How to Migrate from Windows 7 RC to Windows 7 RTM

Over 8 million people tested Windows 7 when it was in development and I am sure many of you are still running the Windows 7 Release Candidate which expires in March 2010. You might have been running the RC in a production setup because of how stable and impressive the software is, especially for a pre-release product. At the same time, you are contemplating, how do I move to the final version of the software with my accumulated data on it? Can I simply do an in place upgrade from the RC to the final release? What about all my installed applications?
These are all good questions and its something I was curious about myself and decided to document. The first thing you should understand as a tester of pre-release software, means its pre-release and Microsoft is in no way responsible for anything that can happen running the software in a production environment. Yes, the software is very stable, especially since the first beta released back in January, but there are a few things users must know before deploying it and what happens when the software is going to expire. Here is a bit of information from Microsoft about the Windows 7 Upgrade path policies:
Upgrades to Windows 7 from the following operating systems are not supported:
Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows XP, Windows Vista® RTM, Windows Vista Starter, Windows 7 M3, Windows 7 Beta, Windows 7 RC, or Windows 7 IDS
Windows NT® Server 4.0, Windows 2000 Server, Windows Server® 2003, Windows Server 2008, or Windows Server 2008 R2
Cross-architecture in-place upgrades (for example, x86 to x64) are not supported.
Cross-language in-place upgrades (for example, en-us to de-de) are not supported.
Cross-SKU upgrades (for example, Windows 7 N to Windows 7 K) are not supported.
Upgrades from Windows Vista to Windows N, Windows K, Windows KN, or Windows E are not supported. Cross-build type in-place upgrades (for example, fre to chk) are not supported.