Windows 7 candidate leaks?

In Wednesday's IT Blogwatch, Richi Jennings watches the run-up to the Windows 7 release candidate, as "escrow" build 7077 leaks to BitTorrent. Not to mention the Fruit Computer Lab...

Gregg Keizer thinks about upgrading to Windows 7:

Microsoft Corp. today asked people running the Windows 7 beta to return their machines to Vista before upgrading again to the impending release candidate of Windows 7 ... The problem with upgrading from one pre-release build to another, Microsoft said, is that the bugs or other problems users report in those scenarios are essentially worthless.
...
Sources ... have speculated that Microsoft will issue the release candidate as early as this coming Friday. Today's request, the most explicit yet about release candidate installation issues, may hint that Microsoft will deliver the public build sooner rather than later.

Marius Oiaga expands:

Windows 7 has come a long way since the release of beta Build 7000 on January 10, 2009. In fact, the next iteration of the Windows client is closing in on Build 7100, which is reportedly the fully fledged Release Candidate of the operating system.
...
As was the case with Build 7068, Windows 7 Build 7077 comes with an expiration date set for early 2010 ... The Redmond company asked for the support of the Windows 7 Beta testing community when it came to the Release Candidate variant of the platform, asking that any upgrades be done from Vista, and not from pre-RC or Beta builds of Win 7, or that clean installations be performed instead.

The anonymous Windows 7 gnomes plead for your help:

This is a little bit of a tricky post to write because we’re going to be asking everyone using our Windows 7 Beta to help us out, but doing so is going to take a little time and require a bit of a commitment to helping test the next milestone ... we want to encourage you to revert to a Vista image and upgrade or to do a clean install, rather than upgrade the existing Beta.
...
The reality is that upgrading from one pre-release build to another is not a scenario we want to focus on because it is not something real-world customers will experience ... As an extended member of the development team and a participant in the Beta program that has helped us so much, we want to ask that you experience real-world setup and provide us real-world telemetry.

Emil Protalinski adds 2+2:

Screenshots of Windows 7 build 7077 have started to appear around the Web. There are also reports that the 32-bit version has been leaked and is readily available on various websites ... In the "About Windows" dialog box, there isn't an actual build string as we've seen in previous interim builds. It simply says "Version 6.1 (Build 7077)." The only other build we've seen this for is in the beta build released to the public.
...
The build string for the latest build we know about is "7077.0.090404-1255," which indicates that it was compiled ... 20 minutes after the supposed build 7105 was compiled, which is widely rumored to be a milestone build. Microsoft only increments the second digit of the build number if an important point in development has been reached.

BorisX clarifies the build number conundrum:

Build 7077 from 4 April is a RC Escrow branch build and might become the 7100 if there aren't any serious bugs.

Build 7105 completed on the same day (4 April) is from the RTM branch
there is a big difference.

spockers likes what he sees, so far:

Everything seems much snappier than 7068 was.

I can't turn off Aero/transparency. It doesn't seem to be affecting performance though, so I'll get used to it.

But vistademon has another opinion:

I have had an issue with HD Live TV, using the G35 Chipset which only started since build 7048 and is still there. The other issue is with networking which seems to take forever on a reboot to connect, this too only started since 7048.

So at the moment i give it a thumbs down. They're gonna have to do better, or it's back to Vista.

And finally...

• The Fruit Computer Laboratory
  

Previously in IT Blogwatch:

• RIM/Verizon prep. Wi-Fi touchscreen BlackBerry Storm 2
• Sun jilted at the altar by IBM?
• Google is/isn't/is/isn't buying Twitter
• ...more

Buffer overflow:

• Shark Bait: Beware of the Avenging Administrator
• Richi Jennings: Hidden Risks of Intellectual Property in Email
• Eric Brown: Is Linux ready to go to FAT camp?
• Paul Thurrott: Windows Server 2008 Foundation Preview
• Carlo Longino: No One Should Profit From Criminals (Except Us)
• Martha Heller: CIOs wear more hats
• Paul Boutin: Why Major League Baseball dumped Microsoft's Silverlight
• Creative Chaos: Quality, Agility, Maturity, and Discipline
• Hu Yoshida: Face to Face at SNW
• Christina Warren: Darkness 2.0 First Look

Like this stuff? Subscribe to the RSS feed.

Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/adviser/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 23 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You can follow him on Twitter, pretend to be Richi's friend on Facebook, or just use boring old email: blogwatch@richi.co.uk.