Forget Windows 7 Beta Build 7000, Microsoft has already moved past what Steven Sinofsky, senior vice president, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, referred to as the four core development milestones of the next iteration of the Windows client (M1, M2, M3 and Beta). In this context, the Redmond company has already debuted the testing of post-Beta builds for Windows 7. The leaked screenshots and version information available for Windows 7 post-Beta Build 7025 are illustrative examples of Win 7's evolution. At this point in time, Windows 7 Build 6.1.7025.0.090120-1850 is live and already deployed in testing environments.

Fact is that, even at the end of 2008, before Win 7 Beta was offered to a select pool of testers and subsequently leaked, Scott Wylie, Microsoft's New Zealand director of Development and Platform Strategy, revealed that Microsoft went past the 7000 mark with the platform's development process. Ahead of Christmas, Wylie leaked a screenshot of Windows 7 Build 7004, which he referred to as pre-Beta, an inaccurate statement, given that the version number superseded that of the official Beta, namely 7000.

And since the Beta of Windows 7 is actually Build 7000, this means that all later builds labeled with higher version numbers are post-Beta, and belong to the the Release Candidate branch of the operating system, including Build 7025 (screenshots via PCBeta). 7025 is at least pre-RC, but signaling that Microsoft is moving Windows 7 toward Release Candidate, even though the default wallpaper continues to be the Beta Fish.

After Microsoft released Windows 7 Beta Build 7000 downloads to the general public on January 10, 2009, I asked the company what it planned to do next. “We are currently in the development stages for Windows 7 and expect it will take approximately 3 years from Windows Vista Consumer GA to develop,” a Microsoft spokesperson stated, in what was a standard PR answer from the software giant. However, Sinofsky has already confirmed that Windows 7 will move straight from Beta to Release Candidate stage, and subsequently to RTM (release to manufacturing).

Another detail that Microsoft is not yet prepared to discuss is related to the editions of Windows 7. This even though the company has already confirmed that Win 7 will come in a variety of flavors, including Ultimate, Enterprise and Professional (formerly Business). The leaked screenshots of Windows 7 Build 70025 reveal that the software giant has tweaked the installer yet again.

The new setup process lets users choose between Windows 7 Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate as the editions to install. The deployment process of Windows 7 Build 7025 continues to be very similar to that of Windows Vista, in terms of the SKUs end-users get to choose, and the software giant is bound to adapt it yet again ahead of RC.

“We are currently evaluating a variety of ways to meet the OS needs of our users. We aren’t ready to discuss the Windows 7 SKU plan at this time, but will share more information when we are further along the development path,” the Microsoft spokesperson added for Softpedia. 

7 Beta is available for download here.

Product keys to activate Windows 7 Beta are available here.