Microsoft to pull Windows 7 Release Candidate in August

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 24 Jun 2009 at 07:46

Microsoft has announced that the Release Candidate program for Windows 7 will cease in mid-August.

The company has made the Windows 7 RC freely available from its website since the beginning of May.

That free run will come to a close on 15 August, after which point you won't be able to download the software, although it will still be possible to get an activation key for the operating system.

Once installed on a PC, the Release Candidate won't expire until 1 June 2010, although users will be hit with annoying bi-hourly restarts from 1 March in a none-too-subtle attempt to persuade people to pay for the full version, which will be released on 22 October this year.

Stragglers who are still running the Windows 7 beta software are being urged to decamp to the Release Candidate as soon as possible, as they will start being hit with the bi-hourly restarts on 1 July. The beta software will eventually stop working on 1 August.

Microsoft is due to confirm the UK pricing of Windows 7 later this week, as well as details of free upgrades for people who buy a Vista machine in the run up to the launch.

Leading PC manufacturers are beginning to share with PC Pro details of new product launches to coincide with the launch of Windows 7, with some taking full advantage of the operating system's new touchscreen support.

To find out why Windows 7 is the best operating system Microsoft's ever released, and which version is right for you, read our 14-page guide in this month's PC Pro, on sale now.