Windows 7 RC official Microsoft Connect drop

Hey all,

Just thought I'd give you guys a heads up on the official Microsoft Connect Windows 7 RC drop.

Apparently, everyone on the official beta will be able to obtain the RC build from Microsoft Connect on Thursday 30th April, along with the MSDN/Technet official drop.

It's a little sad really, I personally feel that the official testers should have gotten it a little earlier, i.e. Monday 27th April, but alas, it was not meant to be.

Anyway, for those that were interested, that's when it will drop.

Cool thanks. Im already signed up to connect. It will be interesting to see if the version they release then will be the same as the leaked version of several days ago.

yeah but when is xp mode going to be added? Are they gonna quickly add it before the 5th or for the next release.

Regarding XP mode...

Apparently it's going to be a seperate beta that will drop sometime soon.
If memory serves it's not going to be built-in, think more of an 'extra' like Windows Live Essentials that will be available for the more expensive SKU's.

I'm going to end up in trouble here.

If anyone else here is on the official beta on Connect then the answer is in the newsgroup. :)

From Paul Thurrott's SuperSite:

XP Mode consists of the Virtual PC-based virtual environment and a fully licensed copy of Windows XP with Service Pack 3 (SP3). It will be made available, for free, to users of Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions via a download from the Microsoft web site. (That is, it will not be included in the box with Windows 7, but is considered an out-of-band update, like Windows Live Essentials.)

You'd have to be a member of the Windows 7 tech beta in order to see the post, if you're on the WHS beta then it won't show up.

Sorry if I wasn't clear.

Hi all

The interesting question about this is can you use your OWN copy of Windows XP or will there be a "pre-installed" Virtual PC + Windows XP SP3 system loaded which you have to activate in the normal way.

Since this feature will be offered as a method of upgrading to W7 whilst still running XP I doubt that MS will make people buy brand new XP licenses.

There must be some sort of "Integrated" mechanism however otherwise what is the difference between this and just downloading Virtual PC and installing a Windows XP VM in the "Normal way".

As I previously posted an "Integrated" pre-installed option would be the best where you could enter an existing serial number of an XP system you have already purchased - so you would only have to install your applications --much better for corporates.

I'm waiting for the details -- in theory this would be an incredibly useful feature for a lot of businesses - apart from the fact that they could even upgrade their PC's gradually whilst still running the same software.

Cheers
jimbo