Microsoft Activates Windows 7 Beta Kill Switch
Jason Mick (Blog) - July 1, 2009 1:30 PM

" Users will begin to experience unpleasant interruptions

As forewarned, if you are among the millions who downloaded the Windows 7 beta and you haven't since upgrade to the Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC), you are about to experience unpleasant service interruptions. In lieu of an October 22 release, and a wrap-up for the RC phase, Microsoft began the end of life process for the beta release today.

Starting today users running the beta version of the OS will have their system shut down every two hours. Microsoft is urging users who stuck with the beta to jump to the release candidate, which includes a number of additional features and refinements. Writes Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc in a Windows team blog post, "If you're still on the Windows 7 Beta you should certainly look at giving the Windows 7 RC at try!"

For those enjoying the free Release Candidate, the good times will roll until June 1, 2010, when the RC build will cease to function, forcing users to purchase the new OS (or revert to Vista/XP). The RC download program ends August 15.

Microsoft's Windows 7 is currently in its second week of the pre-order program, which is nearing its end. The pre-order program will end on Saturday, July 11. Users can still snag a pre-order copy of Home Premium upgrade for a mere $49.99 or Professional for $99.99. Once the pre-order expires, these upgrade prices will jump to $119.99 and $199.99 respectively, with Ultimate edition being priced at $219.

Pre-orders will soon also available still in UK, Japan, France, and Germany. For EU customers, the pre-orders are especially sweet as they allow Europeans to snag the OS at its cheapest full-retail prices. In the European Union Microsoft will not be offering an upgrade SKU, but will be offering full retail versions at the same price as the upgrade versions in America. The international pre-order program runs from July 15 to August 14. "

Source: http://www.dailytech.com/Microsoft+A...ticle15576.htm

Everyone should have known this. The RC is much much more stable anyway, so do yourself a favor, install the RC and get your free key at Microsoft Windows 7 page.

Also, the RC is good till December 31 2009...then it's good for 2 more months but will re-boot every 2 hours.

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Where did you hear that?

I heard and the article posted above confirms that it will work until next june.

I heard till June but starting March 2010 users would experience shutting down every two hours ?


With that in mind I got a 64 bit RTM version but have yet to install .


Here's the NFO :

MICROSOFT.WINDOWS.7.BUILD.7264.WIN7_RTM.X64.ENGLISH.DVD-VINYLZINE
FILE: 7264.0.090622-1900_x64fre_client_en-us_Retail_Ultimate-GRMCULXFRER_EN_DVD.iso
SIZE: 3,226,130,432 byte
CRC: 05F87B79
MD5: 670818DB149170C652414E1F75E9390C
SHA1: C6FE386E97944511820291F515A8CBB3DDA329A6
by VINYLZINE

Hi guys,

I just grabed info from official MS Windows 7 download page:

Remember expiration dates: Please plan ahead for the Beta and RC expiration dates. To avoid interruption, you'll need to rebuild your test machine using a valid version of Windows before the software expires. Windows will notify you that the expiration process is beginning and two weeks later your PC will begin shutting down every two hours. The Beta expires on August 1, 2009, and bi-hourly shutdowns will begin July 1, 2009. The RC will expire June 1, 2010, and the bi-hourly shutdowns will begin on March 1, 2010. In both cases, you'll need to rebuild your test PC to replace the OS and reinstall all your programs and data.

Not all updates from windows update should be installed. I run XP and check all the updates before installing them - and if in says something with genuine validation I don't install it!

Well I don't care anyone more 'cause all 3 OS's that I "own" are legit and didn't pay for a single one of them.

My bad, I was off by 2 months, still if your using it in March it will be so annoying you might as well go buy it.

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I was just thinking i'd use this rc on this and the other computer in my house that i installed it on until close to the end and by then a crack for the retail version will be out so I can upgrade.
I may upgrade earlier if there's a good hack created.

its been looking good so far