Windows 7 RC – Now available to the world (Note the RC to RTM statement)

Windows Connected - Windows 7 RC Download now up for non-subscribers

“As promised Microsoft has released the Windows 7 RC download for everyone else today.  They are not limiting the number of people who can download this build, but make sure you get it before the end of July. You can get the build here.

Things you should know:

• This build will expire on June 1, 2010 and you will start seeing bi-hourly shutdowns on March 1, 2010.
• You will not be able to do an upgrade from RC to RTM [GD: emphasis added]
• This is an RC and as with any install it is important you make a backup of your data first
• You should be using a dedicated test machine.
• Minimum Requirements are 1GHz or faster processor, 1GB RAM (32-bit) / 2GB RAM (64-bit), 16GB (32-bit)/20GB (64-boot) Disk space, DirectX 9 graphics processor

License Key will be given to as part of the downloading process.

…”

I upgraded a machine from Vista to Win7RC and feel in love with it… It just seemed to work, and worked better, both the OS and the apps, than Vista.

But because this was a home '”production”machine I rolled it back to Vista due to “You will not be able to do an upgrade from RC to RTM”. I have to say I think this policy is a misstep. Having the RC timeout is fine/perfect. But not having a supported means to move from the RC to RTM? That doesn’t smell good and will be barrier to entry. Sure many have extra PC’s where we can play with Win7. And there’s Virtual PC’s, etc. Yet if you want real world feedback, then I need to use it in my real world. And I can’t lose that world in a year and be forced to re-install everything. I don’t know about you, but my time is limited and I have to take care where I invest it. I’ll help test the RC sure, but I can’t have my time wasted (and I’m sick of playing the re-install all my apps game… data is easy to backup/restore/transfer, it’s the fricken app install, patch, etc that kills days… days where I just want to use the darn thing).

Wow… I got riled up there didn’t I? Sorry about that? LOL

All that said, I am REALLY looking forward to Win7 and even after using it for just a couple days I miss it.

 

Related Past Post XRef:
A story of Windows 7 and an empty All Programs (and how I fixed it)