Aaron Tiensivu's Blog

Sick of the hassle of registering for a product key to download the ISOs?

Skip the middle man, go directly to the download links:

32-bit - X86: http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/3/3/633118BD-6C3D-45A4-B985-F0FDFFE1B021/EN/7000.0.081212-1400_client_en-us_Ultimate-GB1CULFRE_EN_DVD.iso

64-bit - X64: http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/3/3/633118BD-6C3D-45A4-B985-F0FDFFE1B021/EN/7000.0.081212-1400_client_en-us_Ultimate-GB1CULXFRE_EN_DVD.ISO

Thanks go out to Lifehacker for the links.

This has to do with the digital signatures of certain 3rd party drivers. The typical error message you will see after upgrade is: "Windows cannot verify the digital signature for the drivers required for this device. A recent hardware or software change might have installed a file that is signed incorrectly or damaged, or that might be malicious software from an unknown source. (Code 52)"

This will not happen if you do a fresh install of Windows 7 Beta build 7000 64-bit.

To workaround the issue for now, press [F8] on boot and disable driver signature checking if you need access in the short term before a fix is available.

Do you have iTunes installed? Most likely, it is the curse of GearASPIWDM that iTunes uses. You can fix this by uninstalling and reinstalling iTunes. Another way, if you don't burn CD/DVDs with iTunes, is to strip the filters off like I outlined here in 2006.