Microsoft releases Windows 7 Release Candidate and is available for free download till end of July 2009. This free to use Windows 7 RC license is valid till June 1st 2010 and prior to 2 months before its expiry the PC keeps on shutting down every 2 hours i.e. from March 1st 2010. Windows 7 RC is pre-release software.
Minimum Requirements:
- 1 GHz or later
- 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
- 1 GB RAM for 32-bit processor / 2 GB RAM 64-bit Processor
- 16 GB free disk space (32-bit) / 20 GB free disk space (64-bit)
- DirectX 9 graphics processor with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
Download Windows 7 RC here. Once you start downloading you will be asked for Windows Live ID and some registration information, once you fill the registration details you will see Product key to activate Windows 7 RC.
Alternatively you can download Windows 7 RC through torrents.
It is recommended that you do clean install of Windows 7 RC on your machine. Before you start with the clean installation make sure you backup your important data (if any).