Windows 7 RC Possibly Due Out May 5

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Everyone’s been anxiously watching the beta builds of Windows 7 roll out, inching ever so closer to the next milestone – the release candidate.

Microsoft accidentally leaked another web page giving us a glimpse at a potential release date for Windows 7 RC.

Listed on the Microsoft Partner Program website earlier was the following text:

Download Windows 7 RC Partners: If you have a subscription to MSDN or TechNet, you can download Windows 7 RC now. Otherwise, you can download Windows 7 RC starting May 5, 2009.

The website has since been changed back to information pertaining to just the beta that was available since January.

According to Ars Technica’s report, Microsoft Online Concierge Chat had this to say to those who inquired: "Currently the Windows 7 RC has not been available [sic] through the TechNet subscription yet, only the Microsoft OEM partners such as Dell, Siemens are taking part in the RC's this period of test."

This confirms that the release candidate is almost ready for public consumption. Microsoft did not comment on the May 5 date, but it’s looking like it could be a possible if OEM partners are already testing it.

This also marks the second time that Microsoft let a webpage slip regarding the release candidate. Last month, a TechNet page slipped out early detailing the downloading of the RC, which also named May as being the month of availability.

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Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
38 Comments Comment from the forums
  • chaosgs
    I hated the beta, if it was possible to give it the "vista" look id like it way better. Vista looks amazing and is amazingly fast, 7 was ugly but some how slightly faster. To me it is not a upgrade but basically a different version of Vista, i also haven't seen a real change between the 2.
    Reply
  • dark_lord69
    ChaosGSI hated the beta, if it was possible to give it the "vista" look id like it way better. Vista looks amazing and is amazingly fast, 7 was ugly but some how slightly faster. To me it is not a upgrade but basically a different version of Vista, i also haven't seen a real change between the 2.Ummm... it does look like vista. Did you not install your video card drivers when you installed it? Your system has to meet certain specs to get the "Aero" effects.

    Vista looks amazing and is amazingly fast - WHAT!!!??? Are you serious or is that a joke? I installed Vista a while back and it made every program I run MUCH slower than XP. I ended up setting Windows XP as my default OS to boot into (I am running a dual boot machine). Now I have Windows 7. It looks just like Vista and it IS very similar to vista but has plenty of improvements on speed, style and functionality. Vista was such an unstable P.O.S. I couldn't even get it to boot anymore, the updates wouldn't install, programs wouldn't run and yet my PC ran fine when I boot into Windows XP. In the end I just got rid of it and don't plan on going back. I am now using windows XP and 7. I like 7 WAAY more than vista it seems to be more stable than vista was and about as fast as XP.
    Reply
  • chaosgs
    Vote me down cause i don't agree with the masses, im sorry im different and i have different opinions.
    Reply
  • antemon
    revving up the mob, eh?

    whatever, so long as they do a good job of it and everything works out of the box with little to no hang-ups.
    Reply
  • chaosgs
    dark_lord69Ummm... it does look like vista. Did you not install your video card drivers when you installed it? Your system has to meet certain specs to get the "Aero" effects.Vista looks amazing and is amazingly fast - WHAT!!!??? Are you serious or is that a joke? I installed Vista a while back and it made every program I run MUCH slower than XP. I ended up setting Windows XP as my default OS to boot into (I am running a dual boot machine). Now I have Windows 7. It looks just like Vista and it IS very similar to vista but has plenty of improvements on speed, style and functionality. Vista was such an unstable P.O.S. I couldn't even get it to boot anymore, the updates wouldn't install, programs wouldn't run and yet my PC ran fine when I boot into Windows XP. In the end I just got rid of it and don't plan on going back. I am now using windows XP and 7. I like 7 WAAY more than vista it seems to be more stable than vista was and about as fast as XP.
    Have had 0 problems with vista since its beta, and it is faster. It is definitely the best OS ever made and the biggest step forward. Yes it is faster for some reason, probably that super fetch which uses almost 2 GB of ram.

    If it does look like vista than something was wrong, it looked like XP crossed with vista. Ill try it again and if it looks the same ill keep it.

    I dont know about you, but i never had any problems, programs now start instantly instead of 2-5 secs waiting on XP.
    Reply
  • dark_lord69
    ChaosGSHave had 0 problems with vista since its beta, and it is faster. It is definitely the best OS ever made and the biggest step forward. Yes it is faster for some reason, probably that super fetch which uses almost 2 GB of ram.If it does look like vista than something was wrong, it looked like XP crossed with vista. Ill try it again and if it looks the same ill keep it. I dont know about you, but i never had any problems, programs now start instantly instead of 2-5 secs waiting on XP.Super Fetch does help and so does Ready Boost.
    Ya, looked like vista to me, if it looks like XP to you I would try installing the newest vista driver (on windows 7) or changing some settings to see how nice it does look. (much like vista does)
    Do you have an extreme PC? OR maybe you have over 4GB of ram?
    I got the OS shortly after it was released (1 month or so) and initially it was fine but I started having issues with updates not finishing thier installation and the issues continued and got worse as time went on. I always got lower frame rates in vista as well.
    But there are many flavors, I was using the 64-bit Ultimate Edition.
    How about you? Maybe the issues were different for different versions?
    Reply
  • jsloan
    joy, cant wait to install it and ... ;-)
    Reply
  • afrobacon
    I tried to get into Vista on more then one occasion. Every time I gave up within a week reverting back to XP. Why? 1. Speed was complete rubbish, startup time, shutdown time, loading programs, nearly every aspect was slower then XP. 2. The general feel of it (personal opinion) was just clunky, it felt like I was back in Win ME with a fancy interface.

    Se7en on the other hand, I had my doubts at first knowing it was based on Vista. But as usual I like to try things to make a genuine argument of why the OS sucks. To my surprise, beyond installation the OS is quick, looks great, and offers great improvements over XP. I installed the 7000 build and have been hooked ever since. Yes, there are a few bugs that need to be worked out; nothing too serious and their probably fixed with the new builds.

    I can't wait for the final release, Se7en is restoring my long lost faith in M$; now if only they can fix their other products...
    Reply
  • chaosgs
    Ya i will later, it was a weird bluish color with black lines through it, maybe it screwed up during install idk, and there were a few other things i didnt like (looks wise), but chances are its the same problem as the weird theme and such.

    Have had vista installed on 6 computers and 2 laptops since beta, not 1 problem/error. None of the computers were high end, fastest being a C2d 2.o GHZ AMD 4850 4 GB ram, lowest end being a Celeron 1.8 GHZ Onboard graphics 1 GB ram.

    Never seen a blue screen never a random error no problems what so ever. Well i take that back i just remembered when it came out i couldn't use my program "Banlist" for my fav game WC3. But that is it.
    Reply
  • dark_lord69
    I think I recieved about 3 or 4 blue screens. But since that OS is gone I'm not having issues anymore.
    Reply