Windows 7 RC (Release Candidate) can now be downloaded and installed from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx The good news is that Windows7 RC will be available at least through July 2009 and Microsoft is not limiting the number of product keys. Also it is important to know that Windows7 RC will expire on June 1, 2010. Starting on March 1, 2010, your PC will begin shutting down every two hours. Windows will notify you two weeks before the bi-hourly shutdowns start.
A PC with these system requirements:
- 1 GHz or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
- 1 GB RAM (32-bit) / 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
- 16 GB available disk space (32-bit) / 20 GB (64-bit)
- DirectX 9 graphics processor with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
May 8th, 2009 at 7:33 am
I would consider the upgrade… but are there a lot of bugs? And if the computel automatically shut off after 2 hours starting in march, when is the actual os going to be publicly released?
May 10th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
I am about to try the new Windows7RC OS next few weeks. Based on what I’ve read, the new windows7 os is behaving very well. You can find more info about Windows 7 by going here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/
May 12th, 2009 at 11:20 am
the problem i will most likely run into is when i decide to uninstall the os and downgrade back down to vista… wouldn’t i have to do a clean install? i dont have my installation disk for office. so that would really trip me up. i am thinking about repartitioning my hard drive and installing a clean copy on a new partition. will that cause any problems? i have seen weird things happen on vista when the boot.ini file is changed.
May 13th, 2009 at 9:13 am
Jordan,
Personally I will install Win7 RC either on a separate hard drive or on a partition. Haven’t decided yet. Many people say Windows7 RC is behaving very well. However, until the final release, I will be cautious.