August 5th, 2009

MSDN, TechNet users to get Windows 7 tomorrow

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 6:54 am

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, OEMs, Resellers, System builders, Windows 7, Windows client

Tags: Microsoft Developer Network, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft TechNet, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Mary Jo Foley

A quick reminder: Bar any server overload issues, the final Windows 7 bits will be available on August 6 to a slew of Microsoft customers.

As Microsoft announced last month, the company is making the final version of Windows 7, which was released to manufacturing at the end of July, available to the following groups of customers on Thursday:

• TechNet subscribers (English only, downloadable via Microsoft Connect or TechNet Downloads)
• MSDN subscribers (English only, downloadable via Microsoft Connect or MSDN)
• Independent software vendors/Independent hardware vendors (English only via Microsoft Connect or MSDN)

Software Assurance subscribers will be allowed to download the official RTM English version of the Windows 7 bits on Friday, August 7, from the Volume License Software Center site.

Gold Certified resellers, Action Pack subscribers and  consumers still have anywhere from another week (in the case of resellers), to a couple of months (for consumers) to wait for the final bits.

Another key Windows 7 date is August 20. That is the last day testers will be allowed to download the Release Candidate (RC) test buid of Windows 7.

For those ready to get started with the final Windows 7 bits, Microsoft has been posting a bunch of deployment-related guides and links, as of late. Among them are the Windows 7 Deployment Frequently Asked Questions page and the Windows XP to Windows 7 Migration Guide. ZDNet bloggers have published a bunch of Windows 7 news, tips and tricks, too, which are available on our Windows 7 Special Report page.

Update: As of 1 p.m. ET on August 6: Windows 7 final bits are live and ready for download by those who qualify.