed
Failed to create the configuration database
An exception of type System.IO.FileNotFoundException was thrown. Additional exception information: Could not load file or assembly ‘Microsoft.IdentityModel, version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35’ or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.The Geneva framework version on the installation link above is not correct for RC.  Use this link instead – Geneva Framework for SharePoint 2010 RC.  Once I updated the installation of the Geneva framework, the configuration was successful.

During installation, my laptop used about 3GB of the available 4GB install.  There is documentation indicating that the install requires a minimum 2GB RAM, but I would recommend using at last 4GB.

Windows 7 Virtual PC Experience

I was finally able to get Windows 7 RC1 updated to the current version from MSDN.  I had kept my local backup needs lightweight since I new this day was coming.  The install of Windows 7 Enterprise went very smoothly as did the updates to Office and other programs I needed.   However, I did have a challenge moving my Virtual PC 2007 .vmc’s into the new Virtual PC for Win7.

What I found was that my old VMs almost all had Diff Disks.  Virtual PC would not boot from a 2007 Differencing Disk.  It would boot from the base VHD though.  So, I had to merge my disk on an old desktop Running XP Pro and had a copy of Virtual PC 2007.  After merging the disks, I tried to create a new .vmcx for the drive, but after launching I blue screened.

Finally, I had to create a .vmc file on the old XP Pro box with VPC2007.  Once that file was created, I was able to launch the VM on Win7.

So, if you have a VM that you are migrating from VPC2007 to Win7 VPC, you will need to merge the differencing disk on VPC2007 and then create a new .vmc file to run the merged .vhd.  The new vmc file can be launched in Win7 VPC without issue.