Free Windows 7 RC Downloads Get Discontinued on August 20

The Windows 7 free ride is almost over. In just a couple of days, come August 20th, 2009, Microsoft will discontinue all downloads of Windows 7 Release Candidate. Users still looking to give Windows 7 a try, or those that have yet, for some reason, failed to upgrade from Beta Build 7000, have one last chance to grab the RC Build 7100 bits straight from the Redmond company. It was in the second half of June 2008 that Microsoft revealed it would kill off Windows 7 RC downloads by the end of August.

Still, the software giant has been extremely generous when it comes to the period of time that it has offered RC downloads. Build 7100 was initially offered to the general public on May 5th, 2009. The company even prolonged availability by almost a week, having initially announced that it would no longer supply Windows 7 RC as of August 15th.

“Just a reminder that you have until this Thursday, August 20th 2009 to download the Windows 7 Release Candidate. After that date, you will still be able to register your product and get registration keys, but the media will no longer be available for download,” Stephen L Rose, Sr community manager, Windows IT Pro Client, revealed.

Build 7100 was the only Release Candidate of Windows 7 Microsoft made public, although the company built numerous interim post-RC milestones that were dogfooded (used internally) and served to select testers only, some of which were even leaked into the wild. The leaked development builds of Windows 7 continue to be available from a variety of third-party sources, including torrent trackers and warez websites.

Testers that still want Windows 7 RC from Microsoft should hurry up and download Build 7100, as, beyond August 20, they risk the chance of the download being killed even if it failed to complete. Microsoft indicated that, just as it was the case with Windows 7 Beta Build 7000, users would continue to be able to access RC Build 7100 activation product keys even after August 20. Windows 7 RC can be used until March 2010, at which time the platform will enter the first stage of expiration.

32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7 (Release Candidate) RC Build 7100.0.090421-1700 is available for download here. Windows Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate (RC) is available for download here.