March 16, 2009

Report: Microsoft plans Windows 7 release candidate for May

According to Neowin.net, Microsoft will deliver the Windows 7 RC in May after a round of invitation-only testing on the escrow build in April

Microsoft will deliver a release candidate of Windows 7 to the public in late May, according to a report from a noted Windows Web site.

Windows 7 RC (Release Candidate), the next slated major milestone for the under-development operating system, will be made available to the public the last week of May, said Neowin.net today.

[ Can your PC run Windows 7? Find out with InfoWorld's free Windows Sentinel performance monitoring tool. | See how well Windows 7 beta performs in our benchmark tests. ]

Prior to that, Microsoft will wrap up an "escrow build" of the release candidate and offer it to a small invitation-only group of testers near the end of April, said Neowin, citing information from a Russian-language Web site and sources within Microsoft's Technical Adoption Program, which gives large corporations sneak peeks at pre-release software.

In Microsoft's parlance, an escrow build is a post-development edition given to testers for one final examination for any show-stopping problems or bugs. Microsoft, for instance, generated an escrow build of Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) prior to posting it for public download earlier this month.

Microsoft has not set a ship date for Windows 7 RC, although program managers have recently revealed details about the changes that developers have made to the OS since the public beta was released Jan. 10. Last week, for example, Chaitanya Sareen, a senior program manager on the Windows team, blogged for the second time in two weeks about RC progress.

Pirated post-beta builds of Windows 7 have also been regularly leaking to the Web. The latest, build 7057, reached BitTorrent last week and contained references to "Release Candidate 1" in its end-user licensing agreement.

While Microsoft has not promised that it will issue Windows 7 RC to the public, Steven Sinofsky, senior vice president in charge of the Windows engineering group, has repeatedly hinted that it will do so.

Microsoft today declined to comment on Neowin's projected delivery date, saying through a spokeswoman that it had "nothing new to share" on the subject.

Computerworld is an InfoWorld affiliate.

Close

On Twitter now

Platforms

Powered by Twitter

On Twitter now

White Paper

D2D Virtual Tape Library Replication Primer

This whitepaper explains the terminology and concepts behind Data Replication technologies and establishes some sizing rules through worked examples. Learn the new paradigm in disaster tolerance—protect data anywhere.

Download now »

White Paper

An Alternative to Virtualization for Datacenter Cost Savings

Server virtualization is a popular option for dealing with mounting datacenter costs. Another equally promising approach is the use of an Application Delivery Controller. Citrix NetScaler provides a low-cost way for organizations to reduce their server count and accrue cost savings from a reduction in space, cooling, power and personnel.

Download now »

White Paper

Why Your Firewall, VPN, and IEEE 802.11i Aren't Enough to Protect Your Network

The emergence of WLANs has created a new breed of security threats to enterprise networks.

Included in HP ProCurve WLAN solutions is security technology that alleviates threats from WLANs through:
* Monitoring wireless activity inside and out of the enterprise
* Classifying WLAN transmissions into harmful and harmless
* Preventing transmissions that pose a security threat to the enterprise network
* Locating participating devices for physical remediation

Download now »

White Paper

Bringing the Edge to the Data Center

Effectively address data protection challenges, implementing solutions that help store and protect business–critical data while cutting costs and improving efficiency and reliability.

Download now »

Sign up to receive Platforms Resource Alerts

Subscribe to the Today's Headlines: First Look Newsletter

Find out what will be news for the day, with our first-thing-in-the-morning briefing.

©1994-2009 Infoworld, Inc.