Windows 7 RC 'buy a copy' shut downs start next month
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Updated Microsoft will soon put the screws on those still running last year's free preview of Windows 7 by incessantly shutting down their PC.
Starting on February 15, Windows 7 Release Candidate will begin displaying a friendly notice every few hours to either get paying or get bent. Come March 1, the PC will begin a regimen of automatic shut down every two hours.
"To avoid any data loss, I suggest making plans to move to a released version of Windows 7 before the automatic shutdowns start," Microsoft spokesman Brandon LeBlanc posted on The Windows Blog. "During these shutdowns, your work will not be saved."
The automatic shutdowns will continue through June 1, when Microsoft will instead spirit away the PC's wallpaper and stamp a "this copy of Windows is not genuine" notification on the lower right corner of the taskbar. This mark of shame means the computer can't receive optional updates or downloads that require Windows validation.
Escape from the harassment will only come after a clean install of a paid-for copy of Windows. The company has previously stated, however, that users can use an upgrade edition of Windows 7 to move from the RC to a release copy. ®
This article has been updated to clarify the planned Windows 7 RC automatic shut-down period.
COMMENTS
Digital Copies.
If you were smart enough to download the RC, burn it to DVD (or extract the contents to a flash drive and make it bootable), then you are clearly the type of person that does not want boxed retail DVD of the OS.
Why not offer anyone running the RC (or anyone full stop), the ability to download the final ISO and buy a licence online for a reduced fee? It would certainly tempt me.
Are you kidding or what?
M$ clearly stated last year when the RC was released that this would happen.
Anyone surprised by this should seriously not download RC's in the future...
The more than generous testing period has ended. Backup your data and but Win7 or naff off to your free OS.
Stop whinging seriously...
XP is fine for me
I installed the RC under VirtualBox just to take a look at it, and really couldn't see a compelling reason to upgrade any of my XP machines. One small change that I particularly dislike is that the network taskbar icons no longer show network activity.
As an experiment I didn't bother going through the activation process and after a while it started putting 'The copy of WIndows is not Genuine' on the desktop. That always struck me a slightly amusing since it had been downloaded direct from MS. The fact that no one could be bothered to make a more appropriate message ('This copy of Windows requires activation' for instance) I think speaks volumes about Microsoft's whole approach to development.
I will periodially boot up Virtualbox to take a look at this whole shutdown malarky.
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