Windows 7 RC

Waiting while the download completes, I started thinking about the largesse of Microsoft.  This is a very long span of time to test the operating system, and that is very nice,

you’ll need it to get the RC

After looking at the site, however, I do wonder why no effort was made to give full disclosure.

Some may say that I am ungrateful, and should simply be quiet, but when announcing the use time of the Release candidate, instead of stating that it works until June 2010, why not be completely truthful, and state that the RC starts acting up after March 1.

Watch the calendar. The RC will expire on June 1, 2010. Starting on March 1, 2010, your PC will begin shutting down every two hours. Windows will notify you two weeks before the bi-hourly shutdowns start. To avoid interruption, you’ll need to install a non-expired version of Windows before March 1, 2010.

It’s free, it will be useful to evaluate. No complaints there. But again, why not be completely truthful about the time frame of use?

from Betanews (beginning late last night)

The first release candidate of Windows 7 has been posted for download, and will remain available until the end of July. Windows 7 RC is a free download as part of the Customer Preview Program, and will expire on June 1, 2010 (at which time you should be running the final release).

Microsoft suggests a system with a 1GHz processor or faster DirectX 9-enabled graphics processor with WDDM 1.0+, 1 GB RAM and 16GB of storage for a 32-bit installation, or 2 GB RAM and 20GB of storage for 64-bit. Both the 32- and 64-bit versions are available in English, German, Japanese, French, and Spanish.

Microsoft warns in the release notes that computers running Release Candidate 1 and up will not be able to communicate with “pre-RC computers” remotely, because the default HTTP/HTTPS ports for WinRM and PowerShell have been changed.

The Betanews site has download links, but they don’t do you much good if you are thinking you can directly download – Microsoft wants you to sign in with your Windows Live ID, and give some information.

Once that is done you get a page giving you a serial number, and a download link. If you use Opera, as I do, you’ll be sitting for awhile, as it does not like that, so beforehand, use Internet Exploder, instead, and your download will start immediately.

More later. Download is a bit over 3 GB, and is progressing at about 1/3 of my  available speed (280 kB/s of approx 900 kB/s), so the system in Redmond must be getting hit fairly hard.

Update  - After reading this again, not just for typos, I see that I might not have been as clear as I might need to be - what my point is, is not that Microsoft doesn’t disclose it, they do, before you download… My major gripe is with all the places reporting the time frame before today, where not a one I saw ( and I certainly read a great many stories about it - around thirty, I’d say conservatively ) gave it as beginning to act up as of March 1.  If this is due to incomplete disclosure from Microsoft, shame on them, if, on the other hand, this is sloppy reporting, or spin by the media, they are the ones who should be chided, and have the good sense to be ashamed.

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- great unless you are downloading from Microsoft, where you must use Internet Exploder!

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