Windows 7 RC Useful for 13 Months
Get the RC and use it for more than a year, if you want.
Microsoft has officially made available the Release Candidate for Windows 7 to all MSDN and TechNet subscribers. The rest of the public will be getting their chance to download the disc image next week on May 5.
Like all pre-release software, it’s free. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship between developer and user. The user gets to use the software for free in exchange for providing the developer with valuable test data and feedback.
Windows 7 Release Candidate is a little bit different from previous Microsoft pre-release software in its validity period, stretching past one year long. Documentation for the Windows 7 RC says that the OS won’t expire until June 1, 2010 – giving users 13 months of licensed use from software.
It’s a particularly lengthy testing period allowance, given that the Windows 7 Beta Build 7000 expires on August 1, 2009 with bi-hourly shutdowns beginning July 1, 2009.
The longest testing period for a Windows Vista RC was nine months, stretching from September 2006 to June 2007.
Microsoft doesn’t need to give the Windows 7 RC such a long testing allowance. After all, Microsoft has said that the final version of Windows 7 will hit three years after Vista, making it January 2010. A nine month window would have been fine for real testing and feedback purposes.
Given the enthusiast response and reception to Windows 7, however, Microsoft’s motive for giving the new RC such a long testing period could be to get users hooked on using the new OS. The longer the testing window, the longer users will continue using it – and by the time the final version hits retail, that’ll in turn give testers more chances to pony up the cash for the license.
Furthermore, unlike the public beta, Microsoft won’t be restricting the number of downloads of the RC. Is this a case of Microsoft being charitable, or simply just the company’s way of wiping the bad memories of Vista off as many computers as possible? Let us know what you think.

Windows 7 looks amazing. Going to try out the RC for sure.
Why not? That's what spare computers are for -- messing around with!
I'm probably going to install the RC on my primary machine, which is currently running Vista.
I can't imagine its a good idea to put Win 7 RC on a primary-use machine. If I recall, they don't want people upgrading from Beta to RC, and I personally hate re-installing from scratch. It is tempting to fire up my old P4 and give it a go.
That's why I said that x64 MIGHT have had something to do with it, but I'm guessing not much since pretty much all my apps are still 32-bit. And btw, I previously had 2GB of RAM under Vista, and upgraded to 4GB (yes, I know it can only address 3GB in 32-bit; I was preparing for x64) because Guild Wars appears to have a bit of a memory leak that flooded my machine into virtual memory after a couple hours of gameplay. It did give me a noticeable speed boost, but it was still sluggish overall. Windows 7 is just way faster, no matter which way you look at it. I also have 7 32-bit on an old Dell Latitude D600 with a Pentium M 1.6GHz CPU and 768MB of RAM. Aside from lacking Aero capability, it runs very well (I dare say even a little better than XP)! I once tried putting Vista on that exact same model of laptop, and it was what I would consider barely usable.
As for running it on my main machine, I held off putting the beta on it, but the post-beta builds have proven to run very smoothly on my test boxes, and since I had a spare partition on a secondary hard drive (which was actually my old XP installation before switching to Vista), I had nothing to lose by setting up a dual-boot. All I have to do to get rid of it is reset my boot loader and delete the Windows 7 partition. My test boxes are a bit on the weak side, so I wanted to see how it would do on a true custom-built performance PC. Having used it several days now, I'm guessing I'll be running this build until the RTM comes out (maybe even until the RC time-bombs out), and I bet I won't ever have any need or desire to reboot into my Vista partition.
Vista -> Win7 changes = Improved Vista driver model, Improved GPU Rendering of desktop, Improved threaded desktop rendering, changed way desktop handles Graphics Memory.
Those are some of the major changes I know there are more, but most of the more descriptive changes are usually only understood and apply to programmers and most people don't seem to appreciate/see the changes unless you point them out with examples.
With this it is really being a help to those who want to know more of the OS, without pushing them to activate or register within 3 days.
Basically, especially in the beginning a lot of illegal versions of the OS are spreading the internet, many of which need that time to be convinced if the OS is good enough.
Now they can do that with ease of mind, knowing they are not breaking the law, at least not for a year, and still reaping the benefits of the newer OS.
There's a saying that says:
If you want to get a product, first reach out your hand to give cash.
That's a nice gesture. Totally opposite to first demanding users to pay before they can actually have an Os that might not suit their needs.
It's a bit in the lines of WOW. Download and play WOW for free for a couple of days, after which you need to purchase.
Users running illegal OSes have no more excuses apart from not having enough cash to pay to buy an OS(which they normally will be able to get in this couple of months time).