Windows 7 RC 1 now available for public consumption

Looks like Microsoft decided to pull the trigger just a hair early on this one. Windows 7 Release Candidate 1 is now available to the public at large. If you haven't gotten your hands on it, now's your chance to try it out well into 2010. What are you still reading this for? Hit up the read link to download.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

[Jon @ May 4th 2009 11:48PM]

Seems that they fixed the "error."

[TomTom2007 @ May 4th 2009 11:50PM]

Doesn't seem like it, still error present.

[TomTom2007 @ May 5th 2009 12:03AM]

Nevermind, it works now!!

[Jon @ May 5th 2009 12:07AM]

Nice. DLing now.

[P.A.C Man @ May 5th 2009 12:40AM]

I had Windows 7 installed on my Mac, but deleted it yesterday. I only used it to play Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike: Source at 1900 x 1200, but I figured out why I couldn't play at that resolution in Crossover Games for Mac (I needed to adjust a hidden video setting) and as a result, didn't have anymore use for Windows.

The new taskbar is okay, but compared to the dock in OS X, it's really kind of useless. No Expose hot corners functionality, no way to resize the icons to a good size and it pretty much still takes up to four clicks to do anything important in Windows. No thanks.

I like some of the new wallpapers for Windows 7 though. I copied them and put them in my desktop picture folder in OS X. Thanks Microsoft!

[Dan @ May 5th 2009 1:04AM]

tool

[sacapuntas @ May 5th 2009 1:30AM]

for once I have to admit that Paul (that is your name right?) just stated his opinion. He likes somethings in OSX that MS doesn't offer. He said that for him it just made more sense to use OSX. What is the big deal?

[napylopez @ May 5th 2009 1:45AM]

Well, I think the main problem with his arguments is that he's bashing the OS for being itself lol. There's no basis to his criticism that anyone with some remote knowledge of Windows wouldn't have known already :P I mean no expose hot corner functionality? Honestly? Did you just expect MS to implement Expose because you miss it? If you want it so bad you can just install switcher(google it :P). It's much more customizable than Expose, and subsequently much more useful. Granted, on some hardware the animation may not be as smooth, but being able to close programs with a right click is amazing.

I don't see how you can compare the Superbar to the Dock. The dock doesn't really do anything useful except dazzle you with its prettyness. The Windows 7 Taskbar on the the other hand is pretty(not as pretty as the dock, admittedly), and functional. I can't live without aero peek or desktop preview whenever I boot into OSX, Vista, XP, or Ubuntu.

Also, you say it takes 4 clicks to do anything important on Windows, I say the say about macs, lol.

[insky @ May 5th 2009 1:49AM]

You obviously weren't there when he kept complaining about everything in Windows 7, even when he was told repeatedly about how to do certain things. He still kept insisting Windows 7 sucked even when it was pointed out some of the things he was complaining about were easier to do in Windows7 than they were in OS X. He's also getting low ranked because his reply has nothing to do with the first comment other than getting his comment to the top.

Paul we get it, you wouldn't like Windows even if it cured cancer. Also your iMac's resolution is actually 1920 X 1200.

[P.A.C Man @ May 5th 2009 2:23AM]

Thanks, insky, yes it's 1920 x 1200 and if you remember from our discussion, you guys still couldn't help me resize my icons in the taskbar because there is no way to do it.

And for everyone who doesn't know, all this stuff you think is so great about the Windows 7 taskbar, was actually stolen from Expose. Aero peek? We got that already. It's a function called "Show Desktop." Desktop preview? We get previews of every open windows when the "All Windows" function is activated. There is absolutely nothing new about Microsoft's implementation.

The only difference really is that Expose is an option in OS X which you don't have to use if you don't want. You can turn it on and off. That's it. The Windows 7 taskbar also doesn't have Stacks, Spaces, and the choices between List, Grid, or Fan.

Windows 7 is pretty much a bad copy of OS X, but without anything like iLife, Time Machine or QuickLook.

I give Microsoft points for trying though and I really like the wallpaper. You see, I wasn't totally negative about it.

[tails2 @ May 5th 2009 4:30AM]

God it is so slow at downloading. Can't wait to take a look at the improvements compared to the beta I downloaded a few months ago. Hopefully this works out for MS.

[Sk8rman @ May 5th 2009 5:29AM]

@P.A.C. Man

"The Windows 7 taskbar also doesn't have Stacks, Spaces, and the choices between List, Grid, or Fan."

First off, stacks has always been in the taskbar since you can add folders as toolbars to the taskbar, the same functionality as Stacks
And for spaces, any 3 year old can get the software to do that.

[tcc3 @ May 5th 2009 7:08AM]

PAC, let me know when OSX has a taskbar like list of programs for window management. MS has implemented some dock like features, but the primary function of Window management still blows the Dock out of the water.

[Mike @ May 5th 2009 11:06AM]

seriously, why are you guys arguing with some kid who probably has few friends and still plays games like Team fortress and Counter-strike?

btw, the person who said you can't compare the superbar (is that really the name?!) to the mac dock. have to oppose - now that its becoming more and more similar to the dock, you can't deny that whoever responsible for designing it has been inspired by the dock. are you saying the dock is not functional as the new taskbar? how so? aero peek and desktop preview is equivalent of expose's 'all windows' and 'show desktop'

[Laughing Man @ May 5th 2009 2:09PM]

@ Everyone.

For my fellow Linux users and dual booting friends. I will say it for you. All of the graphical pretty Windows and OS X have implemented recently are stolen from what is now know as Compiz Fusion. Which is 5 mores customizable. Compiz then copied features that OS X and Windows came up with and the cycle continues. Linux, Windows, and Mac will always copy each other when something seems like it will make the UI more useful, functional, or just plain pretty.

Lets all be honest, it is all cool and these graphic effects for all OS's are the reason why anything older than XP (modified to hell and back) just looks old as dirt.

[Game_playa @ May 5th 2009 2:55PM]

Paul. A. Chapel Man
'Nuff said

[Omen_20 @ May 5th 2009 3:06PM]

Much agreed. I'm glad Windows 7 is perfecting what Vista did. I never had a problem with Vista like many did but I am a diehard Ubuntu fan. As soon as Lost moves over to Hulu I wont have to boot into Vista at all (abc.com is Windows only).

Compiz gives me multiple desktops and Expo, Window Picker, and Shift Switcher. Plus I like Show Desktop better than the default Ctrl+Alt+D which Ubuntu shares with Windows. So for me:
Window Picker > Aero Peek
Shift Switcher > Alt+Tab
Show Desktop > Ctrl+Alt+D
and then Expo with mutliple desktops is just icing on the cake

So Windows 7's main triumph is lower hardware requirements, but then Ubuntu still only needs a 4th of the HDD space, a fourth of memory, and one third the processing power.. Nice to know if I finally find a MID I like I might be able to have a full version of Windows on it though, if it doesnt take up all the HDD space that is.

[chispito @ May 5th 2009 3:50PM]

Omen

Yeah but ABC's streaming is far superior to Hulu's, in my experience. Even their so called "SD" beats the pants off of Hulu's 480p streams.

[sa56 @ May 5th 2009 4:45PM]

I'm new to mac and parallels and I want to use windows 7 with parallels, can someone help me out? I really wan to try it out it looks amazing

[Jon Doe. @ May 5th 2009 6:36PM]

I was going to say tard, but tool works as well

[Dave Hanley @ May 5th 2009 7:04PM]

"sa56: I'm new to mac and parallels and I want to use windows 7 with parallels, can someone help me out? I really wan to try it out it looks amazing"

It's really easy. Install Parallels. Then download the Windows 7 RC (google it). Then go into Parallels and click File>New Virtual Machine. Then follow the wizard and you're in business quickly.

I'm running XP and Windows 7. Note that you can choose which applications you want to open using XP and which ones you want for windows 7 (e.g. MS Project on XP but Excel on Win7). This way you can click on a project doc and it will launch the right OS and open your file.

[Elisha A. @ May 4th 2009 11:48PM]

yay :)

[Elisha A. @ May 4th 2009 11:50PM]

doesn't work for me either

[Elisha A. @ May 5th 2009 12:05AM]

...now it does

[DirtyVegas @ May 5th 2009 12:58AM]

Riveting play by play.

[Jash Sayani @ May 5th 2009 1:17AM]

I switched to a Mac, but after the release of Win 7 beta, M$ holded me back. Windows 7 is a truly amazing OS with great performance, a ton of features and a beautiful interface.

Downloading RC now... BTW, I have a few questions:
1. How do I upgrade from Beta to RC ?? (Need to find a way)
2. Is this RC, build 7100 ? Or another build ?

Thanks.

[napylopez @ May 5th 2009 1:33AM]

To upgrade from any build except 7077 to the RC, follow the instructions here: http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/6832-windows-7-beta-rc-upgrade-instructions.html

You reallyyy should try to clean install if possible, but if not, follow that. The reason MS implemented that is that upgrading from beta to RC isn't a real world situation. Most consumers will be either doing a clean install or upgrading from vista, so they didnt want peopple testing beta to RC situations. But yea.

[Jagster @ May 5th 2009 1:10PM]

"How do I upgrade from Beta to RC ?? (Need to find a way)"

The best way is to do a clean install since the upgrade method will not remove all the legacy beta files and registry entries. You can use the "Windows Easy Transfer" utility to back up all your files, settings, printers, user accounts, etc. into one huge file that can be put on and external drive or network share. Then after the clean install run the utility again and it will restore everything, even your desktop wallpaper and icon placement. Then you just have to re-install your apps. After the apps are installed most of them will read the settings you had previously, but I have found one app so far that does not appear to use the old settings (Miro). I have used this method on 2 pc's so far, one going from Win7 Beta and another going from Vista, and both have worked great using this method.

[brotato @ May 4th 2009 11:48PM]

Link doesn't work

[brotato @ May 5th 2009 12:09AM]

nvm

[Will @ May 5th 2009 4:45AM]

Just torrent it.

[a ham sandwich @ May 4th 2009 11:49PM]

w00t. downloading as we speak. yay for awesomeness!

as an aside, the spell checker has a problem with "yay" but not "awesomeness". weird. :P

[a ham sandwich @ May 4th 2009 11:49PM]

or not. link seems to be down. :(

[Keith Myers @ May 4th 2009 11:50PM]

Windows 7 Beta Customer Preview Program
Sorry, Windows 7 Beta downloads are no longer available. You can still register for a product key or look up the key you've already gotten.

Ohh Well, I guess I will just have to stick with Linux... Poor me (JK)

K-Disk

[Icello @ May 5th 2009 12:51AM]

Hey, it's not the beta you want, it's the RC!
I couldn't download th beta from the MS website before so I searched for it and found it somewhere else, only problem is I never got a product key... What I meant to say was if the MS site doesn't work for you google it.

[Jagster @ May 5th 2009 1:24PM]

You can use the beta key you get from that site and use it with the RC download.

[Ahmed @ May 4th 2009 11:50PM]

i will stuck with XP no Money for Upgrade

[Drvec @ May 5th 2009 12:10AM]

Dude, it's free.

[Ahmed @ May 5th 2009 12:22AM]

I mean No Money to Upgrade my Hardware to Run this ,My Cpu is P4 2.0 Ghz ,768 Ram so ,i think XP will Run Faster

[mackid105 @ May 5th 2009 12:43AM]

i ran the beta on a celeron D 3.06 GHz and 512 MB of RAM and it was better than XP. i would consider it if i were you

[Microdot @ May 5th 2009 12:47AM]

dont listen to the rest of these yahoos.... stick with xp. windows 7 is nice and all, but its still a beta. rc... but still beta.

[ZaxCG2 @ May 5th 2009 1:24AM]

I'm going to go on a limb here and say... WHY NOT?
I have XP too, and it's pretty much perfection for me. Gets everything done that I need to- plays games, browses web, runs Photoshop... but WHY NOT try out this thing if you have the resources?

I'm just itching to try it out, and honestly I think the look is a lot more attractive. I won't use it all the time, but it'll be something cool to play around in and show friends.

[CJ @ May 5th 2009 2:18AM]

actually, with those specs, you should be able to run home basic pretty comfortably. a RAM upgrad and you're cruisn' with Ultimate.

I mean, what you've got is esentially equivelent to a Netbook.

I'm running the 32bit version on a P4 2.6gHz, 2gig ram, and it's running beautifully. As well as or better than XP.

[Jagster @ May 5th 2009 1:16PM]

I'm running on a 7 year old Poweredge 400SC (2.8GHx P4) and it runs like a dream. I'm also using it on a pretty old laptop, a Latitude D510 (1.86GHz Pentium M) and it runs really good with the exception of it not supporting Aero due to it's weak integrated graphics chip, the Intel 915GM.

[Jagster @ May 5th 2009 1:22PM]

Microdot, you're an idiot. How can you say this is a Beta, then say it's a RC, then say it's a Beta again? Bone head.

Beta is BETA!! RC is a Release Candidate, meaning that Microsoft thinks this could be the final shipping version if no major bugs are found. A Beta would never be considered to be a possible gold release and often times has many, many, debugging and diagnostics code running in the background.

[Ross Miller @ May 5th 2009 12:01AM]

Looks like they pulled it for only about 10 minutes. It's back up now.

[OneLove @ May 5th 2009 3:58PM]

...that's what she said!

[anthony909 @ May 5th 2009 12:13AM]

Can this run under bootcamp????

[j rock @ May 5th 2009 12:15AM]

yes

[brotato @ May 5th 2009 12:37AM]

I have installed 64bit RC under boot camp on my macbook and cannot get the boot camp software to run or get the trackpad drivers to work. Might wanna wait for official support before running under boot camp.