Update Rollup 7 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

Update Rollup 7 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 is now available. For online customers, Update Rollup 7 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 will be applied to production servers in early April 2012.

Some salient points from the announcement are listed below:

Feature addition
Update Rollup 7 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 introduces a new feature that is called Read Optimized Forms. By using this feature, an organization can let users decide whether they want to view records using a form that is optimized to load quickly. The read-optimized form improves productivity for users who primarily consume data instead of editing records. It also helps prevent users from unintentional editing field values.

For more information about Read Optimized Forms, click the following link:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=246078

For more design considerations with Read Optimized Forms, click the following link to read the SDK topic:
Design Considerations for Read Only Forms

Here is a very good CRM Team blog post about Read Optimized Forms. It covers the following:

• Read-optimized form details
• Switching to the full edit mode
• How to enable read-optimized forms
• When will you see a read-optimized form vs. an editable form?

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/crm/archive/2012/03/22/read-optimized-forms.aspx

Prerequisites
You must have Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 6 installed (build 5.0.9690.1992) to apply this update rollup.

Unlike Update Rollup 6, Rollup 7 can be uninstalled from the crm server. My suggestion is to always make backups before any rollup update. Rollup 6 update snafu is still fresh in my mind :)