Official: Windows 7 RC publicly available May 5th
We've seen plenty of speculation on this date, but thanks to a quick email from Microsoft reps -- and a handy post on the Windows Blog -- we now have confirmation. According to the cats and kittens in Redmond, the Windows 7 RC will be officially available to MSDN and TechNet subscribers on April 30th, and will be made publicly available on May 5th. End transmission... and bust out the champagne.



















Yay, I guess I should update from build 7000 now.
Yes, and engadget should update their picture from 7000 to 7100 also
I never thought I would care so little about an announcement...
"I never thought I would care so little about an announcement..."
like we care that you don't care...
muppet :)
I don't feel like paying another 200 bucks for another operating system. So I guess I'm not going to upgrade. And I really loved Windows 7.
build 7000 is already so awesome and i'm seriously loving it....
i don't know how awesome this version would be
Heh - minor Windows posts get those annoying little "not news", "old news", "don't care", "not interested" etc comments as well! I thought it was just the Apple ones.
I installed it last night. The x64 beta keys didn't work so it didn't activate. The nvidia graphics drivers didn't work well with my 295 gtx. Media center doesn't do forward and backward time line jumps anymore via my remote (fast forward/backward works). My hauppauge 2250 tuner wouldn't record.
I went back to vista. (the windows 7 wall paper was awesome tho)
I'm sorry that your unreleased, beta operating system did not work as well as you had hoped!
I'm under 21... *Busts out the Root Beer*
I am also under 21....but honestly, who's gonna know
"Busts out Tuxedo and Martini Set*
Where are you two guys from (I'm guessing America)?, Over here in England the legal drinking age is 18.
Wait really Kieran!?! other countries have lower drinking ages than the US?!?! NO WAY! i've been missing out on consuming alcoholic beverages legally for all this time?! my life officially has no meaning
I'm under 21, but that won't stop my from busting out that bottle of Vodka I've been saving.. oh wait, I havn't been saving it, oh well.
America...or Saudi Arabia. It's great to be in such great company regarding our drinking age. Anything lower than 21 is for communists and infidels, am I right?
Shit, I meant Pakistan.
Yeah, you see kids under 21 *never* get drunk in the US.
Over 40... I could drink legally in the US when I was 18.
Alcohol is bad for your health people
You're one to talk, Dr. House. *shakes bottle of Vicodin*
Under 21, but over 18, and in England so legal...... but I'm up late writing uni essays so I can't drink, except for my trusty mug of tea and a Gu chocolate pud in the oven.
I don't even know what RC stands for though, so I don't know why we're celebrating, but I like Windows 7 and I didn't want to miss out on the party.
@DR House
So is life in general.
From the moment your life begins, you're dying.
IMO, if you're gonna die, does it really matter when?
@MikeWard ... there's a gray area between being alive and dying, which is called suffering through health problems in middle & old age and wishing you'd done less of the more harmful things earlier in your life...
My way around it is just to deny that beer is in any way bad for my health. Bunch of liars.
@GenBanks
I know what you mean, its that time of year again! I'm up scoring the soundtrack for a fellow students game, fun times!
May I recommend Earl Grey (tea)? Great for all nighters!
RC means Release Candidate, to quote Wikipedia;
"The term release candidate (RC) refers to a version with potential to be a final product, ready to release unless fatal bugs emerge. In this stage of product stabilization (read QA cycle), all product features have been designed, coded and tested through one or more Beta cycles with no known showstopper-class bug."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle#Release_candidate
The general consensus for celebration is that Windows 7 is looking to be a very promising OS, many finding that it out performs Vista SP1 while still in Beta and Release Candidate, so hopes (and expectations) for the finished product are high.
In Austria, the legal drinking age is 16.
Which doesn't prevent the 14 year olds from coma-drinking....
1)there is little to no evdence stating that alcohol before 18 is harmful to ur health.
2)Regulating what people do to there own bodies hiding behind religious morality is, ironically, morally imissible
21's the legal drinking age in America? haha in Vanuatu and Australia it's only 18. 21's way too old, I don't really care though coz I never want to drink.
Wow. Talk about getting off topic!
Hahaha, there is no limitation in China, folk nor legislator, they don't think it's bad for children to drink.
I'm bustin out the Monster. I looooove Monster. Not only do I like the buzz, but you can also drink it in class, unlike some beverages.
Awesome. Can't wait to try it out. So far, I love Windows 7.
Yea Windows 7 is looking better and better!
P.S. Did you see the Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0 trailer? AWESOME!!!!!! :D (Yes I'll admit I posted just to say that)
@ 3rdman
Hell yeah! Can't wait for Evangelion 2.0!
will this be released by the same method as last time?
And therefore the same fiasco?
I want it but I don't want to fight for it.
By last time you mean BitTorrent? :p
Its already leaked on most torrent sites. I got the 64 bit version and its running good
'It's running well,' you meant to say. You lack grammatical maturity and skill; are you fifteen years of age by any chance?
@Billy. And your prowess at pointing out non-relevant grammatical errors leads me to believe you are a total douche and have to much time on your hands. And YES I started two my sentences with the word "and". oh noze!
joey: too*
'It's running well,' you meant to say. You lack grammatical maturity and skill; are you fifteen years of age by any chance?"
cock
And to think, not 1 week ago I pirated build 7077....
Hopefully this won't be too different.
If I install this will I receive updates? Will I be able to use this as my permanent OS?
RCs and betas generally dont get updated in the same way as GA (General availability) software does. Though the RC will most probably include Windows/Microsoft Update, chances are it can only be used for updating things like IE, Office, Live etc.
Yes, until it expires in January 2010.
Does the rc expires? and if it does when it expires?
Going by the image in this article.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/24/windows-7-rc-7100-making-its-way-to-oems-a-torrent-tracker-near/
January 2010.
It could equally be March 2010 because the date format isn't listed
True, I forgot the US uses middle endian instead of little endian date formatting.
Seems rather odd and illogical to be honest. I personally prefer the big endian format YYYY:MM:DD.
Can we run an upgrade from the first public beta or does it require a clean install?
Its probably an option, but with betas and RCs its recommended you perform a clean install.
what is the difference with this build? Is there any reason to upgrade if I am not having issues with the 7000 build.
I'm wondering the same thing.....What are the noticeable differences between 7000 and the RC?
There should be lots of compatability and bug fixes. I havent been running 7000 for quite a while, and I have encountered many bugs that have been fixed in future versions. Im typing this from 7077, but I will be on 7100 in a few hours. Just waiting for all the backups to finish.
Yes, there are many changes:
http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/03/13/a-few-more-changes-from-beta-to-rc.aspx
That post also links to a previous post with even more changes. In short, there's a ton of changes/improvements and you'll probably find several things that would make it worth your while to upgrade from beta to RC.
Awesome, thank you both for the info. I'm downloading it now!
i'll wait till the 5th instead of "installing" it today because i got shit to backup
Hows that for all the folks complaining about Engadget hating on Microsoft?
It's not all of Engadget, just a few, ahem, regular bloggers.
what about the number of commenters hating on apple?
Excellent! May 5 is soon enough that I can wait, no torrents for me, I'll just wait a few weeks and grab the official download. Super awesome. :-)
cough*thanks*cough
hmm. now i just have to remember how to slipstream m drivers onto the install disc. havent had to do that since i switched to xp years ago
meh, already running it (x86), it's nice.
Urgent.************************************************
Will I be able to update from the beta to RC? or will i have to reinstall from scratch?
Its probably an option, but with betas and RCs its recommended you perform a clean install.
You can't upgrade build to build officially since they needed to focus on real world testing and normal people won't be upgrading from a pre-release version. There's a workaround to trick it into think its a different build, but you're better off clean-installing anyway.
so any word on when new laptops will be aviable with windows 7 to buy.
Probably sometime after it's released.
October 25th is the release day of windows 7. Go ahead, mark this post down. FNG says it's 10/25/09.
"October 25th is the release day of windows 7"
Don't hold your breath on that one. Of course there is not official release date yet but given Microsoft's recent statement that it will be released during FY2010, I find it hard to believe that it will see a release this calendar year. Either they are hedging their bets (early release looks good but if not then it is on-schedule) or they know that it will be next year otherwise why not say something like "late 2009"? My own company has the same sort of policy - if you hear that something will be released in the coming financial year then that's just code for "next calendar year".
Oh, I'd say it's already available. Just torrent it and download that crack that gets rid of the watermark, the registration, and the meaningless feedback icon. As soon as you feel the slightest hint of remorse, just remember that you paid good money for xp, and waited for years for them to fix even the simplest thing, and the only thing you got was broken wifi and endless security updates that only ensured greater security for them.
So will Windows 7 7100 RC x64bit run/install fine with my ASUS G50VT-A2?? Im curious as for drivers properly working?
Yes, bust out the champagne for another shitty Microsoft OS! I can't wait for the viruses and malware it will be susceptible to. But hey, innovation is always good. At best it will rival Mac OS X 10.4 with some poorly implemented multitouch features thrown in for good measure.
Yea, I just LOOOVE the on screen touch features of OS X. It just adds so much to the OS.....
And I would also love to hear why you think it will, "at best", rival 10.4....do tell
you sound like a mac fanboy ( you set a bad example for us :( I do own a mac computer as well as a windows and linux box and I Have tested windows 7 beta build 7000 and it Really Is Done Right!!! its the true upgrade from windows xp and if you use it you will agree with me :)
*cough*
Yo, who the hell still uses 4:3 displays?
People;
*Still using CRTs (through choice or circumstance)
*With desktop TFTs smaller than 17"
*Working in businesses (many businesses still use 4:3 and 5:4 screens as they erroniously see 16:10/16:9 ARs as being aimed solely at consumer/personal use).
Plus some other reasons that dont immediately come to mind.
Serious question, facetious reply or facetious question, serious reply?
How many RCs does Windows typically go thru before going gold? I understand it depends on how much in the OS has changed and how many showstoppers are found, but... probably just 2-3, yeah?
They've already said they're only doing one public RC. There will probably be some more internal builds, but this will be the only one we get.
The next version of Windows 7 released will be retail. I expect fall or at the latest January 2010.
*sneeze*
Damn you're a sickly lot.
Overated ,u mean to tell me u gonna drop $150 on windows 7 os,if u own a $400 pc.
Please who ya kidding,let's be realistic here. Overhyped like bb pre n android.
when do our betas expire?
Can't remember bu I think the Betas expire in August.
The RC, going by the image in this article.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/24/windows-7-rc-7100-making-its-way-to-oems-a-torrent-tracker-near/
January 2010.
I just blue myself...
douche chill ...
Some of those default backgrounds. I never thought I would see the day that MS would.... Wow.
hate to say it, but this time Engadget is really slow on this piece of news. I knew about this at, least 3 days ago.
HEADLINE: Steve Jobs may or may not have sneezed today. Reports are coming in from all over the blogosphere that Apple CEO and resident deity Steven P. Jobs may have sneezed and even blown his nose. As to weather this was his real nose, an iNose, or an unreleased nose prototype, it is not yet known...
Fast-forward 3 pages...
Oh yeah, and some crap was announced by some company in Redmond today. We'll have more on that in a few months when people have actually worked out the bugs.
LOL.
*vomit*
Sorry, had to be done.
*hides Ipecac bottle*
Who want's chowder?!?!
looks pretty nice
Umm from some of the screen shots I've seen MS still isn't supporting USB...WTF MS? Licensing?
Check that Virt XP isn't supporting USB...that's what I get for posting at 1:30 in the morning. :(
You can install from USB, what exactly are you referring to?
You can install from USB, what exactly are you referring to?
Nevermind. Next time clarify a little. Good to see you figured it out though.
I hate this comment system!