14 DAY TRIAL // Forget Build 7057, the Release Candidate branch of Windows 7 has evolved all the way to Build 7068. Following the availability of Beta Build 7000, the Redmond company has been largely mute on the development process of Windows 7, although it became clear through leaked releases and information on development milestones such as 7022, 7048, 7055, and 7057, that the software giant was producing a steady flow of interim builds, some of which it was serving to its close partners and sharing with select testers. Windows 7 Build 7068 is now being dogfooded over at Microsoft, and the leaked screenshots accompanying this article and coming from a company employee prove that the software giant continues to make progress toward the first fully fledged Release Candidate of the next iteration of the Windows client.
Shinobu Takahashi, developer evangelist, Microsoft Japan, has shared the screenshots of Windows 7 Build 7068, obviously the Japanese localized flavor of the operating system. The full build number of the release is 7068.winmain.090321-1322. Reading between the lines so to speak, the version number indicates that the build was compiled on March 21, 2009. Microsoft has so far yet to confirm through its official channels any of the Windows 7 Builds superseding Build 7000 Beta of the operating system.
However, the Redmond company managed to confirm indirectly that Windows 7 Release Candidate would be made available in May 2009. The official Windows 7 RC TechNet page went live a little earlier than May 2009, when the actual Release Candidate bits are scheduled to be made available. At this point in time there isn't much information available on Windows 7 Build 7068 beyond the screenshots offered by Takahashi, but there is speculation that the build was served to participants in the Technology Adoption Program and that the bits were actually served via Microsoft Connect.
