Helmers Blog

If you are still running the beta version of Windows 7 you should start getting your upgrade plan ready. So you can at least upgrade (or reinstall) your machine before July 1st. This will be the date that your pc start rebooting every 2 hours, until August 1st. At August 1st you’re unable to use your Windows 7 Beta….

So please upgrade to the Release Candidate version of Windows 7 and enjoy the fast, reliable and good looking operating system until the RTM will become available (in just a month or so).

With the Public Beta of Windows 7 it was very easy to submit feedback. This was mainly because of the Send Feedback button which you could find in every window. In the newer builds (and the RC also) the Send Feedback button in every window has been removed.

If you would like to send feedback, you can use the Send Feedback button on the desktop (I’m not sure if it’s still possible with the RC build), but if you removed the shortcut you can simply use the steps below to start the Send Feedback tool again!

Step 1 : Start the Run command by opening the Start menu and enter Run (followed by enter). (You can also start Run by opening the Start menu and browsing to All Programs –> Accessoiries)

Step 2 : Enter the following command (without the quotes!) followed by enter: “rundll32.exe FeedbackTool.dll, ShowWizard”

Step 3 : The Send an issue report application is now loaded. Just enter your Windows Live ID and send the feedback!

Too bad you can’t download Windows 7 RC right away, but check out these facts about the upcoming Release Canditate :

• You don’t need to rush to get Windows 7 RC. The RC release will be available at least through June 2009 and we’re not limiting the number of product keys, so you have plenty of time.
• Watch the calendar. Windows 7 RC will expire on June 1, 2010. So if you install the RC release you’ll either need to upgrade to the final version of Windows 7 before that date, or install a prior version of Windows. (For more about installing Windows, see installation instructions.
• Protect your PC and data . Be sure to back up your data and please don’t test Windows 7 RC on your primary home or business PC.
• Technical details/updates: before installing the RC please read the Release Notes, and Things to Know for important information about the release.
• Keep up with the news. You can keep up with general technical information and news by following the Springboard Series blog or Windows team blog. Want technical guidance, tips, and tools? Visit the Springboard Series on TechNet. And, you can get non-technical news, tips, and offers on the Springboard Series on TechNet
• Keep your PC updated: Be sure turn on automatic updates in Windows Update in case we publish updates for the RC.
• Microsoft Partners: Learn more about Windows 7on the Microsoft Partner Portal.

On the TechNet Evaluation Center the Windows 7 Release Candidate page is live! Strangely enough the publishing date says : May 2009 (hmm..it’s still March over here…).

The downloads aren’t working either, but the links are there already…

On the Windows Vista blog we can read that Microsoft made the release candidate (RC) of Windows Vista SP1 available via Microsoft Connect. Tomorrow it will be made available to TechNet and MSDN subscribers!

The next week RC will become available public via Microsoft’s Download Center.

Quote from the Vista Blog :

Let me call out several changes made since the Beta release of Service Pack 1 — many of which came about as a result of direct feedback from our Beta-testing community (thank you!):

• The size of the standalone installers have decreased significantly. For example, the standalone installer packages consisting of all 36 languages (x86 and x64 chip architectures) are smaller by over 50%. The standalone installer packages consisting of just the 5 languages (again, x86 and x64) slated for initial release are more than 30% smaller in size.
• The required amount of disc space for SP1 installation has also decreased significantly. Furthermore, with the RC, if more space is required to install SP1, an error message will now display exactly how much space is needed to complete the installation.
• Previous SP1 versions left behind a directory of files that wasn’t needed after installation and occupied about 1GB of space; the RC includes automatic disk clean-up to remove this directory.
• Installation reliability has been improved based on bug reports and error codes reported from Windows Update (thanks, Beta testers!). Testing shows that these improvements have significantly increased the proportion of successful installations of the RC.
• We’ve improved the user experience of installing SP1 via Windows Update. During the Beta release, users installed without much guidance from Windows Update. The RC now contains a series of screens with detailed information on SP1.

We also have information to share with IT professionals and system administrators regarding final plans for SP1:  we’re on track to complete and release SP1 in the first quarter of 2008.  When SP1 is complete and we reach our release to manufacturing (RTM) milestone, then shortly after the standalone installer will be released to the Web in two waves.  The first wave will consist of the standalone installer (x86 and x64) for the 5 initial languages — English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese.  These languages will be deployed shortly after the RTM milestone.  The second wave will launch 8-12 weeks after the first and will consist of all remaining languages, for both chip architectures (x86 and x64).

For administrators managing Windows Vista PCs configured to use Windows Update but not wishing to deploy SP1 upon its release, we have a “blocker patch” that will prevent installation of SP1.  Information on the blocker patch can be found here starting tomorrow: http://technet.microsoft.com/windowsvista/bb927794.

If you’re not familiar with SP1, you can find more information in this whitepaper.  We built Windows Vista SP1 to address specific reliability and performance issues and also to support new types of hardware and several emerging standards.  Further, SP1 is designed to make it easier for IT administrators to deploy and manage Windows Vista.  Of course, those of you familiar with SP1 already know that some of SP1′s improvements are already available via Windows Update.

A reminder to anyone installing the SP1 RC bits: you will need to uninstall the release candidate of SP1 before you can install a later version.

And, we announced two updates to the WGA program yesterday:  the first addresses two exploits to the activation process while the second adjusts how Windows differentiates between the genuine and non-genuine Windows Vista experience.  More information can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2007/dec07/12-03wga.mspx.

Related to this post : Windows Server 2008 RC1 is available for download