Forget Builds 7068 and 7070, Windows 7 Build 7077 has been leaked in the wild and is available for download via torrent trackers. Windows 7 has come a long way since the release of beta Build 7000 on January 10, 2009. In fact, the next iteration of the Windows client is closing in on Build 7100, which is reportedly the fully fledged Release Candidate of the operating system, a detail that remains unconfirmed by Microsoft, although the software giant did point to the possibility. The Redmond company is working its way to the first and only RC of Windows 7, and Build 7077 is an interim development milestone that will take the operating system to Release Candidate.

Just as it was the case with previous testing releases, including 7057 and 7068, Windows 7 Build 7077 is labeled Release Candidate, as all the post-Beta snapshots of Windows Vista's successor belong to the RC-branch. The full build string of the latest leaked development milestone of Windows 7 is 6.1.7077.0.090404-1255, indicating that the code was wrapped up on April 4, 2009. No official word so far from the Redmond company either confirming or denying the validity of Build 7077, but then again, the software giant has not commented on any of the leaked releases of Windows 7 past the Beta.

As was the case with Build 7068, Windows 7 Build 7077 comes with an expiration date set for early 2010. In this regard, users will be able to run the RC of Windows 7 for a consistent period of time, even after the “test driving” will be completed. Microsoft is expected to deliver the RC of Windows 7 in May 2009, with reports that the RC Escrow build of the operating system is planned for delivery by the end of this month.

The Redmond company asked for the support of the Windows 7 Beta testing community when it came to the Release Candidate variant of the platform, asking that any upgrades be done from Vista, and not from pre-RC or Beta builds of Win 7, or that clean installations be performed instead. At the same time, Microsoft has built a mechanism into Windows 7 RC designed to block upgrades from Beta Build 7000 and pre-RC development milestones to full RC, but also provided a technique to circumvent the limitation. You can read more on how to bypass the restriction here.