What You Need To Know About Windows 7 RC
So many downloads of Windows 7 RC have been processed, in fact, that the yet-to-be-officially-released operating system already accounts for almost 1 percent of the current operating system market, by some estimates.
That's no doubt music to the ears of the programmers in Redmond who are putting the finishing touches on Windows 7, but for legions of early adopters, it could also mean trouble.
While Windows 7 RC is free, it's still a pre-release version of the operating system, so it's important to understand the limitations of the software if you're planning to use it on a regular basis.
Don't expect to be able to install Windows 7 RC on top of your existing operating system, even if that operating system is an earlier beta version of Windows 7. The RC version requires a fresh installation, which means wiping out and then reinstalling all of your applications, settings, and data.
Likewise, if you adopt Windows 7 RC and like it so much that you decide to move to the final release of Windows 7 when it's available, you'll need to do another clean installation of the release version. You will not be able to "upgrade" the RC version with the final version.
Windows 7's built-in Windows Easy Transfer utility should make the process of backing up and restoring your data and settings fairly simple, however. Easy Transfer will create a backup of your user accounts, documents, music, pictures, e-mail, Internet favorites, and videos. You can save the backup file to an external drive. Then, once your release version of Windows 7 is installed, you can use the same Easy Transfer utility to restore the data.
The RC version of Window 7 will "expire" on...
