14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 7 has not been released to manufacturing, Microsoft reveals, as reports to the contrary surged beginning with the end of the past week, and continuing on Monday, July 13th. In this context, 7600 is not the gold build of Windows 7, or at least not the full build string: 6.1.7600.16384.win7_rtm.090710-1945 of the latest leaked development milestone of Windows Vista's successor. The Redmond company reiterated previously announced plans to release Windows 7 to manufacturing in the second half of July 2009, with the deadline close to the end of the month, as I reported the past week right here on Softpedia.
“We are close, but have not yet signed off on Windows 7. When we RTM you will most certainly hear it here. As we’ve said all along, we will RTM Windows 7 when it’s ready. As previously stated, we expect Windows 7 to RTM in the 2nd half of July,” revealed Brandon LeBlanc, a communications manager on the Windows Client Communications Team.
Sure enough, Windows 7 Build 6.1.7600.16384.win7_rtm.090710-1945, finalized on July 10, 2009, is leaked and available for download in the wild, and its validity is undeniable. Still, this is not the gold development milestone of the operating system. In fact, development is still in full swing, with Microsoft tending to the platform's localized versions.
“Windows 7 will be available in many languages from around the world. For us to consider RTM “done”, it requires that all languages be completely finished. So there is a lot of work that needs to take place for us to finalize all languages of Windows 7. We also need to get to a point of “global readiness” with our partners. Our partners being ready for Windows 7 is extremely important to RTM. As Steven Sinofsky mentioned in May, RTM isn’t a single point in time. It’s the beginning of the next “process” for Windows 7. At RTM our partners begin their final preparations for Windows 7, including testing and building images for new PCs. RTM is essentially the final “stage” of engineering for Windows 7 before it hits the market at General Availability (GA). As Steven notes, engineering continues on Windows 7 from RTM until GA on October 22nd,” LeBlanc added.
Still, LeBlanc did not specifically deny that 7600 was the RTM build of Windows 7. In this regard, the software giant could keep 7600 in place as it wraps up the final release of the operating system, but change the rest of the build string. At the same time, LeBlanc did point that leaked Windows 7 Build 6.1.7600.16384.win7_rtm.090710-1945 was not RTM.
“Another thing to keep in mind is that when we do a specific build internally of Windows 7 we have an extensive step-by-step validation process to ensure quality. This process takes time. Just because a single build may have “leaked” it does not signal the completion of a milestone such as RTM. As always, don’t believe everything that you read on the Internet,” LeBlanc noted.