News Try out Windows 7 free for a year

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/bits/2009/05/01/windows-7-release-candidate-1-released/1

The first release candidate of Windows 7 will be released to the public on 5 May, and won't expire until 1 June 2010.

 

No Kidding ?! WOW, Thanks Joe for this information

 

Windows 7 is brilliant, I'm using it on my work PC and laptop but I haven't got round to putting it on my home gaming rig so I'm not sure of the gaming performance. Really makes XP seem like a dinosaur in terms of its appearance and ease of usability. Knowing the RC is going to work until 1st June 2010 is a welcome bonus!

 

Thanks to tpb, have had RC1 for several days. With this news, I will now install it on all the laptops and desktops owned by my family! Finally purge XP from the ranks. Might as well go for 64 bit, right?

 

im on MS technet and its not available for download or get a key either

 

I am the only one who thinks that a clean install of Vista, with UAC and indexing turned off, is really not that bad, and that Windows 7 is not that big an improvement over the above?

 

May the 5th is the original launch day when the online download system will probably give users valid keys...

Probably!

 

Excellent news, time to upgrade all the house PC's at last.

 

Keys for Windows 7 should still be available.

Go to: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/beta-download.aspx
Select x32 or x64 and your language, then sign in with your Windows Live ID. it should then present you with a valid key.

The Windows 7 ISO downloads are not directly available from MS anymore, although they can be easily and reliably sourced from other sites.

 

there beta keys not release candidate keys, not sure if they will work.

since beta expires in aug i thought that it will need different keys

 

I agree. Ever since vista came out It was clear that most of the people bashing it were just following the crowd. Vista is re released with a few tweaks (and named windows 7) and for some reason the crowd has done a U-turn and everyone loves it! It just makes me chuckle really.

 

I remember when XP was launched, many people disliked it, saying that it required too much ram. If you ask me, the main reason W7 is more popular than Vista, is that hardware has had two years to catch up.

 

Well... and another 6 GB to download.

 

Im helping a friend build his first PC, he doesn't want to spend over £100 for Vista so this will be perfect

 

Vista takes some advanced knowledge to get working right, since only less than 1% of PC users have this knowledge Vista got a bad rap.
Should an Os ship and work without tweaking, yes. Is Vista a 6 headed dragon bent on lawful evil domination of the world, No.

Thanks for keeping it real Turbo.

Yours in Lawful Good Plasma,
Star*Dagger

 

I'm running Windows 7 RC1 right now, definitely an improvement over the beta, let alone vista!

 

yeah turbo it's posts like trips that make me XD.. they did the mohave experiment and pretty much found people are sheep.. apple sheep! (not pointing this at you trip- just alot of people who've never seen vista have the same reaction )

so far gui improvements with open apps.. they are improving performance with the way it handles memory with open apps too.. I'll switch my main rig next year with the retail release, use this install on new rigs

this is a good step for microsoft, gives them a chance to fix the ui for the facebook crowd and turn off some features in vista that aren't notebook friendly

they just need to get away from the word vista..

 

The question now, is when you maximize a widow, does the boarders turn opaque, like in Vista? Or does it stay transparent and and continues to detract you for no reason.

Also, they still have a lot of stuff to fix:
http://www.windows7taskforce.com/sort/popular/t/all

 

When the retail version comes, will we be able to upgrade RC1 or will we have to start again?

I'm definitely putting this on my laptop tbh, it needs a new install, what a perfect time to try it!

 

You CAN technically upgrade, but that would be like upgrading Vista to Vista... or Win7 to Win7.
What you risk is that bugs from the RC to the retail. And also, consider that probably it is something that is not tested by Microsoft, as it's kinda useless to spend money on something that will occur only once and for very few users. Time and resources could be spend in fixing bugs and improvement.