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D-Day for Windows 7 RC approaches
If you're still running Windows 7 RC, starting March 1st your PC will shut down automatically every 2 hours. Your work will not be saved. But you can still use the OS, as long as you're willing to put up with periodic interruptions and reboots. It'll be kind of like using Windows 98 all over again.
Come June 1st, the OS fully expires. That doesn't mean it will stop running altogether. But in addition to the automatic shutdown every 2 hours, your desktop background will change to solid black and you'll have a message on the desktop letting you know the RC has expired. Windows 7 RC will also fail any Windows Genuine Advantage tests at that point, meaning you won't be able to validate software that requires a "genuine" copy of Windows and you won't be able to get Windows 7 updates from Microsoft.
You can avoid these issues by replacing Windows 7 RC with another operating system. We'll leave it up to you to decide whether that means Windows XP, a fully licensed copy of Windows 7, or something else altogether. ReactOS, anyone?
Update: Looking to figure out how to upgrade from Windows 7 RC to a full version of Windows 7? We've got you covered.
Comments
11
Subscribe to comments216Feb 25th 2010 11:35AM
We all knew this day would come...and that's why I bought/installed the OEM W7 Pro a few weeks ago. Got it from newegg for a good deal
Simon ReidyFeb 25th 2010 11:58AM
I'm running the RC and am just about to upgrade to retail Win7, but I'd really like to avoid another clean install if possible. Can I just change the key of my RC version to a retail key without reinstalling the OS?
Pyro979Feb 25th 2010 11:58AM
I was in the same boat, this worked like a charm:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/3075/how-to-upgrade-the-windows-7-rc-to-rtm/
JFeb 25th 2010 11:58AM
Do a search of "upgrading windows 7 rtm to retail version" and you'll find techniques that work. icrontic.com has one.
DavidFeb 25th 2010 11:58AM
Unfortunately, the public beta and RC are Windows 7 Ultimate and unless you've bought the retail Windows 7 Ultimate, you won't be able to upgrade the beta or RC Windows 7 Ultimate to the retail Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional (that's the problem I encountered). You'll need to do a clean install.
If you have bought Windows 7 Ultimate, you can install the retail version on top of your RC and it'll upgrade your RC installation to the release version.
Pyro979Feb 25th 2010 11:48AM
Right, the link I posted will only work if you're upgrading to Ultimate
InsomnihackFeb 25th 2010 11:58AM
Damn. Didn't think of the Premium/Ultimate difference. No way I'm forking out the extra cash for Ultimate so it looks like another clean install for me.
JFeb 25th 2010 11:58AM
Re: Need Windows Ultimate - see step 3:
http://tech.icrontic.com/articles/upgrade-the-windows-7-rc-to-retail/
The GnomeFeb 25th 2010 2:23PM
Microsoft BizSpark........?
JonFeb 25th 2010 5:12PM
I just installed the RTM this last weekend. I got the first few warnings from the RC and decided I'd better do it now. I had to do a clean install because I got Home Premium. Which was okay. Made me little nervous installing RTM bits over RC bits. Plus it gave me an opportunity to wipe out my Vista partition which I only occasionally dual booted in to after installing Windows 7. Between cloud storage and a fairly careful backup of local files, I seem to have survived the install pretty well so far. I'm sure I'll find something I missed in a few weeks, but hopefully it won't be very important.
w7profApr 2nd 2010 3:19PM
For information on upgrading from the RC version to Windows 7, including deadlines for the RC version, please check this link: http://bit.ly/au2CuD. If you are not sure which version of Windows is best for you, you can read about the different features of each version on http://bit.ly/Win7CompareEd