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Windows 7 Availability
·
4/30 -
RC Availability to managed Beta programs including MSDN and
TechNet subscribers, Connect Beta testers, and TAP customers
·
5/5 – Availability through the Customer
Preview Program. Anyone can download the RC build through this program.
·
TBD – RTM availability has not been set
yet. See timing guidance below.
As with the Beta, customers
will be able to download Windows 7 RC online from Windows.com, TechNet and MSDN.
There will be no limits on the number of keys provided or the number of
Windows 7 downloads supported. RC downloads will be available at least
through June 2009.
Windows 7 Release Timeline, including RTM
guidance?
In talking about the delivery of
Windows 7 and when we expect to achieve the next milestones in the product
release, it’s important to talk about the key milestones, and the goals and
principles that we plan to achieve at each stage; then you as the partner can be
the judge as to whether we achieved the goal of each milestone, the quality of
the product, and when you believe we will release the product.
-
PDC
(Professional Developers Conference). The first major milestone was the release at
PDC of the Milestone 3 (M3) build of Windows 7. The goal at this point was
to provide a product that was platform complete and reliable to release to
the developer (ISV) and IHV ecosystem and enable them to start preparing
their applications and hardware for Windows 7. The feedback was very
positive.
-
Beta.
In the
January timeframe, the goal was to provide a product that performed well,
was reliable and was feature complete, so that we could share it with a
broad set of end users and IT professionals, providing them with a first
look at the upcoming OS and allowing them to factor Windows 7 into
their deployment and migration planning. It is estimated that
2.8M customers installed and used Windows 7 Beta. The customer reception has
been very positive. Customer feedback and beta testing results are the
key factor in defining the timing of the next milestone.
-
RC
(Release Candidate).
Our next
release, Windows 7 RC, will be available beginning April 30th. The goal for
the RC is to deliver a very high quality product that demonstrates our
aspiration on the quality of the final RTM version. With RC our goal is to
get broad evaluation from IT Professionals and businesses testing it in
their environments.
-
RTM.
The final
engineering milestone is the release to manufacturing (RTM). This release
is typically 3-5 months after the RC. We believe the product is very high
quality and to date have received very positive feedback. This might result
in RTM delivery before the 3-5 months timeframe. But ultimately you'll
decide the quality and assess the delivery once you download and use the
RC. Customer and partner feedback will determine how quickly we release
after RC. The released version of Windows 7 will typically be made available
to our Windows Volume Licensing customers 2-3 weeks after RTM.
Why should partners and customers
upgrade to Windows 7 RC?
·
First, to experience the latest that Windows 7
has to offer. Several new features, including XP VPC, are available in the
RC build of Windows 7. Also, users will experience continued improvements
in overall system performance and polish.
·
Second, for those using a Beta version of Windows
7, it is important to migrate to Windows 7 RC to avoid the timebomb that is
build into Windows 7 Beta. That timebomb will activate on 7/1/2009.
Two weeks before the timebomb activates (on 6/17), users will begin receiving
frequent notifications about the timebomb. When the timebomb activates,
users will experience frequent notifications and forced reboots.
Please advise your customers who are using the Windows 7 Beta to migrate to
Windows 7 RC to avoid the timebomb. It is imperative that everyone
running Windows 7 Beta move to RC, when available. Note that all Beta
customers who registered for a key will receive several e-mails notifying them
of the timebomb and encouraging them to move to Windows 7 RC. (Windows 7
RC also has a built-in timebomb, but this will not activate until 3/1/2010.)
What is the recommended path to
migrate to Windows 7 RC?
The recommended path to migrate
to Windows 7 RC depends on what operating system you are currently running:
|
Current OS
|
Recommended Path to RC
|
|
Windows XP
|
If your hardware meets the
minimum recommendations for Windows 7, we recommend you do a clean
install of Windows 7 RC when available. The recommended
minimum hardware for the Beta can be found at
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/beta-faq.aspx.
(Hardware recommendations will be roughly the same for RC.)
|
|
Windows Vista
|
We recommend you
upgrade to Windows 7 RC when available
|
|
Windows 7 Beta
|
We strongly recommend you
do a clean install of Windows 7 RC when available. You do not
need to first reinstall Windows Vista and then upgrade to Windows 7
RC.
The reason we recommend a
clean install is that some features do not work when upgrading from
Windows 7 Beta to Windows 7 RC. Rather than spend resources to
enable the upgrade from Beta to RC scenario – which is not a normal
customer scenario once the product is released – the engineering team
focused on improving the overall quality of Windows 7. This will
allow us to more quickly release the final version of Windows 7 to
customers.
|
In all of these scenarios, the
Windows Easy Transfer tool can be used make it easier to restore files
and settings after a clean install.
How
will Microsoft collect and use feedback from Windows 7 RC?
The “Send Feedback” feature isn’t
in Windows 7 RC, because we’re at a later stage of the software development
process. With this release, we’re focused on verifying that all the changes and
fixes we made based on the Beta tests and feedback are working correctly. We do
that by gathering the automatically generated information (called telemetry)
that your PC sends us when you use Windows 7 RC. Telemetry provides
information about when your computer hangs, crashes or has performance issues,
and it lets us know what applications or devices you were using when you
experienced problems. It is important that we get this data from thousands
of different hardware configurations in order to complete Windows 7. This will
help us confirm that the fixes we included based on Beta feedback work on a wide
range of hardware, and identify any new problems.
Where can I get Windows 7 materials?
-
Windows 7 MSPP Site
-
Windows 7 Customer Site
-
Windows 7 Shop