Windows 7 Release candidate available for download

[Josh]

You can now download, and generate unlimited keys for, the Windows 7 Release candidate.

See here for more information.

Please note: This version will begin shutting down every 2 hours in March of 2010 with the RC expiring altogether in June of 2010.

[Carol Haynes]

Download speeds aren't too bad either at the moment (about 55 minutes for the 32 bit version for me).

[Josh]

Took me 18 minutes over FIOS to get the entire file. 2.0MB/s

[f0dder]

Ugh, not even a direct download link, akami downloading apple? Come on, MS, get with the times - bittorent!

[Josh]

This is bit torrent. At least that is what the program I used resembled quite extensively. The download manager by akami is essentially a bit torrent system. I had 4 seeds on my download

[f0dder]

This is bit torrent. At least that is what the program I used resembled quite extensively. The download manager by akami is essentially a bit torrent system. I had 4 seeds on my download

Then where's the .torrent file so I can use a proper client?

The akamai java-based client does say it's using X other connections, but that doesn't necessarily mean a p2p protocol (if it was p2p, I would have expected a much higher amount of connections). It's normal for http and ftp downloading to use multiple connections to distribute server load a bit, as well as giving better speeds.

With a .torrent based approach, I could've just dropped to .torrent to my linux box and shut down my workstation... and gotten somewhat better speeds (1.7MB/s here through akamai which isn't bad, but my adsl connection can reach 2MB/s stable with well-seeded torrents).

[Eóin]

I installed it, seems nice. All my initial impressions are that I will be switching over when it hit's RTM. But can't see myself making that switch earlier. Vista is fine for me and though I like bleeding-edge usually, I also like the assuredness of stability from my 'crucial software'.

[MilesAhead]

You can now download, and generate unlimited keys for, the Windows 7 Release candidate.

See here for more information.

Please note: This version will begin shutting down every 2 hours in March of 2010 with the RC expiring altogether in June of 2010.

Hmm, the 7077 I'm running is good to March 1,2010 so I see no reason to go through yet another reinstall.  The 32 bit version seems fine.  I can run just about anything but Sandboxie.