Windows 7 beta 1: sound does not work on Macbook Pro (RealTek HD Audio)

This post is googlebait: I couldn't find the solution for this on google, so here's how I solved it. Hopefully others will be spared the messing around.

After installing windows 7 beta 1 (7000) on my macbook pro, and installing the bootcamp drivers off the Leopard Disc, as well as The vista 2.1 bootcamp update, everything worked very nicely... Except sound.

Win7 detected "High Definition Audio Device" and everything looked like it should have worked, but no sound came out of the speakers.

After much mucking around, here's what I did:

Go into the leopard drivers folder. There should be a directory called Drivers, and under that is a file called RealTekSetup.exe. If you try run this normally, it will fail.

What I did next was:

Right click it, and select Troubleshoot Compatibility

Click Next and wait for it to finish 'Detecting Issues'

Select The program Worked in earlier versions of windows...

Select Windows Vista

Click Next a few times, let the Realtek installer run, reboot, and Presto!

As for win7 itself? Well, the beta is faster, nicer, and all around better than vista. I'll never go back. They didn't do a good enough job of copying the dock... but it's still miles ahead of vista, and that's another blog post.

Byebye!