Windows 7 Release Candidate is Now Available for Free Download

eobox91103

Microsoft has made the Windows 7 Release Candidate available for FREE download and FREE USE FOR 13 MONTHS!
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The Windows 7 RC will run normally with your product key until 1 March 2010. Then, between 1 March 2010 and 1 June 2010, it will limit you to sessions of no more than two hours at a time. Effective 1 June 2010, your Windows 7 RC installation will shut down and refuse to operate until you pay Microsoft a ransom (still no word on what Windwos 7 is going to cost).

....

Note that this is "free" for one year, but then you must pay Microsoft some undetermined (and probably large) amount of money to continue using the operating system. (Or, if you remember in time, you could re-install your previous operating system.)

This doesn't quite count as "free" in my book. I'll stick with what I have.

PS: It's like the joke that ends: "First prize is a new Microsoft product. Second prize is two of them."

raphjd

As I said in my previous thread about W7, it's a whole lot better than Vista. M$ should be forced to give Vista users a free upgrade to W7.

The only thing worse in the RC version {7100} over the previous beta version {7057} I was using, is that I can't seem to keep the refresh rate at 75 hertz. It keeps switching back to 60 hertz. I'm not sure if this is due to the Nvidia beta driver for my graphics card {supplied through W7's update} or something to do with W7 itself.

EDIT: corrected typo for clarity

Halfang

my suggestion is to install the official nvidia drivers, rather than using the default.

trentreviso

@eobox91103:

Note that this is "free" for one year, but then you must pay Microsoft some undetermined (and probably large) amount of money to continue using the operating system. (Or, if you remember in time, you could re-install your previous operating system.)

This doesn't quite count as "free" in my book. I'll stick with what I have.

I had assumed that Microsoft's marketing plan was to give away use of the Win 7 Release Candidate for a year to get you "addicted" to it. Presumably, users might be more willing to cough up the cost of a Windows license if it saved them the hassle of backing up a year's worth of accumulated data and re-installing the OS and all apps. That doesn't seem to be Microsoft's strategy, however.

Microsoft will NOT allow the Win 7 RC to be upgraded to the final release when it becomes available. You must purchase a fresh copy of Windows 7 final and do a "clean" installation, over-writing your RC installation. So, you're going to have to back up everything and re-install some OS regardless.

Weirdly, however, Microsoft WILL provide an upgrade path for Vista users to "upgrade" to the Windows 7 RC. But that means that your Vista/Win7RC installation will start limiting you to no more than two-hour sessions effective 1 March 2010, and will stop functioning entirely on 1 June 2010. At that point, you'll be forced to do a clean install of something. You could fork over the cash for a copy of Win 7 final and install that. Or, you could dust off your old copy of Vista and re-install that. The latter would still force you to back up everything and re-install Vista and all your data and programs. Also, Windows Genuine Advantage will presumably demand that you phone Microsoft to get their permission to re-install your old Vista license.

Had you not "upgraded" Vista at all, you would have had a much easier time of it.

That's kind of a mess.

trentreviso

@raphjd:

As I said in my previous thread about W7, it's a whole lot better than Vista. M$ should be forced to give Vista users a free upgrade to W7.

The only thing worse in the RC version {7100} over the previous beta version {7057} I was using, is that I can't seem to keep the refresh rate at 75 hertz. It keeps switching back to 60 hertz. I'm not sure if this is due to the Nvidia beta driver for my graphics card {supplied through W7's update} or something to do with W7 itself.

I said above, "As always with Windows, it really shines with automatic installation of software and drivers." I think I may have to eat those worlds.

I've had a few hardware problems with the Win 7 RC. I still haven't been able to get sound, and just yesterday I discovered that Win 7 had failed to recognize a usb hub card plugged into the pci bus. That card powers the ports on the front of my computer, so I can't use flash drives or other usb peripherals unless I plug them into one of two ports on the back of the PC. Win 7 didn't recognize my TV tuner card, either. And it won't work with my bluetooth dongle.

I think they need to do a little work with the hardware drivers, before they release this thing.

Halfang

Two things:

1: microsoft released the rc's and betas for previous windows, so nothing new in there.
2: it's still a beta. it might be release candidate, but it's still a beta.

trentreviso

@Halfang:

**Two things:

1: microsoft released the rc's and betas for previous windows, so nothing new in there.
2: it's still a beta. it might be release candidate, but it's still a beta.**

I appreciate that.

But the reason for the alphas and betas was precisely to fix stuff like this. And this isn't a "normal" release candidate. Windows 7 is just a tweaking of the Vista codebase - not a truly new version of Windows. So, they've had all of the alphas and betas of Vista, plus the three-year run of Vista, plus all of the alphas and betas of Windows 7 to get this right. What's more, other OSs (including the beta releases of those OSs) have had no trouble whatsoever with this hardwre.

I'm beginning to think they've got big problems at Microsoft.

As Ars Technica says:

To regain its strength, Microsoft has to do two things. First, it cannot let Windows 7 ship without the spit and polish that Windows Vista didn't get. When time hasn't been spent on refining the experience, the rough edges come to annoy customers. Everything put in the OS needs to be ready for prime time, or be left out. That's not a timing issue, but a philosophical one. Related to this, Microsoft must therefore not bite off more than it can chew.

hxxp://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2008/01/windows-7-in-2009-be-careful-what-you-wish-for.ars

Halfang

Well, I believe that a company has the right to do what they want.

Windows XP wasn't new either, since it used (heavily) code from NT.

To be honest, my timeline with windows has been 3.11, 95, 98, 2000 (for a brief period, before going back to 98), xp, vista (on a new laptop, only for the time it took me to download windows xp), and now the beta for w7.

And I think that w7 is the best thing that has happened (in windows) since xp. And that's about 7-8 years?

I have used mac os x, and linux (ubuntu, badger something? about 3 years ago). And I still prefer windows over those ones.

And about the price, well, if it exists, it's pirated. If it hasn't been pirated, it's on its way.

And yes, I agree with ArsTechnica that vista was a HUGE mistake and a SHIT operating system. But it had good ideas. And it had terrible implementation (UAC I'm looking at you).

At least, what I've seen so far about w7 has improved those flaws, and added improvements.

trentreviso

@Halfang:

I have used mac os x, and linux (ubuntu, badger something? about 3 years ago). And I still prefer windows over those ones.

I think Breezy Badger may have been back before I was born!

Halfang

@trentreviso:

@Halfang:

I have used mac os x, and linux (ubuntu, badger something? about 3 years ago). And I still prefer windows over those ones.

I think Breezy Badger may have been back before I was born!

that one flaming hell, 5.10, released 2005-10-13

I FEEL OLD NOW THANK YOU