Windows 7 has reached RC status.

For those of you out there whove been diligently testing the Windows 7 Beta build or have been waiting for the RC release you can wait no longer. Microsoft has opened downloads to the public for the Release Candidate Build 7100. As long as you have a Live or Hotmail account you should be able to download. I would advise trying to download via firefox, but if you cannot, then IE is your only hope.

Head on over to Microsoft to get your download link and Key for free.
(please be aware that the servers will be swamped for the first few days after this announcement, so if you're not getting a great download speed, then it's not yours or your ISP's fault.)

Currently downloading, plan to deploy it on a laptop, an older PC, and my current laptop (VirtualBox).

The FF recommendation isn't just a preference thing; the IE download uses the highly annoying and pointless ActiveX, whereas the other browsers use standard Java to obtain download (though I don't get why they go through the trouble of making a downloader, or why they don't use BitTorrent to take load off their servers).

I downloaded it like 1 hour after it was released. o3o

Nothing too new, except that the wallpapers are gorgeous and few new things have been add/altered. Also I can't believe I'm going to say this but Internet Explorer 8 is fast. lol

Well this seems interesting. Only one downside...
http://gizmodo.com/5240677/damn-it-...o-shut-down-every-two-hours-before-expiration
BY march 2010 if you haven't stopped using it it will shut down every 2 hours. YAY!

Todoroki Is said:

Well this seems interesting. Only one downside...
http://gizmodo.com/5240677/damn-it-...o-shut-down-every-two-hours-before-expiration
BY march 2010 if you haven't stopped using it it will shut down every 2 hours. YAY!

Click to expand...

Since the RTM will be out by then, that's the point? o_O;

lrn2buy your software.

Captain Planet said:

Since the RTM will be out by then, that's the point? o_O;

lrn2buy your software.

Click to expand...

Seconded. There's no reason for people to make a big deal out of this. They gave us a free public beta and extended its duration far longer than they needed to and people still manage to complain that Microsoft doesn't want you to keep using your FREE beta indefinitely? Come on people...

P.S. This response was mainly generated from the linked article, not from replies to this thread.

I can't wait for Window 7 there is lots of good stuff in there.

Downloaded the RC tonight, backed up my files from the old Beta and upgraded to the RC. Just backed all my files back onto the W7 partition and reinstalled my programs. I'll have a play around with this new version after college tomorrow.

Todoroki Is said:

Well this seems interesting. Only one downside...
http://gizmodo.com/5240677/damn-it-...o-shut-down-every-two-hours-before-expiration
BY march 2010 if you haven't stopped using it it will shut down every 2 hours. YAY!

Click to expand...

The article just seems like they want an excuse to badmouth Microsoft.

Anyway, haven't had the chance to download this yet, but I will do so very soon :)

Alright! Time to update from Build 7000!

All the fixes and whatnot pretty much fix whatever small issues I had, they're well on the right track now!

My friend downloaded it yesterday while we were at school and sent me it. :3 Gonna get it reinstalled this weekend probably unless I get time during the rest of the week. Its one step closer~ <3 Can't wait for RTM. My Vista is definitely getting upgraded when that time comes.

I already had Windows 7 running on VirtualBox emulator, I saw the new user interface.

I'm torrenting it right now. When I tried to download it, the MSDN and TechNet servers were still down.

Anyway, I hope they ironed out most of the bugs. There is one annoying bug that happeds to me randomly. The screen becomes scrambled, then the computer restarts. It doesn't really occur often, but it usually happens when I am doing something productive.

@SpaceMan: Windows 7 is not just a new interface. It's a complete kernel overhaul. The new build could be more efficient than the old one.

I'm trying it out right now. This is like the best operating system of the decade.

In the Beta, there were glitches on some windows being opened and now I am glad they were fixed. :D I love this OS

Now to wait for the public release so I can finally play CoD XD

Amachi said:

The article just seems like they want an excuse to badmouth Microsoft.

Click to expand...

Having read through it, I agree. We're getting nearly a year to use an almost complete OS, one of the best OS's to be released, and people still complain. D:

Anyway, using the RC now, haven't had much chance to fully explore it due to college work, but it somehow feels smoother than the Beta did.

It's all right. The RC improves a lot of things that were wrong with the beta, but I still prefer XP. There's no compelling reason why I'd migrate from XP to 7 at this point; in fact, 7 takes up more system resources than XP, and as I am a gamer and require as many free resources as possible, I'll probably stick with XP.