14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is making headway toward the Release Candidate of Windows 7. The Redmond company has been producing Win 7 builds from the RC-branch since December 2008, when it signed off the code for Beta Build 7000. The latest development milestone of the next iteration of the Windows client to make it out of Redmond is Build 7057. Windows 7 Build 7057.winmain.090305-2000 was leaked this week and made available for download via top BitTorrent trackers worldwide.
The software giant has yet to confirm the existence of 7057, but then again, Microsoft has not been all that talkative about the interim development milestones it serves to close partners and select testers in the evolution of Windows 7 from Beta to Release Candidate.
At the bottom of this article you will be able to find no less than 43 screenshots illustrating the installation of Windows 7 Build 7057 as a guest operating system in a Virtual PC 2007 virtual machine. Don't expect any significant differences in the actual process in comparison to earlier development milestones, including Windows 7 Build 7048. However, at the same time, there are modifications that manage to stand out and that will certainly grab your attention.
Two of the changes are consistent enough to mark the transition from Beta to Release Candidate. First off, in the End User License Agreement, Windows 7 Build 7057 is labeled Release Candidate 1. Even as far as Build 7022, Windows 7 milestones continued to be referred to as Beta, under the EULA.
This is no longer the case, with the RC label representing Microsoft's proximity to the fully fledged RC with Windows 7. In addition to the EULA, Windows 7 Build 7057 also features a new logon screen, as you can see from the screenshots, with the image featuring what appears to be a hummingbird.
