The official release candidate of Microsoft Windows 7 has now been officially released for download on the Microsoft website.

You can download it from here.

The feature set is now locked and shouldn't be changing between now and the release of the final version, which is expected in last summer/early autumn.

And the good news is that this Windows 7 RC version doesn't expire until next June, so you would have a complete year to use it for free! I'm definitely going to be downloading it today and installing it on a spare PC to test it out.

Windows XP mode

Among the final features included in the RC is a new virtual Windows XP mode. With Vista there were many issues to begin with, where people found a lot of compatibility issues with older XP software not working. M$ have tried to fix this by now having an XP mode built into the OS, allowing you to install XP only software under this mode. And the Windows XP mode is a full XP virtulisation using technology M$ have been developing with Virtual PC over the years (it now makes sense why they purchased Virtual PC a few years ago).

I think this is a great addition to the OS that will safeguard backwards compatibility, and in my view this is a big addition by m$ which is showing just how much they are now listening to their customers and beta testers.
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