It was back in May of 2009 when Microsoft made the Windows 7 Release Candidate available to the general public.  It was a great deal – grab the up and coming version of Windows and be able to use it until 01 June 2010 at no cost. Well maybe a little cost of providing some telemetry data back to Microsoft as part of the 8 million beta testers putting Windows 7 through its paces.

The Windows 7 Release Candidate was quite stable and I had it installed on three of my computers at the house. My main desktop, my ASUS Eee PC 1000HE and a 2 1/2 year old Gateway notebook. It was impressive how well it ran on these varied systems.

I upgraded to the final release once it was available.  However, I know there are probably a ton of folks still running the release candidate who are either waiting to upgrade when they can no longer use the Windows 7 Release Candidate or will switch back to a different OS.

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Well for those of you still running the release candidate you need to be aware that your days are numbered for using it and its usability will be quite hampered.

Here is the timeline for the Windows 7 Release Candidates shutdown:

15 Feb 2010 – System notifications will begin to warn you about the OS expiring soon and will provide reminders to back up your data.

01 Mar 2010 – Your system will begin to reboot or blue screen every 2 hours.  Whether it reboots or blue screens will depend on your restart setting upon a system failure.  Automatically Restart checked will reboot your machine; unchecked will cause a blue screen.

01 Jun 2010 – The Windows 7 Release Candidate expires and will no longer operate.

You can refer to this Knowledge Base Article to see how to uninstall Windows 7 when the time comes.

So what are your plans? Will you upgrade to the final release or revert to a previous OS?