Windows 7: Reactivating the Release Candidate

I am a bit confused about the need to reactivate or extend the activation of the Release Candidate (7100). A tutorial about extending the period to 120 days does not specifically mention the RC and I am just wondering. Does it expire on August 1? Can some one please set me straight?

Thank you very much.

As long as you had a legitimate key obtained from Microsoft then you will not have to reactivate or extend activation and the evaluation will end in March 2010.

Thank you very much.

I used the key I got when I downloaded the RC from Microsoft so I guess that is about as legitimate as I can get .

want to find out when yours expires type winver in search

Ken

Is there going to be a way to buy. register & permanelty activate windows 7 Release Candidate in April without a clean install ?
If I have to reinstall the darn thing over then I am going back to XP or Linux

Why would you want to use 'an incomplete' version of the OS for an extended period of time? Seriously, reinstalling a few apps and copying some data files back is not that big of a deal. And considering that you are willing to go back to XP or switch to Linux...you would have to reinstall your apps and copy your data back anyway.

+1, my system runs better with a fresh install of the retail upgrade media. The RC has some bugs that got taken care of in the retail version.

The Windows 7 upgrade isn't supposed to permit an upgrade-in-place over the RC.

I have read that it's possible to hack the installer to permit an upgrade-in-place. It's basically the same hack as MS published to upgrade-in-place from the public beta (build 7000) to the RC (7100). A little Googling yielded:

How To Upgrade Windows 7 RC To RTM

I'd strongly recommend a clean install, though, even in preference to an officially supported upgrade.