Windows 7 release to manufacturing reportedly on track for July 13th
By Donald Melanson 
posted July 3rd 2009 4:04PM
posted July 3rd 2009 4:04PM
Get out your Bill Gates commemorative calendars folks, 'cause it looks like we now have a few more dates to mark off on the road to Windows 7 availability. While Microsoft still isn't saying anything official itself just yet, a number of different sources are reporting that the company has set July 10th as the date for the final gold build of Windows 7, while the big release to manufacturing date is apparently on track for July 13th. Of course, things could still change if there's a major bug or other problem encountered, but barring any disasters, that'll likely be the same build that finds its way onto your PC this fall.
MSDN yes, MSDNAA no. MSDNAA is October 22.
MSDN, yes (Pro/Premium FTW!). TechNet Plus, yes.
MSDNAA, well... I've heard conflicting reports, mostly that they won't have it until GA date of Oct 22...
And on July 13th, I'll be saying : "Thanks MSDNAA!"
Steve Balmer = NERD
steve ballmer = rich
steve ballmer = doesn't care about engadget posts about steve ballmer
With that said, I have to add:
"DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS!!!"
Most engadget readers = nerds
My first thought after seeing this image:
Man. Steve Balmer in a sweater. That will be one sweaty mess.
@Mam00th
meanwhile i'll be saying "Thanks Demonoid"
13th + windows = match made in hell ?
Match made in Fort Knox more like.
Oh and if you don't want W7 no-one's making you buy it, chief.
Not buying 7 soon... Vista is working just fine and also dual-booted 7RC is working just fine. Why would I need to buy 7 anyways in the near future? Will wait until it's time to buy a new laptop.
HA! Too bad it took Vista until right about when 7 is about to come out to get the "Why Upgrade" status. Remember this? It was only a couple weeks ago (and still a little) where you would hear "XP is good enough, why waste money to upgrade to Vista?" or what about "XP is too bloated and expensive, why should I upgrade from 98SE?"
MSDNAA doesn't get it until October 22. MSDN/Technet, though, get it July 13.
Think the RTM is upgradeable to final (pending if there are changes between RTM and final)?
I know RTM is "release-to-manufacturing" so that is definitely final, but will there be major differences between that and the one we can buy on store shelves?
If it gets released on TechNet, I might get the RTM then upgrade to the store-bought one, hopefully the upgrade between the two is possible.
RTM IS final, there is no "upgrading" to be done.
"I know RTM is "release-to-manufacturing" so that is definitely final, but will there be major differences between that and the one we can buy on store shelves?"
Why would there be major differences between the "definitely final" release and the "store shelf" release? ;)
heck yes... i just hope ALPS comes up with a 64 bit touchpad driver b/c thats the only thing that is keeping me from ordering the 64 bit instead of 32 bit version...
Am i the only one not loving 7 yet?
For god sakes, YES!!!! Now stop posting and go clean your room!
Yes.
Win 7 = best OS out there.
I have asked this before but let me try again.. What will be the reasons for upgrading to Vista Pro aka Windows 7?
UGH, the only reason why you haven't gotten an answer, because people are tired of you and your stupid ass snarky attitude by saying "Vista Pro" this, "Vista Pro" that!
How about change the way you toot your horn mister, then you'll get some quality answers.
Wow, I just read your posting history, and I can tell you're a troll and nobody likes you. Nothing but negativity in your writings and obviously heavily biased towards Apple. Why buy Leopard SP2 when most of it's "new features & improvements" were available (for free) since Windows 98 and Linix?
Upgrade and find out for yourself, rather that wasting time trolling here disingenuously.
Ok so its July 13th for MSDN...not MSDNAA(which i never heard of lol)....but what about Tech Net?? AFAIK Tech Net is usually the same as MSDN, so is it the 13th as well?
I'm not running Mac OS unfortunately. Once again, no answer for my question. No Vista Pro for me until I get sensible answer. :)
If you have to come to Engadget and ask people to give you reasons and not do the actual research for your own needs, then I don't know what to say for you. I'm sure others can come up with reasons why you're not doing research, and I can think of a few too. I don't know who you are and what you need; therefore if I was to give you the nice features that 7 has to offer, you will most likely turn it down and say it's not needed.
So all in all, you're not really hurting anybody with your decision. Keep whatever you have while we actually use 7 because we've done the leg work and found out what it can do to meet our needs efficiently. Geeze, you can even download the RC for FREE and see what it does for you.
Why should I upgrade to Leopard Pro? Until you can provide me with a long list explaining to me why this isn't just a service pack it is just a service pack. Until you can explain to me why I should try out these new features when they've been available to Windows users for YEARS Snow Leopard is a failed product. PROVE ME WRONG.
The question is so simple and yet only lame answers? This is not about Leopard Pro. This is about Vista Pro! Leopard Pro
costs only $29 whereas Vista Pro costs at least 3X more. Hence, need justification in this economy. Once again, why Vista Pro?
@Bluberry
What do you have running now? What are you used to? If you want answers, you have to provide more..
If you like Vista, then keep it :)
for the rest of us who have been using Windows 7 (all the time in my case) and like it, we'll upgrade. How's that sound?
The question I asked you was very simple, yet you refused to answer. That means that Snow Leopard is nothing but a service pack. It's a complete and utter failure. Vista Service Pack 2 has more upgrades in it than Snow Leopard.
Snow Leopard upgrade costs $29. Windows 7 Upgrade costs $49. That's 1.68 times more, not 3XXX. I paid $300 for my netbook and $450 for my desktop using higher quality parts than any iMac...Now tell me how I'm able to buy a laptop and desktop from Apple for $750. Don't give me the excuse that they will break down in a month. I've had the desktop for 6 years and all I've done is install a new motherboard/cpu combo and more RAM (yes that $450 figure is including all the upgrades). So how is paying $98 ($49+$49) + $750 for a desktop and netbook that have lasted me 7 years a worse economic decision than If I had payed $3000+ for a desktop Mac 7 years ago + $2500 for a small "light" laptop + $29? We add that up and it's $848 for the PC, and $5,529 for the Mac..but now you have to buy another desktop Mac because you can't upgrade to Snow Leopard so that's another $3,300. In reality we get $848 dollars for two PC's and $8,829 for the Mac...in case you didn't do the math, that's over 10X more than the PC. So which one needs justification in this economy again?
Hurray you have to pay $30 for OpenCL a free and open source framework. You finally get an almost 64bit version OS...You should have had that years ago. Oh but at least you get a new version of Quicktime. Everything that you had to pay for in Snow Leopard, Vista Users got for free in Service Pack 2. DirectX 11 was made free to Vista in October. GPU processing was unveiled in Vista, which was later ported to XP with Service Pack 3. Windows XP and Vista users can both download WMP 11. Well, Microsoft has always had exchange support. Face it...Snow leopard is just Apple playing catch-up and you shouldn't have had to pay for it. It's funny isn't it, that people say Microsoft is copying Apple when they add complely new features, but Apple is revolutionizing the OS world by copying features from Windows.
And to all the people who haven't realized it by now yes I'm trolling. I'm doing it because it makes people like Blueberry sputter with rage because he's gotten upset by someone using the exact same tactics he's using. Of course I'm not serious here.
I literally had the RC install cd booting in my main machine when I read this article. I have technet so I guess I'll wait a week and just install RTM. Awesome.
Now all I need are Windows 7 HP drivers for my all in one devices....
My HP C4200 has worked from day one with Windows 7. Which all in one do you have?
try installing in windows vista compatibility mode. my dell printer driver said "this os is not supported" as well, installing in win vista mode fixed that. Just right click and select "vista" on the compatibility tab, or let the wizard do it for you after a failed installation attempt.
Everyone knows Windows 2000 and Windows XP cannot be killed.
No matter how hard you try to convince the masses, and no matter how much weight and cushy deals you have with hardware manufacturers, and no matter how much you speak about DirectX, Internet Explorer, collaboration, 3D shenanigans, translucent windows, time-savings and productivity of the 'knowledge worker'.
See you in 2012 with Windows XP and Windows 2000. Har.
Regards,
Seen-It-All-Before
I wonder what "Bill & Co." will do if this OS turns out to be no better than "Vista", release another OS again after just 2 service packs, like they did with Vista, & make all you fanboys pay again. How quickly people forget how MS released 4 service packs for Windows 2000 in order to get that release right, but needing cash I guess they ruled that out when Vista issues started arising by the the handfuls.
whuh? By the time 7 is released to the public, it will have been almost 3 years since Vista's release. Since when do people complain about a company releasing an OS with many improvements in a timely fashion? When I was using ubuntu, I updated the OS every 6 months. Apple releases new versions of OSX at least as often as MS, am I right?
On another note, why am I replying to a person who puts Vista in quotation marks?
about time!! windows 7 FTEW!!!! it'll reign as the true king of OSes!!!
i think it runs better than xp on my old optiplex gx260. definitely a little faster, even for 7100. official copy shall smite all weaker offerings...
two 7 home premium 32-bits, please.
Yes, a week till the MS servers are raped once again with traffic trying to download Windows 7. Beta and RC both did a number of their download servers, hope they finally get some extra capacity for the 13th if 7 actually comith on MSDN and Technet. When the Beta hit, I couldn't even log into the Vol License servers because the traffic was so heavy.